ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Razorbacks ran into a physical Texas A&M team and fell 34-22 in AT&T Stadium on Saturday.
The Razorbacks scored the first time it had the football on a 15-play, 42-yard drive that ended with Cam Little blasting a 52-yard field goal. Arkansas' drive lasted eight minutes, 15 seconds. At that time, it looked positive for the Arkansas offense.
But it was anything except positive on the day. Arkansas finished with 174 yards of total offense compared to 414 for the Aggies. Arkansas allowed seven sacks and 15 tackles for loss on the day. Sam Pittman talked about the game afterward.
"I want to congratulate Texas A&M," Pittman said. "They were a very prepared, very physical team today. They ran the ball well, threw it well, played great defense and put a lot of pressure on us. Give them credit, they were very physical. Our team is a little beat up. We've got a few injuries. I appreciate the effort, the fight we had throughout the entire game. I thought when Snaxx picked that pass it would springboard us, but we couldn't get anything done in the red area and really in the second half offensively get a first down. So, give A&M the credit. We've got a lot of work to do, but I like our kids. I think they'll come back and fight, but it wasn't a good outing today."KJ Jefferson finished the game 9-of-17 passing for 132 yards, one touchdown and the interception. Raheim "Rocket" Sanders returned after missing the past three games, but was held to 34 yards on 11 carries. He did have two catches for 36 yards.However, the Aggies came back with quarterback Max Johnson throwing to Evan Stewart for a 32-yard touchdown and 7-3 lead with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter. Arkansas never led again.The Hogs did pull within 7-6 on a 25-yard field goal by Little. The Aggies matched it with a 42-yard field goal by Randy Boyd going up 10-6 with 10:26 left in the first half.The game stayed that way until Arkansas faced a fourth-and-one play with 2:49 remaining in the first half. At first Pittman sent the punt team out, but then called timeout. He sent the offense back out. The Hogs operated out of the shot gun despite only needing six inches for a first down. Sanders was tackled for a 1-yard loss."Well, it was six inches," Pittman said. "Sometimes you make decisions on how everything is kind of feeling during the game and things of that nature. We hadn't stopped them. They missed a field goal, but we hadn't stopped them. No matter where the starting point was, we had three timeouts left. I thought if we made the first down right there that we could go down and either cut the lead to one or take the lead. We missed cutoff on the backside, and Rocket got hit on it. Then we had them 3rd-and-12 right after that, and I'm thinking we're going to be fine."They were almost out of field goal range and all those things. Then they get a first down and score with 12 seconds left. The worst thing that could happen off missing a 4th-and-inches, but that was the thought going into it. We hadn't been able to stop them, and I thought we might could take a lead knowing they had the ball back as well. I know there's a risk too if you don't make it because you're sitting there at the 40. I just felt very confident about our short-yardage. We had a nice game plan. I thought we'd make it, we just didn't."The Aggies then drove down and scored a touchdown with 13 seconds left in the half. Johnson found Earnest Crownover for a 2-yard touchdown allowing the Aggies to take a 17-6 into intermission.Pittman was asked about the decision to never put Jefferson under center in fourth-and-short situatilons."No, not really," Pittman said. "I mean, once he gets under center the front on the defense is certainly going to change. Not really. Honestly, if we felt better about him sneaking, we would do that. But, no, not really. Just the fact they're going to have five guys within the A and B gap. This week I felt really good we were going to get the first down. It looked good in practice and this, that and the other. Just didn't happen."The second half started as well as it could for Arkansas. Johnson's pass was picked off and returned for a 20-yard touchdown by Lorando "Snaxx" Johnson. Arkansas was only down 17-13 at this point.Bond put the Aggies back by a touchdown, 20-13, with a 34-yard field goal with 11:11 left in the third quarter. Cam Little booted his third field goal of the game with 7:58 remaining in the third quarter pulling the Hogs to within 20-16.A&M's Chris Russell picked off a tipped Jefferson pass and raced 16 yards for a touchdown. The Aggies then led 27-16.Texas A&M's Ainias Smith then put the final nail in Arkansas' chances when he returned a Max Fletcher punt 82 yards for a touchdown and 34-16 lead with7:40 left in the game.Jefferson hit Andrew Armstrong for a 48-yard touchdown with 3:53 remaining in the game to finish off the scoring. Armstrong led the Razorbacks with three catches for 78 yards and a touchdown.Arkansas suffered some injuries in the game. John Morgan III was taken off on a stretcher. Tight end Luke Hasz was likely lost for the season and cornerback Dwight McGlothern was hurt."He had movement everywhere," Pittman said of Morgan. "Good spirits isn't the word, but he was -- he visited with me, said 'Coach, I'm fine.' He did have some soreness in his neck, so they took the precaution, which they should. They're good at what they do and they took care of him. But he had movement everywhere and he's at the doctor. Luke Hasz broke his clavicle on that first or second play of the game. Nudie had a concussion. I think there was one more, I can't remember right now. McGlothern got a concussion."Arkansas (2-3, 0-2) will now take a 3-game skid to Ole Miss on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
