There have been several games Arbuckle has scripted very well early, only for Mateer to struggle down the stretch. Those first 20 minutes would have been impressive even for Baker. Absolutely beautiful offense. Those two touchdowns were executed to perfection.
Then we faded, and I feared the same thing was happening, but he rebounded later in the game and shredded them again. Nobody shreds this Alabama team for 4 straight quarters.
He had a very clean pocket early in the game, but eventually they started to bring a lot more pressure once they realized our run game was impotent. He got sacked 5 times, which was a less than it could have been, as he evaded pressure multiple times.
That's what gave me hope for next year. He's going to make some blunders, but he's also a gamer. He was making the plays he needed to late, which was the case in numerous games this year including LSU and Auburn. That's why I'm so eager to see what we do in the portal at TE. Up 10 in the 3Q, we could pretty much ice a game right there with a 12 play, 8 minute touchdown drive. He wouldn't even have to throw.
