3 things Arkansas football needs to work on before SEC play

3. Tackling

This is almost self-explanatory. The Hogs had a hard time finishing tackles on Saturday. During the post-game press conference, Sam Pittman talked about how practice wasn't as physical last week and blamed it on, so many guys in no-contact jerseys.

"I just think that we had, we had five guys on defense in green (no-contact) jerseys this week," Pittman said. "We had two on offense, and we practiced them. Green means you can’t hit them. So the physicality of the practices wasn’t what it should’ve been because of the green jerseys."

While that may be true, there were a few instances where physicality had nothing to do with it. Instead, a lack of awareness and a sense of urgency played a part. On UAB's first touchdown, Jaheim Singletary is late to the play contain, and Kameran Shanks beats him to the edge.

The Blazer's final score of the night was another instance where the Razorbacks' failure to finish tackles wasn't due to a lack of physicality. Instead of going for the tackle, safety Jayden Johnson tries to strip the ball a few yards from the end zone.

Now, if TJ Metcalf gives more help than throwing a shoulder into Dallas Payne, it's probably not a touchdown, but that's beside the point. In the midweek press conference, Metcalf explained that Arkansas's defensive staff had emphasized forcing turnovers. The unintended consequence is what you see in the clip above.