GAME DAY, Auburn at Arkansas

Hey everyone. I'm here at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, home of the Arkansas football team. It's sunny. Temperatures in the high 60s, I'd say. Glad I brought a jacket.

I'm flying solo tonight. With that in mind, and the fact that this is a late game, I won't have time to blog as thickly as usual tonight. Sorry about that.

Thanks for venturing forth to peep the HOTTEST Auburn blog on the net.


--------GAME COVERAGE--------

CURRENT SCORE:
AUB -- 9
ARK -- 7
FINAL

AU -- (1st, 8:28) Wes Byrum 22 FG
AU -- (4th, 10:11) Byrum 38 FG
UA -- (4th, 1:36) Lucas Miller 13 pass from Casey Dick (Alex Tejada kick)
AU -- (4th, 0:21) Byrum 20 FG

Final thoughts as I leave for Tulsa and a 6 a.m. flight: Pretty impressive win overall. People don't hold Arkansas to 67 rushing yards. It just doesn't happen. Muschamp said the key was going to be tackling. McFadden loves breaking tackles. He didn't break many tonight. Auburn got to the ball and stayed with it tonight.

Incredible work during that final Auburn drive. The Tigers play very well in that two-minute offense. Maybe they should run that more often. Cox seems like he's most efficient in those situations. I thought Ben Tate played his best game. He was running harder than anything I've seen from No. 44 before.

Now comes a trip to LSU. That'll be interesting to say the least. See you all on Sunday afternoon.

Third quarter: Looks like LT Ryan Pugh may have broken a bone in his left leg. Doctors put that left leg in an air cast and carted him off the field. Official word is that he suffered an ankle injury.

You want to talk about a performance? Auburn's defense has yielded 30 rushing yards so far. Thirty. Muschamp said it was all about making tackles. Auburn has. Arkansas can't thrive. These fans are not happy about this. If Auburn wins, and wins like this, Houston Nutt won't make it to 2008. Brandon Cox was knocked from the game because of a helmet-to-helmet hit, but returned a few minutes later.




Second quarter: Auburn is playing very well defensively. They're switching from that nickel look to a more standard 4-3 look, trading LB Craig Stevens and CB Jonathan Wilhite. Gaps are being plugged properly for the most part. I've only seen two missed tackles so far. Offensively, Auburn isn't executing crisply. It seems like the yards are there but little mistakes are undermining the overall effect. Auburn has to capitalize on the road. Home teams will get you in the fourth quarter.


First quarter:Tray Blackmon is out there. I didn't see much from him during the first series. As Muschamp promised, Evans still is out there. Auburn is running a nickel scheme where Blackmon and Evans are basically playing left and right. Merrill Johnson was on the kickoff return team, but hasn't played on defense yet.



Pregame: DE Quentin Groves, C Jason Bosley and LB Tray Blackmon are dressed out. Bosley started. Pugh, his backup, is at his usual right-tackle spot. if you're one of the two people here in Arkansas reading this, the Auburn Network's main board went down. That means there won't be a stadium broadcast tonight. That's why you can't find the frequency. Andy Burcham said things should be fine in time for the LSU game.