STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II received praise as one of the nation's top players at his position all offseason, but it was Arkansas tailback Ja'Quinden Jackson that stole the show in the first half Saturday during the Razorbacks' 39-31 double-overtime loss against the Cowboys at Boone Pickens Stadium.
The redshirt senior transfer from Utah began the game with a 5-yard score the Hogs, which marked his third rushing touchdown of the season to that point. Jackson rushed 14 times for 90 yards in the first two quarters, and he added two more scores from five and 11 yards out to push his game total to three touchdowns at the halftime break.
By that point, Arkansas held a 21-7 lead over the 'Pokes and the college football world was taken aback by the performance of a Razorback squad that won just four games one year ago.
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Then, the second half started.
"At halftime, we knew they were going to make a rally," Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said postgame. "We knew they were. We talked about they have done it in the past. They're at home, they're a veteran team, we're going to have to go beat them."
A pair of field goals in the third quarter brought Oklahoma State within eight points, while the Cowboys' defense held Jackson to just eight yards on four carries in the period.
Oklahoma State then rattled off two straight touchdowns, plus a two-point conversion, to take a 28-21 lead with five minutes left in regulation. A missed field goal by kicker Kyle Ramsey, a muffed punt by Isaiah Sategna and a turnover on downs by the Arkansas offense all allowed for the 'Pokes to get things going.
"What happened is we just shot ourselves in the foot a little bit," Pittman said. "Seemed like there for a while, maybe 20 minutes of the third and fourth quarter, everything we did was not right. In other words, we were putting the ball on the ground. Snaps. Trick play. Muffed punt. Missed field goal. Seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong during that span of time."
Arkansas was able to tie the game via a 43-yard touchdown connection between quarterback Taylen Green and tight end Luke Hasz with 4:01 to play in the fourth quarter. Green finished the game with 416 passing yards, one passing touchdown, one interception and 61 rushing yards. He's the first Arkansas player to throw for 400-plus yards since Austin Allen did so in 2016.
"He’s a warrior," Pittman said of Green. "He works awful hard... He’s our guy and obviously I’m sure he’d like to have some throws back, he’s like to have some decisions that he made back, but to have 500 yards against a good football team, I think we’ve got a good one there and he’ll continue to get better. And we’ve got to get better around him."
Oklahoma State took a 31-28 lead with a field goal at the 55-second mark in the fourth quarter, but it was again Green with his heroics on a drive that got the Hogs within field goal range for Ramsey, who snuck in a 46-yard game-tying field goal as time expired to send the game to overtime.
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Missed field goals by both teams in the first overtime sent it to a second overtime period, and the Cowboys managed to punch in a 12-yard touchdown from Gordon — his first and only score on the day. The Razorbacks held the nation's leading rusher from a year ago to just 49 rushing yards and 2.9 yards per carry.
"We were trying to make him run east and west, not north and south," Pittman said of Gordon. "So a lot of our games and a lot things we were doing was trying to kick him outside. We knew that if he ever got his shoulders turned on us, that he’d be… He broke 13 tackles last week and he probably broke a bunch today, as well. But that was our game plan on him."
VIDEO: Postgame press conferences - Oklahoma State 39, Arkansas 31 (2OT)
Arkansas took over and couldn't convert on a 4th-and-1 play after running an inside zone handoff to 5-foot-10, 186-pound running back Rodney Hill. Ja'Quinden Jackson, who checks in at 6-foot-2, 233 pounds, was on the sideline due to cramps — something he dealt with for a good bit at the end of the game.
"When we lost our big back, Ja’Quinden, he’s a good player for us when he’s cramping and things that hurts us a little bit," Pittman said. "I thought Rodney did a really good job of coming in and running there. He made a really nice run to get us the first down down there in the second overtime."
Jackson finished with 24 carries for 149 rushing yards, three touchdowns and 6.2 yards per carry. He became the first Arkansas player since Alex Collins (2014) to rush for multiple touchdowns in back-to-back games, as Jackson also had two rushing touchdowns in the season-opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Just about anyone would guess the Razorbacks won the game if you told them beforehand that Arkansas would out-gain Oklahoma State by 263 yards on offense, Gordon would be held to 49 rushing yards, the Hogs would convert 11 third downs and receiver Andrew Armstrong added 10 receptions for 164 yards in his season debut.
"If we'll learn from it and flush it and then come back, I feel like we've got a really good football team," Pittman said. "We can't win games turning the football over. I thought we did a good job on Ollie Gordon. I thought he was as good as we thought he was going to be, but we did a nice job there. For the most part, I thought we did a good job of covering.
"I just talked to them about that (postgame). And I know they're disappointed, but once we get home, we've got to bounce back from this one and head to the next one. It's early in the year. I think we've proved that we've got a good team. We've just got to hang on to the football and we'll win a lot of games."
Arkansas will return home next weekend for the home-opener at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville against UAB on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3:15 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
