Hogs squander chance against Mississippi State, 28-21

Luck was on Arkansas’ side, perhaps for the first time all season, but it still wasn’t enough to knock off No. 16 Mississippi State Saturday afternoon in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium as the Razorbacks fell to 4-7 overall (1-6 SEC) and out of bowl contention, 28-21.

Any mojo the Hogs had was squandered with 3:01 remaining in a 21-21 game at the Arkansas 44-yard line when the call was to go to La’Michael Pettway on a post pattern. That is believed to be the pattern, anyway. Pettway’s route was interrupted from the start. This was a drive Arkansas had to have, but at the same time the wind would have been to punter Blake Johnson’s back…

As predictable as Arkansas’ play calling was during the game, few would have guessed Arkansas would have done something like that in such a critical situation. The play before, leading receiver Jonathan Nance was injured on a wildcat play or he would have been the player running the pattern.

“Unfortunately, J-Nance was the guy that was supposed to be in there, and he had to get out because of the injury. Thought we had a real good shot,” Bielema said after the game. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep swinging, keep fighting and obviously that was an example of it.”