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Arkansas Football: Takeaways from SEC shootout against Vanderbilt

By Andrew Miller

FAYETTEVILLE, AR - OCTOBER 27: Kyle Shurmur #14 hands off the ball to Ke'Shawn Vaughn #5 of the Vanderbilt Commodores in the first half of a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Razorback Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
FAYETTEVILLE, AR - OCTOBER 27: Kyle Shurmur #14 hands off the ball to Ke'Shawn Vaughn #5 of the Vanderbilt Commodores in the first half of a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Razorback Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

1. Arkansas defense is still far behind the field in the SEC West

Arkansas football had a ton of trouble keeping the Vanderbilt offense off the board in this game. While the Vanderbilt offense has a lot of underrated weapons, it put up its highest point total of the season against the Razorbacks in Week 9. In fact, the Kentucky Wildcats held Vanderbilt to only seven points in an eventual 14-7 defeat in the week before.

The former Illinois Fighting Illini running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn had himself a field day against this struggling Arkansas defense, with more than 150 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Vaughn also averaged way over six yards per carry with more than 25 rushing attempts in this outing. This is a consistent issue for Arkansas in stopping the run in all four quarters of games this year.

Junior running back Khari Blasingame also had himself a nice outing in a support role with nearly 50 rushing yards and one touchdown. The Vanderbilt passing game didn’t have too much to do in this game, since it wanted to control the clock and held the lead for most of the game. But, quarterback Kyle Shurmur was productive with no turnovers and two touchdown passes.

Next. CFB Playoff Top 25 Projections after Week 9. dark

The Arkansas defense does have some bright spots for the future, especially with true freshman linebacker Bumper Pool. There’s more talent coming in with the 2019 recruiting class, but a ton of improvement is needed during the upcoming off-season. This was not a step in the right direction for the Arkansas football defense, though.

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