Arkansas offense: No. 8 LSU puts the clamps on Football Hogs’ running game while holding UA to season lows in 34-10 romp

By Kevin McPherson

Via a combination of a ball-control, clock-chewing offense and a stingy defense, the 8th-ranked LSU Tigers shut down Arkansas’ offense en route to a dominant 34-10 victory on Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

The Tigers (6-1, 3-0 SEC) held the Razorbacks to season lows in single-game scoring and in total yards from scrimmage (only 277 yards combined passing and rushing).

The Football Hogs (4-3, 2-2 SEC) have failed to score at least 20 points in three consecutive games — all SEC matchups. Arkansas coughed up three turnovers (two fumbles and one interception) compared to the Tigers playing turnover-free football, and those Arkansas giveaways accounted for LSU scoring 11 points off turnovers.

In Arkansas’ three losses on the season — on the road against then-No. 16 Oklahoma State, at a neutral-site against then-No. 23 Texas A&M, and home against No. 8 LSU on Saturday — the Razorbacks suffered a combined 9 turnovers leading to a collective 36 points scored off turnovers by the opposition.

Arkansas’ offense came into the game ranked second in the SEC in offensive plays run per game (75.8}, third in the league in total offense (484.8 scrimmage yards per game), fourth in rushing offense (199.5 yards per game), and fifth in passing/receiving offense (285.3 yards per game).

Despite ranking ninth in the league in points per game (33.0), the Razorbacks had a bye week off to heal up, game-plan, and fine-tune problem areas (mostly self-inflicted wounds) that so often had bogged down the offense at junctures of games when the team looked poised to finish off long drives with points but failed to execute.

Instead, the Tigers dominated both sides of the ball, and in concert with more Arkansas offensive miscues, the result was the first lopsided loss of the season for the Razorbacks.

Defensively, LSU limited Arkansas to a season-low 38 yards on the ground (2.0 yards per carry) and only 239 yards through the air for the aforementioned season-low 277 total scrimmage yards. Arkansas had five drives into LSU territory in the game, picked up 15 first downs, and was 4-of-9 on third downs, but the most telling statistics were the turnover disparity and that the Hogs ran only 50 plays (compared to 72 for LSU) while possessing the ball for only 21:07 of game clock (compared to 38:53 for LSU).

LSU won most of the line-of-scrimmage battles, but Arkansas junior quarterback Taylen Green did manage to complete 21-of-31 passes for all 239 of the team’s yards through the air and the team’s lone touchdown. But his interception late in the third quarter with LSU leading 16-10 was devastating. Tigers linebacker Whit Weeks was bearing down on Green who was set to throw a pocket pass around the Hogs’ 5-yard-line, but Weeks batted the pass up into the air as Green was releasing it, then Weeks hustled to haul in the ball for an interception that set up LSU’s offense with first-and-goal at the 2-yard-line. The Tigers scored a touchdown on the ensuing play, added a two-point conversion, and their lead swelled to 24-10 in what turned out to be LSU’s win-sealing play.

Arkansas lost a Rashod Dubinion fumble deep in its own territory on its second possession of the game, and LSU converted that miscue into a field goal that gave the team a 13-0 lead. Arkansas’ second fumble (and third turnover of the game) was suffered with just more than two minutes remaining in the contest with LSU leading 34-10.

“We couldn’t run the football on them.” fifth-year Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said after the game. “There were a lot of things that we’ve got to get better at. We’ve got to coach them better, as well, but I thought this was a really good LSU team coming in here. I think they are now, too. Fifty offensive snaps and three turnovers, we have to do better there.

“It (turnovers) hurt, big-time. Because I think R-Dub (Dubinion) got 12 yards on that particular run as a first-down play. I think we had the ball four times in the first half. Really moved it pretty well, then something would go wrong, then of course the interception was a one-play — we got the ball (down) 16-10, everything was coming in what we thought, what we told the kids at half ‘We get the ball, we’ll get it to a one-score game, whether it’s a field goal or a touchdown. We’ll get the ball back and we’ll take the lead and put the pressure back on them.’ It kind of was working out that way, but we missed an outside rusher that we should’ve blocked, then threw the ball, got tipped up and they made the 2-point conversion on top of that. We got down 14 and just seemed like we couldn’t bounce back from that.”

Arkansas senior running back and the team’s leading rusher Ja’Quinden Jackson has battled and played with nagging injuries all season, often causing him to come off the field for stretches of games which in recent outings has diminished his workload. That was once again the case on Saturday as Jackson managed only 26 yards on 5 carries. Coming in with 10 rushing touchdowns on the season as one of the league leaders in scoring, Jackson failed to register at least one touchdown on the ground for the first time this season.

Green’s favorite target has been veteran wideout Andrew Armstrong, and that proved to be true again as Armstrong continued his sparkling play against LSU with 7 receptions for 94 yards and 1 touchdown. The score came on a 25-yard strike from Green capping a 9-play, 75-yard drive that pulled the Hogs within 13-6 with 8:25 remaining in the second quarter.

Armstrong extended two streaks — consecutive games with at least one catch (now 34 straight contests) as well as consecutive games with multiple catches (now 29 straight outings).