The Hogs desperately needed a win in Provo and got it on Saturday, as the offense exploded for 644 yards in a 52-35 win over BYU in the two schools’ first-ever meeting.
Everything was working for the Razorback offense in KJ Jefferson’s return. The Hogs came out throwing early before pivoting to the run game in the fourth quarter. Arkansas’ offensive line thoroughly dominated BYU’s extremely small defensive line. The line opened up huge holes, especially in Arkansas’ counter run game, and gave Jefferson all day to throw.
The defense, however, struggled for most of the night, ultimately allowed 360 passing yards. BYU quarterback Jaren Hall and star receiver Paka Nakua had zero issues torching the 4-2-5 defense that Barry Odom is desperately trying to transition to, forcing the Hogs to revert back to the 3-2-6 Dime they’ve used as a base for two seasons. The Dime left Arkansas vulnerable to the run but ultimately produced three turnovers and a punt over the final three quarters, which was all the breathing room the offense needed.
The Hogs started slow on offense, losing a fumble and then punting on the first two drives. But after falling behind 7-0, the offense roared to life, scoring on its next eight drives over the next 40 minutes. Jefferson completed 29 of 40 passes for 367 yards and five touchdowns. He started just 2 for 6 over the first two drives but was 27 of 34 the rest of the way. Matt Landers starred for the receivers, catching eight passes for 99 yards and three touchdowns. Trey Knox had four catches for 66 yards and a touchdown. Knox was on the receiving end of the play of the year for the Hogs this season:
That was a huge play, as it came on 3rd-and-11 and allowed the Hogs to take a two-score lead and cash in Hudson Clark’s interception.
Rocket Sanders had nine carries over the first four drives, then left the game, playing almost no snaps for several drives, as a mixture of AJ Green and Rashod Dubinion instead got looks. Sanders returned early in the fourth quarter and promptly had a 64-yard touchdown run that sealed the game. He finished with 15 carries for 175 yards. Green had 11 for 51 (plus two catches for 45 yards), while Dubinion had 4 for 16 (plus four catches for 40 yards and a touchdown). The Hogs punished the Cougar defense with wheel routes, as both Green and Dubinion had huge gains off wheel routes.
Takeaways
Defense is still struggling, but it made enough plays to win. Arkansas can’t play man. Odom wanted to play with four down linemen and play man defense, and it’s just not going to happen this year. Not after Jalen Catalon’s injury, anyway. BYU lit the Hogs’ 4-2-5 up with no resistance over its first few drives before Odom finally went back to the Dime package. The Hogs remained shaky on the back end and allowed BYU to run the ball well, but the coverage was much better. Clark has his fourth career interception (and first outside of the 2020 Ole Miss game) and looked decent at safety. Latavious Brini had a nice game, as did Dwight McGlothern, despite a questionable pass interference call. The Hogs also gave significant snaps to redshirt freshman Keuan Parker, who filled in at cornerback after Malik Chavis was injured. Trent Gordon, the Penn State transfer, played most of the game at nickel as the Hogs were without Myles Slusher and Jayden Johnson. Bumper Pool again struggled in the open field, but Pooh Paul played more than usual and had several good plays.
With an open date, the Hogs should get Slusher and Johnson back. If everyone’s healthy, they might can play some 4-2-5, but I’m just not sure.
Jefferson was extremely sharp. We discussed last week that Jefferson has been less accurate this season compared to last, but that was not the case in this game. His receivers were pretty open all day long, but Jefferson hit his targets with good precision. He only carried the ball 10 times, which was a really good sign. The Hogs had fewer called runs as BYU kept crashing down on the back and forcing Jefferson to keep it, so Kendal Briles smartly abandoned the read game rather than have his quarterback carry the ball 20 times. Instead, the Hogs punished BYU with play action and wheel routes, which turned BYU’s aggressiveness against it.
Officiating was… not great! Everyone is complaining after this one. The Hogs were called for four pass interferences. One of them was legitimate, but two were absolutely terrible calls and another – on Dwight McGlothern on a badly underthrown pass to the end zone – was questionable. BYU also got flagged for a questionable pass interference, and they have some good points regarding a pair of spot-on-the-field calls in the second half (a Hog third-down conversion that looked short, plus a BYU fumble that could have been called forward progress and first down). Had this been a closer game, one side would he hollering a lot louder right now.
The open date comes at a perfect time. The defense is incredibly banged-up, but the losing streak is over and there should be plenty of momentum coming out of the open date. If the D can get healthy, the Hogs are capable of winning out.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow us on Twitter.
The latest from Fayette Villains, straight to your inbox
Enter your email to subscribe and receive new post alerts and other updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.