Arkansas football picked up a key road win over Mississippi State, 58-25, Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium. With the victory, the Razorbacks improve to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in SEC play. Here are several highlights and instant takeaways from today’s shootout in Starkville:
1st Quarter
- Junior offensive lineman Patrick Kutas has missed the entire season with a back injury. Not only did he make his debut in Starkville on Saturday, he earned the start at left guard after splitting reps with Keyshawn Blackstock throughout the week at practice.
- Mississippi State won the opening coin toss and elected to receive.
- The Razorbacks opened with 3-down linemen defensively. Hudson Clark earned the start at corner opposite Marquise Robinson.
- Landon Jackson’s strip-sack fumble on the second play from scrimmage set the Arkansas offense up with a short field, and three plays later Taylen Green went video-game mode to put the Hogs up early.
- Arkansas’ defense looked to be getting off the field quickly again following an Eric Gregory third-down sack, but he was flagged for a facemask, which unsurprisingly led to a 54-yard score on a swing pass to Davon Booth to tie the game a couple plays later.
- Mississippi State offered virtually zero resistance between the 20s on Arkansas’ next drive, but the red zone is where things tend to get tricky for the Hogs. After a stall out inside the 10-yard-line, the Razorbacks were held to a 27-yard field goal to go up 10-7 midway through the quarter.
- Mississippi State made its first bad choice of the game, electing to go for it on 4th-and-short from the 22-yard-line rather than tie the game with a manageable field goal. The Razorbacks made the stop and forced a key turnover on downs.
- Arkansas found itself in a similar situation on its next possession with a 4th-and-1 in the red zone. Sam Pittman elected to keep the offense on the field, and Bobby Petrino dialed up a blast from the past (Mallett to Gragg) as Green perfectly disguised a fake handoff and tossed to a wide open Luke Hasz for a touchdown.
2nd Quarter
- Why is Mississippi State bad? Well, aside from Jeff Lebby being in a tough spot in Year 1 of a massive rebuild, and his Bulldogs being beat up and shorthanded at several positions, they also can’t get out of their own way. After getting stuffed going for it on the previous drive, MSSU attempted a 42-yard field goal on its next that was pushed wide right to represent their latest missed opportunity.
- Arkansas transfer tight end Andreas Paaske recorded his first reception as a Razorback with an 11-yard grab, and Jordan Anthony logged his first career touchdown as the Hogs pushed their lead out to 24-7 with more than 10 minutes remaining in the half.
- A rare special teams kickoff coverage lapse gave Mississippi State starting field position near midfield. The Bulldogs used some tempo to quickly matriculate inside the red zone. Arkansas put together an impressive goal line effort with four consecutive stops at the line of scrimmage — albeit with a controversial review — to keep Mississippi State off the board.
- Why is Mississippi State bad? Fumble on first drive. Turnover on downs just outside the red zone. Missed field goal. Stuffed four consecutive plays on the goal line. Another review gone south on a would-be touchdown with insult to injury added by the receiver throwing the football into the stands and getting flagged. On pace for 500 yards, but only 10 points on the board.
- Arkansas put the game away with an impressive 2-minute drill as Taylen Green led the Hogs on an 8-play, 75-yard drive capped by a goal line touchdown pass to tight end Andreas Paaske.
- The Razorbacks finished the half with 31 points and 329 yards of total offense. Green completed 14 of 17 passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 66 yards and a score on the ground.
3rd Quarter
- Rashod Dubinion started the first series of the second half at running back and promptly made his mark with a 23-yard reception and 23-yard run on back-to-back plays, but Arkansas stalled out in the red zone and had to settle for a Matthew Shipley field goal to push the lead to 34-10.
- Arkansas continued to add insult to injury as Jayden Johnson and Landon Jackson crushed Michael Van Buren, who lost the ball, and Cam Ball recovered to quickly put the offense back on the field. A couple Taylen Green Houdini acts and another Andreas Paaske touchdown reception later, the Hogs were up 41-10.
- Arkansas has been firmly control and dominant essentially from start to finish, but despite a heavy does of timely playmaking, there will be some uncomfortable conversations in Travis Williams’ defensive film session as Mississippi State racked up yards and the Hogs racked up missed tackles and missed assignments. They didn’t pay for them, but they will against better teams moving forward.
- Van Buren’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Coleman that made it 41-17 was the 12th play of 10 yards or more for the Mississippi State offense with nearly five minutes still remaining in the third quarter.
- Those timely stops for Arkansas quickly started to loom larger as Taylen Green was intercepted on a forced ball where Andrew Armstrong also slipped on his route, giving Mississippi State starting field position at the Razorback 35-yard-line. Two plays and a two-point conversion later, it was 41-25.
4th Quarter
- A holding penalty proved costly on the next drive and Arkansas stalled out again in the red zone, but Shipley was good from 29 yards out to push the lead to three possessions, 44-25, with 14:04 remaining.
- Arkansas’ defense continued to get gashed on the next drive as Van Buren picked his spots against a struggling secondary, but once again the playmaking made the difference as Miguel Mitchell knocked a ball loose at the goal line and Hudson Clark recovered to bail the Hogs out in a big spot. The play marked the third goal line miscue of the day for the Bulldogs.
- Braylen Russell turned a strong outing into a stellar performance with a 78-yard breakaway that gave him 175 rushing yards on 16 carries in his first career start. However, he did pull up with what looked to be a hamstring tweak on the run.
- Arkansas put another exclamation point on an historic day offensively by finishing off the 99-yard drive with a second touchdown reception by Luke Hasz. Four of Green’s five touchdown passes on the afternoon went to tight ends if anyone had that on the bingo card.
FINAL STATS
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