FAYETTEVILLE -- It was another home game in Fayetteville and yet once again a bad performance by the Hogs in an SEC game as they fell to Missouri 48-14.
Arkansas fumbled six times and lost five of them. One of the fumbles happened on Arkansas' second possession of the game when quarterback KJ Jefferson ran for 22 yards. At the end of the run, he fumbled the ball and stayed on the ground with an injury. That was possibly his last play as a Razorback.
Jacolby Criswell replaced him and finished the rest of the game. Criswell completed 12-of-20 passes for 96 yards and one touchdown. Sam Pittman was asked about Criswell's performance following the game.
"I thought he ran the offense as good as you could ask for a guy who hasn’t played a lot," Pittman said. "Obviously when he dropped back to pass he didn’t have time to throw it. Certainly that’s not his fault whether we got beat at running back. We got beat on the O-line and he didn’t see a hot and get the ball out fast enough on an empty protection he was hot on. So really he didn’t have an opportunity to throw the ball down the field."
Criswell experienced the same thing that Jefferson has all season and that was being hit time after time. Pittman talked about all the hits on the quarterbacks this season.
" Well, I think we went into the game with over 40 sacks," Pittman said. "We’ve got to shore up a lot of things and that’s the main thing we’ve got to get fixed. Very disappointing because we’re just not giving our wide receivers a chance to get open and catch the ball. And we’re certainly not giving our quarterback those opportunities either.
"You know we went to empty against Florida and it worked. And it worked because in all honestly they had never seen it and they weren’t ready for it. Then these other teams have become ready for it and we did a decent job last week against FIU and certainly this week we did not."
Freshman running back Isaiah Augustave who had a very good game against FIU last week added 80 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries against the Tigers. Wide receiver Andrew Armstrong caught four passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Arkansas, trailing 41-0, scored its first touchdown with Criswell throwing an 8-yard strike to Armstrong with 11:35 remaining in the game. On its next possession, Augustave scored on a 6-yard run with 5:48 still showing on the clock.
Missouri scored first on a 2-yard run by running back Cody Schrader. He finished the game with 217 yards rushing on 27 carries and the one touchdown. The touchdown gave them a 7-0 lead with 9:12 remaining in the first quarter.
The Tigers took advantage of the Jefferson fumble. They drove to the Arkansas 6-yard line. They settled for a 24-yard field goal by Harrison Mevis for a 10-0 lead with 4:45 remaining in the opening period.
Quarterback Brady Cook completed 12-of-20 passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed six times for 14 yards and another touchdown. He put Missouri up 17-0 on a 3-yard run with 5:35 remaining in the first half.
Mevis added a 22-yard field goal with 49 seconds remaining in the first half for a 20-0 advantage at intermission.
Arkansas was slated to get the ball to start the second half, but then disaster struck again. Arkansas fumbled on its first possession giving the Tigers the ball at the Hogs' 38. It took five plays for Cook to find a wide open Brett Norfleet for a 17-yard touchdown and 27-0 lead.
On the kickoff, Isaiah Sategna fumbled and the Tigers recovered. On first down at the Arkansas 11, Cook once again found Norfleet wide open for the touchdown. That gave Missouri a 34-0 lead with 11:32 remaining in the third quarter. Pittman's halftime optimism down 20-0 quickly faded with those two touchdowns.
"Well, we got the ball back, but we had to do something offensively," Pittman said. "I think we had four first downs in the first half, and one of them was a fumble after we got 20-25 yards. We were thinking about moving the pocket, continuing to do our reads but not necessarily same-side reads. Maybe away read, running back to the other side.
"In other words, the same side reads were here (does handoff motion), and they were running the little willy stunt on us, and we were trying to get away from it and go toward the openhand side and then maybe go back to the tight end side because we felt like maybe that would give us a better chance to eat up to the willy with the tackle or pull it and go back to the other side. That was the major adjustment there, and then we were talking about moving the pocket. Then we moved the pocket, and the guy came right through and hit Jacolby and the ball went up in the air. And we were rolling, which was about a simple a protection as we had."
The Tigers added a late touchdown to finish the scoring for the game. Talk quickly turned to next season after the game. Pittman talked about the timetable for a new offensive coordinator.
"Well, I hope so, because the portal comes open on Friday, next Friday, so obviously with the kids that we have that are committed, you want to be right, but you also want to be as fast as you possibly can," Pittmans said of hiring one next week. "You'd like to get some guys in here maybe Tuesday and Wednesday so they can talk to the kids before we need to go out on the road. I don't know if that's possible or not, but obviously we've been in conversations with several different people."
What kind of offense do you have in mind for next season?
"Well, I think you have to find a fit," Pittman said. "You certainly want a guy that brings something special to the university, whether that be what KB (Kendal Briles) did in the past. Whether that be a combination of what Kendal did and some pro style stuff. I think we need a guy that really wants to be here and understands Arkansas. But the No. 1 thing is we need somebody who understands how to run the football, because we have to run the football in my opinion to win. Of all the problems that we’ve had this year, in all honesty it all stemmed, a bunch of it, because we can’t run the football. That would be my No. 1 thing is to sit down and visit with a man that knows how to run the football."
Arkansas finished the season 4-8 and 1-7 in the SEC.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
