After Arkansas’ defense finally pieced a couple good games together, we wondered if we’d ever see a complete performance from the Hogs: an offensive performance like against South Carolina, BYU, or Auburn, and a defensive performance like against LSU.
We finally got it on Saturday. It’s not often that a defense can allow 700 yards and still have a good game, but that’s exactly what Arkansas did. The Hogs forced three turnovers and had several red zone stops, building a 42-6 lead in the third quarter before taking their foot off the gas.
Arkansas forced a fumble on the Rebels’ opening drive but went three-and-out and had to punt back. The next 10 drives were the key to the game. Each team had four of their five drives get inside the defense’s 40, but the results were vastly different. Here’s how they shook out:
- Arkansas: 5 drives, 4 scoring opportunities, 4 touchdowns (1 punt)
- Ole Miss: 5 drives, 4 scoring opportunities, 0 touchdowns (2 made FG, 1 missed FG, 2 punts)
At that point, Arkansas led 28-6 despite total yards being almost equal. That’s the value of bending and not breaking.
Up 28-6, the Hogs got a turnover courtesy of a Drew Sanders interception, setting up an end-of-half touchdown to make it 35-6. Then Rocket Sanders went 68 yards on the second play of the third quarter and that was all she wrote. Ole Miss had one more scoring zone failure (a drive ended on downs at the Arkansas 5) before the Rebel offense finally broke through in garbage time.
After a season of missed opportunities by the Hogs, it was nice for the defense to step up in such a major way and turn what could have been a dead-even game into a surprisingly-easy rout. Give Barry Odom a ton of credit for engineering an impressive in-season reversal. This defense still has lots of issues, but it is well-coached and plays hard.
And of course, KJ Jefferson means so much to the offense. He looked fully healthy in this one, helping with both his passing and his scrambling. The Hogs now have a chance to beat Mizzou and then win a bowl to get to 8-5, which fans would probably be okay with given all the injuries and poor luck that has hounded the Razorbacks this season.
Scores of Note
South Carolina 63, Tennessee 38. No fanbase feels worse than Tennessee’s today. The Vols were (probably) in the playoff if they could just beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Instead, Spencer Rattler threw for 438 yards and six touchdowns in a Gamecocks’ romp. We knew Tennessee’s defense was bad; we didn’t expect it to let them down this severely. A lot had to break the Vols’ way to climb to #1… but the Vols’ charmed run has come to an end.
Vanderbilt 31, Florida 24. Billy Napier’s mostly-good debut season has suddenly hit a crossroads. The Gators had way more yards but the Commodores used a defensive touchdown to flip the game. Florida needs to beat Florida State next week just to get to 7-5.
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.