The Alabama Crimson Tide (4-0, 3-1 ATS, 1-3 O/U) collide with the Arkansas Razorbacks (3-1, 2-2 ATS, 2-1-1 O/U) in an SEC showdown on Saturday evening. The Crimson Tide remained undefeated with a blowout home win against Vanderbilt in their previous action. The Razorbacks were narrowly defeated by a strong Texas A&M team last week. Alabama recorded a wild 42-35 home win against Arkansas last season.
The #2 Alabama Crimson Tide enter their biggest game of the young season with a perfect record. The best opponent Nick Saban’s team has battled so far was Texas, and the Tide earned a narrow 20-19 road triumph in that one. They clobbered UL Monroe 63-7 two weeks ago and were mammoth 40-point favorites in a 55-3 home win against Vanderbilt last week. Alabama has covered the spread in three of their four games.
Bryce Young has been dominant. The junior QB had a season-best 385 passing yards last week and now has 1029 passing yards complemented by a 13:2 TD to ratio. Young has connected on 69% of his passes. Alabama has distributed the offense quite evenly. They have a few potent running backs led by Jase McClellan and Jahmyr Gibbs. McCellan leads the squad with 245 rushing yards. Gibbs is a junior RB. He had 93 rushing yards in the season opener and is up to 172 yards on an average of 6.9 yards per carry.
GET OUT OF JASE'S WAY ????@Thekidjase
??@SECNetwork
???https://t.co/8imIOjWHV1 pic.twitter.com/quNNyHM0LA— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) September 25, 2022
Traeshon Holden posted 239 receiving yards in 2021 and already has 214 yards this season. He is in the spotlight this season especially considering the Tide lost their best two receivers from last year to the NFL. The Alabama offense has eclipsed 40 points in three of their four bouts.
The Crimson Tide defense has been incredible. The most points they have allowed was 19 against Texas and this Arkansas offense definitely poses their biggest challenge so far. Last week, the unit limited Vanderbilt to only 129 yards. Alabama stands sixth against the pass and fourth against the run.
Alabama is scoring an average of 48.3 points, good for sixth. The defense is limiting foes to only 7.3 points, placing them third in the FBS.