Arkansas defense: Football Hogs’ run-stoppers finally break late in 21-17 loss to No. 24 Texas A&M in final Southwest Classic

By Kevin McPherson

Arkansas’ defense was better than No. 24 Texas A&M’s offense for the vast majority of Saturday’s annual Southwest Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but on the three fourth-quarter drives that effectively decided the game the Aggies had their way with the Hogs’ run-stoppers en route to a 21-17 come-from-behind win.

Arkansas led 17-14 with 13:24 to play in the fourth quarter of a tightly contested matchup, and to that point the Hogs’ run defense (ranked 14th nationally coming in) had shut down the Aggies’ vaunted rushing offense (ranked 8th nationally and tops in the SEC coming in) by yielding only 45 yards and 1 touchdown on 27 carries.

But that’s when A&M’s offensive line and ball carriers took the game over mostly behind the burst and physicality of veteran running back Le’Veon Moss as Arkansas defenders struggled to wrap up and tackle.

Powered by five consecutive runs that netted 52 yards on the ground — totaling 7 more rushing yards than the Raozrbacks’ defense had given up all game to that point — A&M capped an 8-play, 75-yard drive with a play-action-pass conversion for a 5-yard touchdown to grab the lead for good at 21-17 with 9 minutes remaining in the contest. Moss had consecutive carries of 23 yards, 8 yards, and 15 yards on the scoring march.

After Arkansas’ ensuing offensive drive stalled at the Aggies’ 43-yard-line with the Hogs facing a 4th-and-8 with 5:44 left in the game, head coach Sam Pittman elected to punt the ball with the intent to pin the Aggies down deep in their own territory. It worked as Hogs punter Devin Bale’s boot hit at the 1-yard-line, and instead of bounding into the end zone it ricocheted right staying parallel to the goal line before going out of bounds giving A&M 1st-and-10 at its own 1-yard-line.

But once again, A&M was about to explode in the running game. First, the Aggies used a quick-hitting, roll-out pass play that was good for 10 yards and a first down out to their 11-yard-line, and after an Arkansas defensive offside penalty moved the ball to the Aggies’ 16-yard-line, it was Moss once again who sprang a big run — 30 yards plus 15 more yards tacked on for a personal-foul facemask penalty called on the Hogs — to flip field position and keep the clock running before Arkansas finally stopped the drive and forced a punt.

An Arkansas lost fumble on its ensuing offensive possession — the team’s third turnover of the game — put the Hogs defense back on the field at their own 43-yard-line with 1:23 to play and two timeouts. But Moss had consecutive runs of 7 yards each to move the chains and end any remote chance Arkansas had to force an A&M three-and-out while using timeouts to potentially get the ball back with a few seconds remaining needing a miracle on offense.

A&M totaled 89 rushing yards on 11 carries spanning its three fourth-quarter drives, but the Aggies finished with only 134 yards and 1 TD on the ground on 38 carries (3.5 yards per tote) for the game, a far cry from their 256.0 rushing-yards-per-game average coming into the matchup. Moss finished with 117 yards rushing on 13 carries with 90 of those yards gained on the Aggies’ final three fourth-quarter possessions.

“Honestly, I don’t know that they (Aggies) made a lot of adjustments besides their kids blocked a little bit better and the running backs ran a little bit harder maybe,” Pittman said of A&M’s fourth-quarter game-clinching running attack. “They went at us late in the game where they were running a little bit on the outside, more stretch plays early in the half. And early in the fourth quarter they started going at us late in the game and had more success with it. We did run a couple of cross-dogs inside and we got mis-fitted a time or two when they broke a decent gain.

“But I mean it’d be hard for me to be disappointed in the defense besides we missed a tackle to give up a big one, and then the 75-yard one once we went up three. That drive they did a good job, A&M, and we helped them with some penalties as well.”

Dual-threat freshman quarterback Marcel Reed finished the game 11-of-22 passing for 163 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions to go with 10 carries for 13 yards, 1 rushing touchdown, and no fumbles. His first touchdown toss was a 58-yarder that allowed A&M to tie the game at 7-all early in the first quarter — that was A&M’s only big play through the first three-plus quarters of the game — and his 5-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 14-all approaching the midway point of the second quarter came two plays after the Aggies’ defense forced and recovered a fumble at the Hogs’ 10-yard-line. His last throwing score was the aforementioned 5-yarder that proved to be the game-winner in the fourth quarter.

Arkansas’ defense yielded only 297 yards from scrimmage on 60 plays, and it allowed A&M only 4-of-13 on third-down-plays. But after forcing five Auburn turnovers in a 24-14 road win last weekend, the Hogs were unable to coax the Aggies into a single giveaway on Saturday while Arkansas lost two fumbles and had an interception on offense.

On the season, Arkansas’ rushing defense has given up only 465 yards and 3 touchdowns on 148 carries (that’s 93.0 yards per game and 3.1 yards per carry). On the season, Arkansas’ third-down defense has yielded only 20-of-65 conversions to first downs (30.8%).

Arkansas defensive coordinator Travis Williams has fielded a unit that arguably has played well enough through the first five games for the Razorbacks (3-2, 1-1 SEC) to be unbeaten, but that notion has unraveled twice now as the Hogs’ offense combined for 5 turnovers against only 1 giveaway collectively by two opponents in away-from-home losses to A&M (4-1, 2-0 SEC) and then-No. 16 Oklahoma State in the Cowboys’ come-from-behind 39-31 double-overtime win at home earlier in September.

Those five Arkansas turnovers were converted into 25 points collectively by A&M and OSU in the two Hogs losses that were by a comined margin of 12 points.

On Saturday against the Aggies, star defensive end Landon Jackson had by far his best performance of the season as he notched a team-leading 8 tackles (6 solo) that included 3 tackles-for-lost-yardage (2 of those were sacks). He came into the game with only 10 tackles (and no sacks) on the season.

Transfer linebacker Xavian Sorey, Jr. (he spent three seasons at Georgia before landing at Arkansas) recorded 7 stops (6 solo), including 1 tackle-for-lost-yardage. His 13-tackle performance against OSU stands as his most productive outing to date as a Hog.

Sophomore defensive back TJ Metcalf — coming off a brilliant two-interception, two-pass-breakups, one-forced-fumble performance in the team’s 24-14 road win over Auburn last week that marked the first such combination of single-game contributions by a Razorbacks this century — registered 3 tackles (2 solo) and 1 pass-defended against the Aggies on Saturday. He came into the game leading Arkansas on the season in tackles (26), interceptions 3 (all coming in the team’s previous two games), and forced fumbles (1, which stands as the unit’s only forced fumble through five games).

Transfer linebacker Stephen Dix, Jr. (previous stints at Florida State and Marshall) contributed 3 tackles (2 solo) on Saturday against the Aggies as he continues to have a positive impact on the Hogs’ defensive unit. Though five games, Dix has 19 tackles, including 11 solo, 1 sack, 1 pass breakup, and 1 recovered fumble. His season-high of 10 tackles came in a 37-27 home win over Alabama-Birmingham two weeks ago.

Transfer defensive back Doneiko Slaughter (he spent four seasons at Tennessee before landing at Arkansas in the offseason) had 3 tackles (2 solo) against A&M on Saturday as a follow-up to his monster performance a week ago in the road win over Auburn when he had a team-leading 7 tackles — all solo — including a sack and another tackle for lost yardage to go with an interception.