Jim Harris: Arkansas at Ole Miss Live Blog

The Arkansas at Ole Miss Live Blog powered by Jim Harris. The stage is set. It is Razorback game day as the Hogs take on the Rebels in Oxford, Miss.

Hit refresh often throughout the game to keep up with Jim’s latest comments, thoughts and analysis; and feel free to add your own in the comments section below.

Join us today as Jim Harris tracks the action from the field in Oxford. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:21 a.m. and will be televised on the SEC Network.

3:00 p.m. 34-24 Ole Miss, final — Arkansas’ last possession, before we broke away from the blog, was another nice drive basically off the goal line until it ran out of steam at the Ole Miss 41 yard line. Bielema gave Zach Hocker a shot at a 58-yard field goal that had enough leg but was a tad wide right (in the direction of the awful Tad Pad basketball showplace of Ole Miss, in fact). Ole Miss just had to take a knee and run out the final minute.

Arkansas closed the gap on the first downs in the second half, actually winning the second half 15-8. Ole Miss ended up with 534 total yards, and Arkansas pretty much made the Rebels one-dimensional, which is what every defensive coordinator is hoping for.

Unfortunately for the Hogs, the Rebels were forced to pass and flung it for 419 yards.

Arkansas gained 389 total yards with a great balance: 196 on the ground, 193 in the air. Brandon Allen completed 18 of 32 passes with one interception in the Ole Miss end zone.

The Hogs won the turnover margin, 2-1. Ole Miss had about a 6-minute edge in time of possession. Arkansas, which had an outstanding third-down conversion rate against Auburn last week (9 of 16), was just 3 of 12 in Oxford. Ole Miss was 6 of 13.

The crucial plays were these three: (1) a failed half-back pass call that resulted in a 9-yard loss and a big loss in momentum when the Hogs had to punt it away in the Ole Miss end, down 3 points; (2) a 75-yard touchdown pass by Ole Miss on its next possession, allowing the Rebels to cover 94 yards in 5 plays to regain a 10-point edge; (3) a missed tackle by Tevin Mitchel on a 6-yard pass completion that turned into a 52-yard scoring play for Donte Moncrief, giving Ole Miss a sudden 17-point just two minutes later.

And that was that.

Arkansas competed to the end, as Bret Bielema noted in his post-game press conference, and the Hogs have fought well the past two weeks though just outmanned in a couple of key spots (e.g. Mitchel has been burned in back-to-back weeks for crunching plays, and also was burned twice at Florida in a 20-point loss that easily could have been closer).

Arkansas’ younger players, particularly the three tailbacks used today, gamely fought hard. Quarterback Brandon Allen was better.

With an open date and apparent improvement in the past two weeks, it looks hopeful for the Hogs that if they play with the urgency they showed for 60 minutes today, a victory is within their grasp in Little Rock on Nov. 23 against Mississippi State. Then they finish at LSU.

In the meantime, with the week off, Arkansas’ coaches need to right the ship in recruiting, which has lately cost them two commitments and another recruit they thought was a good possibility. Unfortunately his visit coincided with Arkansas’  worst day of the year, the 52-7 give up against South Carolina for homecoming. Bret Bielema and his staff, without wins to show recruits that improvement is occuring, have to turn on the salesmanship in this next week, while the current Hogs keep working on fundamental improvement.

2:29 p.m. — Wow, Allen nearly gave up a pick six, but Cody Prewitt, the Rebels safety, dropped it with all green in front of him. Travis Swanson is down. Hope he’s just tired. Been a long but good day for the UA center. Now he’s up and walking off.

2:25 p.m. — 34-24 Ole Miss — Arkansas is probably going to win the turnover battle 2-1 or at worse tie it, as Eric Bennett gets the secondary’s second interception of the day. That hasn’t happened all year, two INTs by defensive backs. Bennett had a huge return deep into Ole Miss territory wiped out by a block-in-the-back call on Brooks Ellis. On replay, the call looks dubious at best. Ole Miss player turned and Ellis made every effort to get away from him, not block him. Give the SEC officials credit for never missing a chance to prove their incompetence in an Arkansas game. They’re probably still made at the verbal abusing they got for four years from Bobby Petrino.

2:08 p.m. — 34-24 Ole Miss — Brandon Allen hooks up with Julian Horton for a nice touchdown pass to pull the Hogs within 10, and Ole Miss freshman Robert Nkemdiche gets thrown out of the game in the process with a little pushing match with Hog freshman guard Dan Skipper. Skipper did a nice flop that drew the flag on fierce No. 5 for the Rebels. They’ll have a nice battle the next two years.

Arkansas covered 87 yards in 13 plays, with the last 20 yards coming on the lob to the open Horton on the left side of the end zone. A little too late, there is only 4:57 to play. That drive alone ate up more than 4 minutes.

2:01 p.m. 34-17 Ole Miss — Score needs to stay the same and I’ll look like a genius for once this decade. Twitter has kind of taken over as my timeline is blowing up, mostly by intelligent Hog fans and a couple of haters. Love that.

Arkansas had another nice drive in the running game going, then went to trickery again with a fake reverse and a fling downfield from Allen to running back Alex Collins, who Jim Chaney surely felt would be uncovered. Ole Miss had four defenders around it, and Golson intercepted. I don’t know what Golson’s first name is off-hand, and I don’t want to look it up. He’s just Golson. Give Alex Collins credit for still fighting for the ball.

Give Jonathan Williams credit for still fighting. Give Korliss Marshall credit for running really hard and fast for a part-time safety. Give DT Darius Philon credit for coming back from an earlier ankle injury to keep playing hard.

A lot of young Arkansas players are really competing to the end, which is something Arkansas fans should love and what the program can build around. I just tweeted that.

1:40 p.m. 34-17 Ole Miss — Do I even have to say it again this year: Tevin Mitchel with a missed tackle at the ankles turns a 6-yard completion to Donte Moncrief into a 52-yard scoring play. Gut punch No. 2.

Ole Miss pulling away.

Somehow, we’ll probably forget about that halfback pass play call having anything to do with this game as the pass defense gets scorched over, under, around, in front, behind, whatever.

But, beat me over the head enough times, I get it: I’m finally beginning to have serious questions about both coordinators for this Arkansas coaching staff. If a guy keeps missing tackle attempts at people’s ankles, why does he keep playing? If a middle linebacker cannot tackle or cover, why did he ever get put into a starter’s role. If you can’t sense the momentum on offense and you resort to a trick play call when your base stuff is working, then you’re totally out of touch and don’t need to be making play calls. It’s as bad as a player making 3 out of five plays good. If the two plays are fails, and the other team scores, then you aren’t any good. You’re not giving your players a chance to succeed.

1:35 p.m. 27-17 Ole Miss — Of course, it was time for the gut punch provided by the Arkansas secondary. How safe must these guys play to not gig up 70-plus yd plays?

Arkansas’ four-man rush wasn’t able to get to Bo Wallace, and he had enough time to first make a pump fake to the left side to Treadwell, then hit Ja’Mes Logan in stride for a 75-yard touchdown pass behind Eric Bennett, who was thrown off by the pump fake as Logan ran right past him. First rule of playing it safe, you don’t let anyone behind you no matter the fake. Bennett has played safety for three years now.

This has gotten old.

What a back-breaker, just like last year.

But let’s also look at the previous offensive possession. Arkansas with mometum and in scoring territory and the coordinator pulls an absolute bonehead decision to go tricky.

So Ole Miss covers 94 yards in five plays.

1:26 p.m. 20-17 Ole Miss — I’m not sure why Arkansas OC Jim Chaney, whose running calls have been working very well, thought he needed to call a throwback pass at this juncture, but the play was a complete bomb, a loss of 9-yards for tailback Jonathan Wiliams, who looked over to Brandon Allen, had an alley to run that he didn’t see soon enough, and was swarmed. Maybe the offensive coaches in the box had seen a lot of overpursuit from the Rebels’ backside, but they stayed home as you’re supposed to on that play and there was no chance backside trickery was going to work. Trickery when everything is going pretty well and the momentum is in your favor, seems odd to call upon. The only thing good to come out of what should have been a better possession is that Sam Irwin-Hill punted perfectly inside the 5 and Arkansas downed it on the 3.

1:19 p.m. 20-17 Ole Miss — Arkansas nearly gets another fumble as Bo Wallace scambles and is separated from it on third down. The Rebels fall on it, but they also have to put.

Javontee Herndon is another of the Arkansas seniors who seems rejuvenated and playing his best ball (Eric Bennett is another) and has his best punt return in forever, carrying it from inside his own 20 to the Arkansas 47, more good field position for the offense.

Can you feel the momentum having swung back Arkansas’ way?

1:14 p.m. 20-17 Ole Miss — Kiero Small (who is wearing the Robert Thomas number 98 today) powers right up the middle for the last two feet, setup by Herndon, to bring the Hogs back within a field goal.

Seemed like Ole Miss had all the momentum at halftime after scoring with less than a minute to play. But Arkansas was also due to finally get a turnover. The Hogs need a couple more.

1:11 p.m. — Huge play by Brandon Allen and even more by Javontee Herdon, who caught Allen’s floater near the sideline and carried a tackler to the Rebels 1. Herndon didn’t appear to be covered at all. The safety, Trae Elston, was late getting over in the zone. It’s good if you watch Arkansas every week to see an opposing defense totally lost in pass coverage.

1:09 p.m. — Korliss Marshall with another big gain from the tailback spot, 9 fast yards for a first down.

1:08 p.m. — Arkansas gets just its second turnover in SEC play and first since the Florida game as Alan Turner intercepts a Wallace pass at the Ole Miss 46 yard line. Arkansas brought a linebacker, Braylon Mitchell, on a blitz and Wallace seemed to throw it up for grabs near the Ole Miss sideline. Only Turner was there, and he got a foot down before going out of bounds with the pick.

12:59 p.m. — Halftime — Ole Miss has a 10-point lead on the scoreboard, and not surprising the Rebels have a similar lead in first downs, 17-7. Every stat favors Ole Miss, from nearly doubling the Hogs in total offense (290 yards to 155), with 230 yards passing to 74. Arkansas has rushed better, but only 81 yards on the ground to 60 for Ole Miss, which is without its regular tailback Jeff Scott again. Jaylen Walton has provided some good plays as the backup, but mostly in the passing game. Arkansas’ defense did a great job defending the basic run at times; the pass defense is just woeful against a quarterback with a weak arm. Bo Wallace is 17 of 20, yes, SEVENTEEN OF TWENTY, passing. Walton had two catches for 76 yards. Six players have catches for the Rebels.

Ole Miss even led the time of possession, 18:20 to 11:40.

Brandon Allen is 6 of 10 passing. One was clearly dropped wide open. His best completion was a 17-yard strike to a wide open Hunter Henry for the Hogs’ only touchdown. Arkansas is averaging 6.8 per run, but one of those 12 rushing attempts was a 30-yard run by Korliss Marshall. Six Hog receivers each have one catch, as the Razorbacks have 74 yards through the air.

12:42 20-10 Ole Miss, halftime — Arkansas doesn’t even bother to take one shot downfield. Allen takes a knee and the last 35 seconds run off the first half clock.

12:41 p.m. 20-10 Ole Miss — I don’t know what Arkansas got out of the time out it called on third-and-10 other than lousy defense. giving up completions. At the end of one, a swing toss to the 14 team, Bret Bielema was all the way down there giving heck to the line judge for something (holding not called?). On the next play, Arkansas played man-free (man-to-man on four receivers and a safety deep) with six men blitzing, and safety Alan Turner doesn’t get over to help the corner cover the wide open Laquon Treadwell for the touchdown. The other safety, Eric Bennett was trailing Treadwell; he simply didn’t stay with him at all. Ole Miss scores with 45 seconds left.

The Rebels converted that earlier third-and-10 near midfield when the Hogs tried to get pressure but also had the corners giving up lots of room, and Ja’Mes Logan came back for a 10-yard catch at the sideline and right at the marker. He got a good spot, too, because it appeared he went out of bounds holding the ball a yard short of the line.

So, let’s review: A bad 15-yard penalty on the kickoff for good field position for the Rebels; too safe coverage on the back side, not guarding the sticks on third-and-10, missed tackle or two, missed call or two, inability to get the to quarterback with a blitz and bad coverage on the backside for the touchdown.

Ole MIss has 290 yards of offense in the first half.

Arkansas even has confusion on the kickoff return with Marshal and freshman Drew Morgan colliding. Marshall only gets it out to the 15.

12:36 p.m. — Now Arkansas calls a time out. Right after Ole Miss’ time out. Some coaching going on.

12:35 p.m. — Ole Miss seems discombobulated on offense. It’s third and 10, play clock almost reached :00 before a timeout. Arkansas touchdowns seem to do that as they come so infrequently.

12:33 p.m. — Not sure what Jeremy Sprinkle did, but he was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a kickoff out of the end zone. That allows Ole Miss to start on its 40 instead of the 25. Likely it was probably one of those things where he retaliated, but the second guy always gets called.

12:29 p.m. 13-10 Ole Miss — This may have bee the best set-up drive Arkansas has had on I don’t know when. Even a procedure penalty on Brey Cook didn’t stop it, as Brandon Allen throws 17 yards over the middle to a wide open Hunter Henry. Ole Miss linebackers were totally focused on the running backs and nobody covered Henry. The Hogs covered 80 yards in six plays.

12:27 p.m. —  It’s the Hogs’ triple threat tailback trio in full display. Williams comes in and stiff-arms his way for 18 to the 12.

12: 25 p.m. — Korliss Marshall, back on offense, is the third tailback in the game has has a big run into Ole Miss territory. Marshal looks like the only Hog tailback who could break a big one right now, and this one gets the drive going big, 30 yards to the Rebels 47.

And now Alex Collins with his talent on display, a stutter step around a tackler for a first down run to the Rebels 30.

12:22 p.m. — Linebacker Jarrett Lake makes his best play in a while with a sack of Bo Wallace on third-and-8, a loss of 7 yards back to the Rebels 49 and bringing on punter Tyler Campbell, a Little Rock Catholic product, for his first appearance this season. He b

ooms it out of the end zone.

12:19 p.m. — Darius Philon apparently hurt his leg on a running play inside. He limped off on his own power.

12:18 p.m. — Will someone please cover the secondary receiver on the right side, please? Donte Moncrief is wide open for a 14 yard gain to start the next Ole Miss posession.

12:14 p.m. — Hogs didn’t have any one of five potential receivers open on a third-down-and-5 pass attempt, and Brandon Allen throws it off his back foot incomplete deep near the sideline. He likes to throw off his back foot under pressure, and Ole Miss got a pass rush on him. Sam Irwin-Hill is getting a workout punting.

12:08 p.m. 13-3 Ole Miss — Arkansas was lucky to only give up a field goal, with a good goal line stand inside the 5. Ole Miss got there when Arkansas had a blown coverage on Jaylen Walton slipping out of the backfield and turning a short flat pass into a 51-yard play right through the Hog defenders. Give Eric Bennett credit for making a hard tackle to finally bring him down at the Hogs’ 14 (Bennett’s number, coincidentally).

Another pass to Walton gained 9 to the 5 and the Rebels actually had five plays from there to score a touchdown but failed. Arkansas stopped the run. Ritter converted the short field goal.

12:06 p.m. — And let’s not forget missed tackles. Hogs have Rebels backed up on their 5, and freshman Brooks Ellis missed a tackle in the hole, allowing I’Tavius Mathers to gain 16 yards and get them out of a hole.

12:04 p.m. — Arkansas had 67 yards on 12 plays in the first quarter.

12:03 p.m. — Third and 20, so Arkansas was going to be fortunate to get much yardage for the punter, but Javontee Herndon makes sure they don’t get any by just dropping a short pass over the middle with no one around him. Another story of the season.

Sam Irwin-Hill has a terrific rugby style punt, left-footed, all the way to the Rebels 5, a 58-yard punt.

11:58 a.m. 10-3 Ole Miss, end of one — Arkansas had a nice first-down completion from Allen to Keon Hatcher to the UA 48, but on the next play, Dan Skipper was flagged for holding (he got his hands out and grabbing an Ole Miss jersey of a lineman who flew past him) to negate a nice carry by Alex Collins into OM territory. Hard to make up first-and-20 with this offense. End of the quarter.

On Arkansas’ series, Ole Miss looked very fast in detecting a third-down screen pass, and receiver Javontee Herndon hesitated anyway, and it was a three-and-out before the Ole Miss touchdown drive. Lot of speed on the Ole Miss defense, probably more than what Auburn showed overall.

11:52 a.m. 10-3 Ole Miss — The Rebels cover 82 yards in 12 plays to grab the lead, with backup QB Barry Brunetti sliding behind the line for the final yard. On the previous play, Bo Wallace threw a ball that was a little behind the receiver but Vince Sanders caught with Alan Turner in coverage to the 1. I go back to that play where the freshman UA linebacker couldn’t intercepted a gift right in his hands early in the drive. That seems to spell out the Hogs season right there.

11:48 a.m. — Arkansas should devote an hour of practice each day to its defenders catching footballs. I don’t know how many times this year a pass has hit a Razorback defender in the hands and it’s apparently so shocking to him, the ball just falls to the turf. Brooks Ellis, the freshman linebacker, has one he should have intercepted and

just knocks it down.

That would have given Arkansas a much needed turnover in Rebels territory. Instead, Ole Miss is now moving with three short completions.

And Tevin Mitchel with yet another missed tackle after one of those catches. Ole Miss to the Hogs’ 18.

11:34 a.m. 3-3 — Terrific defense on back-to-back plays for the Hogs. First, safety Eric Bennett is all over Treadwell on a swing pass to the left that was a little behind him, then tackle Demarcus Hodge (he’s coming on too, along with Philon) whips his blocker and dumps QB Bo Wallace for a big loss, forcing a field goal. Andrew Ritter connects from 42 yards, but that was a victory for the Hogs’ defense, make no mistake. 3-3.

11:32 a.m. — I think all teams that are already 0-5 in the SEC should be allowed 12 players on defense. Apparently Arkansas couldn’t get an extra man off the field and it negates a very nice stop on the read-option. Ole Miss is about to score.

11:30 a.m. — I’m not sure what’s wrong with Tevin Mitchel this year, but his tackling at times has been atrocious, and on the kickoff he misses one, allowing Jalen Wallace the opportunity to break a 52-yard kickoff return to the Hogs 47. Defense is under the gun already.

11:26 a.m. 3-0 Arkansas — Zach Hocker delivers from 51 yards to put Arkansas on the scoreboard first after the quick-out-of-the-gate drive stalls after two good plays. Ole Miss figured Arkansas out fast on a first down on the Rebels side of the 50. Robert Nkemdiche  is back healthy, and he got into the Hogs’ backfield on third-and-4 to drop quarterback A.J. Derby for a yard loss. Derby was slipped in there by the Hogs’ coaches, I suppose, to run and not risk Brand0n Allen being hurt again. Meanwhile, Ole Miss is the healthiest it’s been on defense since before the Alabama game. They’ve brought in some great athletes over the past year or two and are closer to a top-level SEC defense when they are healthy. The biggest positive for Arkansas is that it got points on the first possession.

11:23 a.m. — Wow, fast start by Hogs after getting the ball to start the game. Good 11-yard pickup by Jonathan Williams on first down, then a 25-yard strike to a falling-on-his-duff Julian Horton, who disappeared for about 5 weeks. Hogs on the march.

11:22 a.m. — Gosh these 11:21 kickoffs are TOO early. I’m not really ready yet. Ole Miss in red jerseys and blue helmets. I like Ole Miss when it is a blue weekend, not a red weekend, like back in 2001 when Arkansas won in 7 overtimes. Ole Miss splits its schedule into red and blue weekends and wears the appropriate jersey.

11:17 a.m. — Partly cloudy and comfortably cool in Oxford. Looks like the Hogs have mothballed the white helmets for the road this year. Arkansas in its traditional road look finally with red helmets, white jerseys and white pants. None of those red pants either.

Is tradition winning out?

Speaking of winning, Arkansas hasn’t done a lot of that lately. Hogs are out to end a six-game losing streak, five straight in SEC play.