FAYETTEVILLE -- Just like last week, Arkansas and Saturday's opponent are both seeking their first SEC win of the season.
Last week, Auburn got its initial SEC win 33-24 over Arkansas. This week Mississippi State will try to do the same. Bobby Petrino is 0-3 since taking over as interim head coach. Petrino looked back at the Auburn loss after watching film.
"Yeah, you know, they played with great effort," Petrino said. "We tackled better. We still missed a couple tackles at the line of scrimmage, but the thing is, they're running so hard to the ball, when we missed one another guy showed up and we eliminated explosive plays for the most part, or at least better than we have the whole time. We ran some good base defense, and the players understood what we were doing, and we executed it, and did a nice job of understanding, all 11 guys, how you work together and make plays like that. But you know, it does come down to how hard they played, and the effort that we had and how we ran full speed to the ball."
Will the Hogs try to use a bend but don't break approach to Mississippi State this week?
"Yeah, not so much bend, don't break, because I don't like to bend,"Petrino said. "You know, you'd like to just shut them down three-and-out and go. But I do think that we did a real good job. Now, Auburn was patient. They ran the ball, they kept us off the field, and they ran the football, and were patient with it. Made it a fourth quarter game, and that's where we didn't get it done.
"Offensively, watching the video is very upsetting to me. We did not play offensive football the way we need to play, the way we have played, the way we've showed we can play, starting with the offensive line, which, you know, I've been given a lot of credit to, bragging a lot about, feeling good about but we didn't execute it all up front like we need to in the run game and protection. Taylen (Green) did not play a good game. You know, he didn't execute the way he's been executing. Missed some reads. Missed some wide open guys. Was just a situation where it's very disturbing to me that that's what we got out of the offense, and then special teams, you know, we get a great big boost before halftime with a pick-six, and we come out and give up a huge kickoff return. Then the next thing is a blocked punt and give them great field position, and that had a huge impact in the game. So we've got to get all three phases to work together to get a win."
Petrino admitted he and Green have talked a lot since the latest loss.
"We’ve talked a lot about it. And we go back and look at his preparation and not running full speed in practice because of not feeling healthy enough to do that, which should not affect his decision making. But he let it affect his decision making. His sets and technique were the worst they’ve been all year. So just really the mental preparation to practice and play, I didn’t get it done well enough. That’s on me. That’s my fault that he didn’t get prepared and ready to play and execute the way he’s supposed to."
Despite throwing three interceptions on Saturday and not playing like he normally does, Petrino still considers Green one of the team's leaders.
"Yeah, it's the nature of the position," Petrino said. "When you win games and when you play well, you probably get a little bit more credit than you deserve, and when you don't win, the first look is at the quarterback position. He's got to face it, that that's not how he normally plays. and his ability to read, his ability to run, his ability to understand where we are on the field needs to be better. I anticipate him to come out very motivated and practice tomorrow, very focused, and get himself ready to go out and play his best game of the year."
Arkansas and Mississippi State will kickoff at 3 p.m. Saturday in Razorback Stadium on the SEC Network.
