re: CEO just said, "the defense didn't tackle and execute for four qtrs..."

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We did not try rolling out Etling to change his launch point on pass plays

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Today is Tell the Truth Monday. Truth is, we played a very well-coached Alabama team, very good Alabama team. Probably the best front seven we've seen all year. Maybe the best front seven that's been in college football for a while. My job as a head coach today is to put it away. We're going to talk to the team, going to identify the things that went wrong and things that went well, and it's awfully important, especially this week, that we forget about last week and move on to Arkansas, a very tough opponent.

On offense, some of the things that we didn't do well and obviously, you guys know, we got the ball in plus territory twice, and we came away with no points. I thought that was critical in the ball game that we were able to get points early. The outcome would have been a little bit different or the game would have been in our control a little bit. On offense, it came down again to execution, to pass protection, to run blocking, poor job on substitution, critical times cost us two time-outs. And third and three, delay of game at the 35 yard line, the score was 0-0 and next play was a sack. I thought that was critical. We met as a staff and we met offensively, and we identified some things that we need to fix. Obviously, there's some things we need to fix in protection, some plays didn't work, and we need to communicate better on the sideline, getting the plays on time so we don't have critical mistakes. Obviously, there's receivers that were open, Danny didn't get the ball to them; sometimes under pressure, sometimes not. We need to identify those things and get better at them this week.

On defense, we're pleased with the way we played. Since we took over Dave Aranda's defense, held opponents scoreless. 10 out of 16 quarters, we had Alabama to a season low to points ten. Total yards 323 and passing yards 106. That was a tremendous job by our team, first held scoreless since 2007. For the first time since 2007 in the first half, but we did not play for 60 minutes. We let the quarterback make two long runs on us. We missed some tackles, we missed some assignments, so, again, it came down to execution and tackling for 60 minutes.

On special teams, I was very pleased with the play of the special teams. I think we made improvement over the last couple of weeks. We are down five punts inside the 12 yard line, an average of 41 yards, and our kick-off return averaged 27 yards per return. Obviously, we're disappointed with the catching the punt. We don't want to catch it inside the 10 yard line. It was a poor decision by Tre'Davious, and I will get that fixed. I thought the late hit on the quarterback, was third down and five against two yards, kept the drive alive. It resulted in a touchdown that was a critical, critical penalty in the ball game. These are the things we're going to talk to, with the team. I know they're going to be disappointed. I know they gave their heart and soul, and they expected to win this game, and throughout the game they thought they were going to win the game, and they gave it everything they had. For that I want to commend their effort. It was a great night in Tiger Stadium. It was a classic LSU/Alabama match, a great Tiger walk, all the former players come. What a great atmosphere it was, and that was just -- didn't get the result that we wanted, but it's time to move on. This is game five of our new season. We promised each other, we're going to take it one game at a time. Like I said, it's a going to be important to put this away and move on a tough, very tough, Arkansas team who plays very good at home. Only loss at home, I believe is to Alabama, and I believe they put 30 points on Alabama. Coach Bielema's team is a very physical football team. They always have. They had almost 300 yards rushing against us last year. They've beaten us three years in a row. They're going to come into this game with confidence. We need to go on the road and really play a tough, physical Arkansas game, but we're ready to do that.

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