Arkansas’ offense came up short against No. 3 Texas 20-10

By Jason Pattyson

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks fell to the No. 3 Texas Longhorns 20-10 Saturday before a sell-out crowd where points were hard to come by. 

Arkansas had a chance in the fourth quarter, and that’s all you could ask for in a game where points were a premium. The offense struggled early on, but it found a little success running the ball in the second half, mostly in the third quarter. They were even in scoring and gaining yards, but the flat first half was really the difference Arkansas wasn’t able to overcome. 

The stretch Option turned out to be the best option

The Razorback offense got back to its identity of running the football the most effective way possible. The first half was rough sledding for the Arkansas rushing attack. They gained just 16 yards on the ground and 82 for the game. Senior running back Ja’Quinden Jackson has been sorely missed in the backfield and ran the ball 11 times for 56 yards and a score. He had the lone Arkansas score of the day from a yard out, his first since October 5th. Junior quarterback Taylen Green found success in the second half after the coaching staff decided to commit to the run and try to wear down the Horn’s front seven. 

The Hog offense ran it 19 times for 66 yards and a score. Sam Pittman and staff put the offensive group in a better situation with the scheme switch and felt like the Texas front seven had some areas of concern. They more than doubled the yardage output in the second half, and the adjustments led to success. They had a chance to pull off the upset. 

“So we just weren’t really, we weren’t really locked in, as it looked, in the first half,” Pittman said after the game. “The second half was a lot better offensively, but I was proud of our defensive effort. I was proud of how hard our team played. Just the two turnovers really kind of made the difference.”

From YAC to Yuck

Texas’ defense was as good as advertised, limiting the big play, and the Razorback offense was stuck in reverse for a chunk of the first half. The Hogs managed to muster a mere 18 yards after contact in the first half and 62 in the second half. Texas couldn’t take advantage of that stat, and Arkansas made up the ground for this department. They ended with 80 yards of YAC, while Texas had 118. They were able to bust loose from would-be tacklers, but that was attributed to the commitment to the run. 

Jackson piled up the yards in the second half, and Pittman wanted to get Jackson back out there despite being sidelined for the last four weeks due to an ankle injury. 

“Ja’Quinden was available and we, in all honesty, probably should have got him in there more. I just didn’t want to start him because he had been out for three or four weeks,” Pittamn said postgame. “Other than that, there were no limitations on how much we play him. I do think he got into a nice rhythm. I believe he averaged 5 yards per carry today and ran extremely hard. But we didn’t have a lot of rushes at half regardless who was back there. Went into halftime, found a way to run the ball a little more.”

Playing behind the sticks

It looked bleak for the Razorback offense as they had no success finding any cracks in the Longhorn defense in the first half. Between the second and third quarter, the Horns lived in the Razorback backfield. At points, fans wondered if Pittman would turn to Malachi Singleton due to the sputtering offense. He stayed with Green, feeling he gave the team the best chance to win. The penalties didn’t kill sustained drives like they had in past weeks. The quarterback change wasn’t warranted, and Green had a better read on the defensive ends at the line of scrimmage than the safeties that were mixing coverage all afternoon.  

“Texas, they were as big as physical as we thought they’d be,” Pittman said in his opening comments after the loss. “Defensively, their stats show — I’m not talking about today, I’m talking about the ones before today — that they’re really, really a good defense, and they proved that today.”

Arkansas owned the third quarter

Arkansas outgained, outscored, and outplayed Texas in the third quarter. The effort was a pleasant surprise after the lackluster first half that had fans wondering if this was going to end like it did two weeks prior. The Razorbacks outgained Texas 98-39 in yards, which was attributed to the change in direction of Green’s eyes to the defense. He saw mixes of coverages with single high safeties floating back from a man’s defense to a zone. That confused him, as it has at times this season. 

The Texas defense was on the field for 11 minutes and 25 seconds, and Arkansas ran 23 plays to the Longhorns’ nine. The Razorbacks also out-rushed Texas 55-9, and the change to the Zone option read was the key to finding creases in Longhorn’s defense. They also wanted to run the ball on the first down and ran it five of the eight first-down plays while trying to set up the pass. In the fourth quarter, Texas returned the favor to seal the victory. 

Turnovers were detrimental for the Hogs Saturday

This team goes as the turnovers go, and they committed two timely errors to Texas’s none. The first was a deep ball Green missed, and Jahdae Barron intercepted at the Texas 39-yard line. Texas marched 61 yards in 2 minutes and 17 seconds for a 7-0 lead. The second was in the fourth quarter when freshman C.J. Brown lost the ball on a tunnel screen and gave it back to Texas as the Horns recovered the fumble, which sealed the victory as they burned the final 6:55 of the game for the win. 

“Obviously, we lost the turnover battle 2-0 and ended up losing by ten, so that had something to do with it. But I was proud of the improvement that we made defensively, and we’ve got work to do offensively, but it certainly wasn’t an effort problem,” Pittman said postgame. “I thought we went out there and played extremely hard. To beat the third-ranked team in the country, you certainly can’t turn the ball over, or you’ve got to get them. It was 2-0, and that’s what happened.”

“We believe in CJ. If they’re out there, we believe in him. We knew the ball was specifically going to go to him. We’ve ran it in practice and we believe in him. Just unfortunately, it happened, and unfortunately, the ball went to the hash and stayed inbounds, where their ball went out of bounds. But no, we believe in him. If he’s out there, we certainly believe in him. Just unfortunate, he fumbled.”

Arkansas looks to become bowl-eligible next Saturday when they host Louisiana Tech (4-6) at 3 p.m. in the final home game for the 2024 Razorbacks football team.