FAYETTEVILLE — Most of the beaten will tell you it’s bad enough how badly Alabama beats you regardless the final score.
It’s worse if the Crimson Tide beats you twice. That second time the Tide rolls elsewhere but has physically and mentally beaten its victim vulnerable to next week’s opponent.
For the Arkansas Razorbacks that next SEC opponent, the nationally No. 14 Ole Miss Rebels coming Saturday night to Reynolds Razorback Stadium, enjoyed an open date last Saturday while the Razorbacks in Fayetteville were battered, 49-30 by the No. 1 Tide.
Austin Allen quarterbacked Arkansas to 30 points despite becoming Alabama’s personal pinata. Officially the Tide sacked him six times.
Unofficially it seemed Allen got hit upon launching nearly every pass. He launched 48. The Hogs fell behind too fast to establish the running game that Alabama forbid them.
The pressure put on Allen resulted in a fumble recovered and returned for an Alabama touchdown. He threw three interceptions, all to cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick.
The last one Fitzpatrick transported end zone to end zone.
Allen took a hit on that one, too. He was the last man blocked on Fitzpatrick’s 100-yard return.
A quarterback’s nightmare game, yet an admirable one. Allen completed 25, mostly under jolting duress, for 400 yards and three touchdowns.
“Austin is going to fight,” Arkansas junior receiver Jared Cornelius, 5 catches for 146 yards, said. “He’s going to take the hits and he’s going to pop back up and he’s going to get the play and move on to the next one.”
Cornelius caught 7 for 126 among Allen’s 28 for 42 and 371 yards two games ago when the Texas A&M Aggies hit Allen like a punching bag even with only one official sack.
Allen bounced back that next week but it was against outmanned lower division Alcorn State, not a ranked SEC rival like the Rebels.
Defensively the Razorbacks were hard hit by the Tide’s 517 yards total offense.
That was just for the game. For the season Arkansas sophomore linebacker Dre Greenlaw will be out for a minimum of four to six weeks after suffering a foot injury, Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said.
Three games into last season and all this one, Greenlaw joined senior fellow Fayetteville High graduate Brooks Ellis as Arkansas’ linebackers every meaningful defensive down.
Now De’Jon “Scoota” Harris must become the precociously true freshman linebacker like Ellis in 2013 and Greenlaw in 2015.
Harris could have used an Alcorn State for an ease-in first start.
Instead he debut starts with Ole Miss very good and very fresh.
A hard week for the Hogs but that’s life.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for you in the SEC West,” Bielema said. “We have to get our minds right and get ready for the Ole Miss game.”
NOT RUNNING FOR OFFICE
To clarify since numerous bemused Fayetteville voters personally have inquired, the Nathan Allen running for alderman on Fayetteville’s city council is not me.
No. 1: We live in different wards.
No. 2: Other than last call, I have never run for anything.