So about our pass protection

I've been wanting to make this topic for a few days now, but I wanted to watch the Arkansas game over again before posting just to be sure I wasn't crazy. Well the first half at least.

A common refrain in the gameday topics, this past week's especially, is that teams are blitzing more defenders than our oline can handle which means there should be wide open receivers. Against Arkansas at least, this wasn't true at all.

Of the plays Jalen was pressured on they never brought more than six defenders. On the few occasions that they did bring six we had six blockers. In fact one of their pressures came when they rushed five against six blockers (and Cotton just about took Jalen out indirectly by blocking a defender into a head to head hit).

And it's not as if he's just standing in the pocket all day. On most of these plays he's pressured almost as soon as he finishes his dropback.

Having said all of that throwing against pressure is certainly a weakness in Jalen's game. And there have definitely been times where he's left a clean pocket and essentially sacked himself. But by and large our oline flat out has to be better in pass pro. If that's how they look against Arkansas I shudder to think what Clemson's or Ohio State's loaded front would do.