Arkansas offense puts up empty numbers in brutal 63-31 beatdown to No. 19 Ole Miss

By Kevin McPherson

Arkansas’ offense gifted 19th-ranked Ole Miss an early 7-0 advantage on Saturday, a favor the Rebels really didn’t need as they dominated both sides of the ball while having record-setting performances on offense en route to crushing the Razorbacks, 63-31, at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

Arkansas (5-4, 3-3 SEC) did manage to score the most points by any Ole Miss opponent all season while tallying nearly 500 yards from scrimmage — 492 to be exact (365 through the air and 127 on the ground) — but most of those numbers were empty statistics that came after Ole Miss had already built up a 28-3 lead early in the second quarter. The Rebels kept adding to their point total as the Football Hogs’ production after falling behind by 25 points had become a matter of minimizing the damage of a certain blowout loss.

After Arkansas’ defense held on 4th-and-goal from its own 1-yard-line to stop Ole Miss on its opening offensive possession of the game, Hogs junior quarterback Taylen Greeen fumbled while he was sacked in the end zone on a 3rd-and-long play, and the Rebels recovered the fumble to put the first points on the board, 7-0.

On the Razorbacks’ ensuing offensive possession, Green had a 20-yard pass completion to star receiver Andrew Armstrong followed by a couple of 14-yard runs by Green, the last of which set Arkansas up with 1st-and-10 at the Rebels’ 32-yard-line. But the play also resulted in a Green injury suffered when his leg was rolled over awkwardly by an Ole Miss defender as he was being tackled to the ground.

Backup quarterback Malachi Singleton entered the game at that point, the Hogs’ drive stalled over the next three plays, and that resulted in a career-long 55-yard field goal by Hogs kicker Matt Shipley to cut the Ole Miss lead down to 7-3 with 3:19 remaining in the first quarter.

But the Rebels’ offense ripped off four touchdown drives to close out the half while defensively racking up multiple sacks and limiting Arkansas’ offense to only one touchdown as Ole Miss ran out to a decisive 35-10 halftime lead.

Green captained all of the Hogs’ seven first-half possessions — sidelined only for three snaps on the aforementioned field goal drive — but he did not play in the second half. He finished the game 10-of-14 passing for 158 yards to go with 10 carries for 16 yards and that lost fumble in the end zone that accounted for Ole Miss’ first of nine total touchdowns on the day.

Singleton led three Arkansas touchdown drives in the second half as he ran for a score and threw for another. He finished the game 11-of-14 passing for 207 yards and he scampered for 44 yards on 8 carries. He also had a 60-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided, but it was nullified by a pre-snap illegal-formation penalty called on the Hogs (although, the drive eventually did result in a 22-yard touchdown pass from Singleton to tight end Luke Hasz to establish the final score of the game at 63-31).

“Taylen came back when he got hurt, then we worked on him at half,” fifth-year Head Hog Sam Pittman said of his starting quarterback’s injury on Satuday. “We didn’t know coming out of half if he would be ready to play. We said we were going to look at him throwing and moving. Bobby had him moving front and back and just was gimpy.

“We didn’t want to take that chance of getting him hurt further, plus we believe in Malachi putting him in. That was the decision there, it had nothing to do with — we just didn’t want to get him hurt worse by putting him back out there. He was willing. Part of his success has to do with his legs, and he didn’t have them, basically.”

Pittman liked what he saw from Singleton.

“Well, I think he took control,” Pittman said. “I think he went out there and I tell you guys, he made a few passes — he’s made throws in there that he let the ball go way before the break and we’re right on. Here that last drive, he threw an eight-yard out that, I mean he let that ball go way before the break. He did it several times.

“Obviously, him running the football is a big asset. He’s a hard guy to tackle. It’s a shame that we didn’t have a receiver on the ball on his touchdown run. But I was really, really happy with the way he competed and the guys that were out there offensively, how they competed with him.”

Ole Miss, coming off a 10-sack performance in a dominant win over Oklahoma, recored 8 sacks as part of 13 tackles-for-loss against the Hogs. The Rebels’ defensive line won most of the battles at the point of attack, and combined with both vertical and horizontal speed advantages by Ole Miss defenders it kept the Hogs’ offense relatively in check for the better part of three quarters.

In addition to the early forced fumble / end-zone recovery on a sack, an Ole Miss defensive back punched the ball out of Hogs receiver Isaac TeSlaa’s hands as TeSlaa was nearing the goal line at the end of a 45-yard reception early in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand for the Rebels, and the forced fumble squirted into the end zone and out of bounds for a touchback that gave Ole Miss possession with 1st-and-10 at its own 20-yard-line.

As subtexts to it offensive yardage and scoring production, Arkansas registered 24 first downs in the game and was 5-of-12 on third-down plays. The Hogs possessed the ball for 28:34 of the 60-minute contest.

“A couple of them (Ole Miss sacks), we were hot on outside,” Pittman said. “They pushed the pocket on us. I think just off of what I saw, I would say there’s probably about three of them where the pocket was pushed and then we couldn’t get open. We would have had time, you know, to throw it. And then there was about three of them where we whiffed a guy. We got beat on the edge. Totally beat on the edge … So, I didn’t feel the edge as much.

“You know, before it was like tackles, defensive ends getting beat one-on-one. I didn’t feel that. I felt more of the inside twist game that was our problem. And I think we got better as the game went on. But obviously we started horribly for the entire first quarter and for most of the first half, defensively. Well, all the first half defensively.”

Veteran running back Rashod Dubinion led Arkansas’ rushing attack with 49 yards and 1 touchdown (the Hogs’ first of the game) on 12 carries. Rodney Hill gained 16 yards and scored a late touchdown on 3 rushing attempts. Freshman Braylen Russell was limited due to his injured hamstring suffered last week in his career-high 175-yard rushing performance in a 58-25 road win over Mississippi State, but he did get 4 carries that netted only 2 yards against the Rebels.

Armstrong led Arkansas receivers with 135 yards on 6 receptions as he extended two personal streaks — consecutive games with at least one catch (now 36 straight contests) as well as consecutive games with multiple catches (now 31 straight outings). It was his fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season.

Hasz finished with 77 yards and a touchdown on 5 receptions; TeSlaa had 64 yards on 3 catches; Hill had 29 yards on 1 reception; receiver Isaiah Sategna recorded 24 yards on 2 receptions; receiver Jordan Anthony had the first catch of the game for the Hogs that went for 18 yards; Dubinion notched 15 yards on 2 catches; and receiver Tyrone Broden had a late reception for 2 yards.