FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Razorbacks held their second scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday afternoon.
After the offense seemed to win the day last Saturday, the defense rebounded in this last scrimmage before the start of classes Monday.
"I'm not rooting for the offense or defense, but I thought the defense played a lot better today than they did last week," Pittman said after the scrimmage, which was closed to the media.
Pittman noted that it wasn't that the offense had a bad day. In fact, the offense was still able to produce some explosive plays, including a 65-yard touchdown pass from Malik Hornsby to Ketron Jackson.
However, according to Pittman, the defense was able to make "more plays, made the close plays."
There were a few areas in which the Arkansas head coach noted improvement from that side of the ball.
"I thought we pressured the quarterback better today," Pittman said. "Contested balls, we were better on defense than we were last week... We've got big wideouts, you know, but we were in a better position I thought."
"Overall, I think it's just because the defense played better," Pittman said. "I don't really feel like the offense didn't play well. I just think our defense made key plays in there to get off the field."
The pass-rushing success included multiple sacks from Landon Jackson and a sack from Eric Thomas.
In the secondary, safety Jalen Catalon also made it a note to his fellow defensive backs to improve their play in this week's scrimmage.
"For me especially, when it came to the back end, I made it known that last scrimmage, they (the offense) had too many plays, that we had to compete out there," Catalon said. "Go out there, show what the defense could be about, especially from the back end standpoint as well."
"I made that a statement, and we came out there and played really well," Catalon said.
The Razorbacks will be off Sunday before returning to the practice field Monday, with Pittman saying the team will start its prep for Cincinnati on Thursday.
The No. 19 Hogs open the season against the No. 23 Bearcats in two weeks, on Saturday, September 3rd. Kickoff from Razorback Stadium is at 2:30 p.m. with the game being broadcast on ESPN.