No. 1 Alabama beat Arkansas on Saturday, 41-9. It was boring.
3 different ways Arkansas messed up on this ugly botched punt vs. Alabama
This was not a great moment for Arkansas’ punter.
It also included this disaster:
Arkansas blew this thing in three ways.
1. A good snap went through the punter’s hands.
That’s tough, but it happens sometimes. Maybe the punter, Blake Johnson, took his eye off the ball. Maybe the pigskin was a little slick. Maybe it had weird spin on it.
Anyway, it’s just the start of a fun journey on this play.
2. The punter then threw the ball instead of kicking it.
Johnson had plenty of room to scoop up that ball and at least let loose some kind of punt. It probably wouldn’t have been much good, but Johnson had space to roll out with the ball and let something fly downfield. Look at all this grass:
Had Johnson just punted right there, he’d have launched the ball from about his own 2-yard line. That’s only about eight yards behind where he would’ve punted anyway.
Johnson did not do that. Instead he threw into heavy traffic, and the ocean of Alabama defenders in the area made sure his heave did not get caught.
3. For good measure, Arkansas took a penalty for an ineligible man downfield.
The man flagged for that foul was No. 26, Ryder Lucas.
ESPN’s camera angles don’t make it clear where Lucas lined up, but the rules for men downfield don’t change just because a team’s in a punting formation. The punting team needs to have seven guys on the line of scrimmage, and only the two on the end of the line are allowed to venture more than three yards downfield on a pass.
To be fair, Lucas probably didn’t think this would matter because Johnson was supposed to be punting the ball and not throwing it. This is on the punter, too.
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