Auburn at Arkansas Live Blog powered by Jim Harris. The stage is set. It is Razorback game day as the Hogs take on the Auburn Tigers and Gus Malzahn in Fayetteville. Here we go.
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It’s game day people! Let’s have a blast!
9:39 p.m. 35-17 Auburn, final — Wrapping it all up here from Reynolds Razorback Stadium ….
Alex Collins was shaken up late in the game at the end of an 8-yard carry in which he also fumbled, but UA coach Bret Bielema said in the post-game interview that he believed Collins was all right.
Worn out was probably the real culprit. Collins and Jonathan Williams were outstanding in leading Arkansas’ running game, which nearly matched Auburn’s SEC-leading rushing attack. The Hogs totaled 222 rushing yards to Auburn’s 233, Auburn average 5.1 yards per carry to the Hogs’ 4.7 per rush.
Brandon Allen bounced back from his first-quarter leg gash, which the UA training staff stapled shut, to complete 10 of 22 passes for 112 yards. OK, not great numbers by a longshot, but considering what Allen went through to get back on the field, it’s admirable. He was not intercepted for the first time in SEC play.
However, his backup, A.J. Derby, was intercepted and lost a fumble on consecutive possessions for the Hogs while Allen was absent, and that’s one of several areas that the Hogs, the staff and the fans can point to as the keys to Auburn winning and Arkansas losing.
Auburn made the plays; Arkansas didn’t make the plays.
The Hogs also failed to score a touchdown with four snaps from the Auburn 4-yard line, including back-to-back rushing attempts by Jonathan Williams from the 1-yard line. Bret Bielema said later the Hogs did not get the backside linebacker cut off on those plays, while Auburn’s defensive front did a great job of getting low underneath the Hogs’ blockers on the right side.
Arkansas had two offensive pass interference penalties that wiped out big third-down gains. Despite that, Arkansas had one of its best days in quite some time on third downs, converting 9 of 16.
Maligned receivers seemed to get the message during the off week to perform or move aside. Sophomore Keon Hatcher, in particular, was perhaps at his best in his brief career.
Brooks Ellis got his first start at middle linebacker. Afterward, Bielema was regretting not getting the Fayetteville freshman onto the field sooner in the season.
The defensive backs still had a gut-punch breakdown, giving up a touchdown pass that all but clinched the game for Auburn, though Arkansas gamely battled back in the third and fourth quarters to close to within 11, 28-17. The Arkansas defensive line was not strong enough to command any double-teams from the Auburn O-line, which was a major factor in Auburn rushing for 233 yards, though that was 82 yards below the Tigers’ per-game average.
Tre Mason scored four touchdowns and rushed for 168 yards on 32 carries to lead the Tigers. Sammie Coates outfought the Hogs’ Tevin Mitchel on a pass that he turned into an 88-yard scoring play. Mitchel had bump coverage on Coates, didn’t bump him, didn’t knock the ball away when he was in position to do so, and didn’t get the receiver down after the catch.
Arkansas’ safeties didn’t tackle as well as needed.
An onside kick attempt right after the Hogs had finally gotten on the board for the first time in eight quarters was a complete failure, even though the Hogs had the numbers and Bielema thought it was a good gamble. The problem: Jeremy Sprinkle was offsides.
So, Arkansas made just enough mistakes to doom the Hogs to their fifth loss in SEC play. They create no turnovers but they cough the ball up — three on Saturday night. That’s a losing proposition when you’re already behind the eight-ball in ability.
But anyone who watched Saturday can’t say the Hogs were outrageously outmanned the way they had been the past three games.
There was something positive about it, some improvement detected, and the players seemed to reflect that in the post-game comments.
Auburn moved to a surprising 8-1. But the Tigers seem to be a little bit of a pretender when compared to the likes of Alabama or South Carolina.
And that’s where we are as we look ahead to Oxford and Ole Miss and The Grove next week.
Be sure to catch us on KTHV, Channel 11, at 10:30 p.m. on the “HogZone Super Saturday” with Michael Smith and Mark Edwards and a surprise or two, and catch me as well on KABZ-FM The Buzz at 11 a.m. Tuesday with Justin Acri and again on Channel 11 on Wednesday at 6:50 p.m. as we talk more Hogs.
7:44 p.m. 35-17 Auburn — Tigers offense is Auburn’s best defense — something we thought Arkansas might be able to manage this season, frankly, until the lack of big play receivers and Allen’s injury problems surface — and the Tigers march 75 yards in nine running plays to reestablish their 18-point edge.
The key play comes on a third-and-10 from the Arkansas 11, following a delay of game penalty, when Tre Mason takes a delayed read handoff from Nick Mason with flow going right, cuts it back around end to the left where Arkansas has no containment, and he easily dodges strong safety Alan Turner and hits the left pylon on a 12-yard run for the score.
Arkansas’ defensive line does not invite or require double-teams and Auburn’s line is getting to the second level, allowing lots of room to roam for Tre Mason, who now has four touchdowns on the day.
Arkansas is three scores down with 10:17 to play.
7:34 p.m. 28-17 Arkansas — Hogs waste little time in the fourth quarter getting on the board again on a 2-yard blast by fullback Kiero Small.
7:27 p.m. 28-10 Auburn, end of third — It seems like the game’s a lot closer the way the crowd is into it and the way you can feel the momentum swinging Arkansas’ way.
Bret Bielema absolutely trolled Gus Malzahn at the end of the third quarter, running a swinging gate formation and faking a field goal attempt, getting a first down at the Auburn 2 as the time was expiring.
The Hogs have had a lot of players step up on this drive, starting with Keon Hatcher and the hard-running backs. And Auburn’s pass coverage has suddenly turned just downright awful with two ridiculous interference calls. The last one was an outright tackle of Javontee Herndon in the end zone on an Allen pass attempt.
But what a classic fake field goal. Everybody in the press box is still laughing about it.
If you want to know more in the Bielema-Malzahn deal and were asleep all week, read more on this site about it.
Auburn has yet another defensive player hurt in the end zone in the process, too. Or maybe he was faking. Seriously. One minute, Anthony Swain is just standing walking from the sideline back to the defensive huddle, several moments after the fake field goal play, and then he just suddenly drops to the ground holding his leg. We’ve heard about boxers having delayed reactions to knockout punches, but nothing quite like that.
Maybe it was Malzahn trolling Bielema, having his players fake an injury to slow Arkansas’s no-hurry up, huddle offense.
7:19 p.m. — Keon Hatcher has decided he’s going to play big tonight. Hatcher makes a solid third-down catch over the middle, knowing he was going to get walloped. Arkansas moves the chains.
And the Hogs move it again after an 11-yard carry on a direct snap and sweep by Alex Collins around right end to the Auburn 49.
