FAYETTEVILLE — For the the fifth time in the last six Southeastern Conference games at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the Arkansas Razorbacks (5-4, 3-3 SEC) were embarrassed on their own home field Saturday afternoon in a 63-31 loss to No. 19 Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2 SEC).
It was a historic day — in a bad way — for the Ole Miss offense. Quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for 515 yards and six touchdowns, five of which went to receiver Jordan Watkins, who caught eight passes for 254 yards.
Watkins now owns the record for most receiving yards and receiving touchdowns for an individual against Arkansas in program history. Dart's 515 passing yards were good enough to now rank first in Ole Miss program history, as well.
Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green suffered a right leg injury in the first half and never looked right afterwards. He finished out the first two quarters, but was replaced by backup Malachi Singleton for the entirety of the second half.
Here's everything Arkansas fifth-year head coach Sam Pittman had to say after Saturday's loss to the Rebels...
(Opening Statement)
"Obviously give credit to Ole Miss," Pittman said. "Jaxson Dart was incredible. Watkins was -- couldn't cover him. We've got a long way to go, a lot of work to do. Disappointed in the way we played, our kids are disappointed in the way we played. But we're going to have to get healthy, have a good week next week moving on. Very disappointed. I felt like we had them ready to play. Obviously that wasn't the case."
(Was there any indication a loss like this was coming?)
The 58 points allowed were easily the most this season and they were the most in an SEC game since Florida scored 63 on the Hogs in 2020. With nearly 700 total yards of offense and then eight sacks on the defensive side of the ball, the Rebels were about as dominant as it gets.
"No, I mean, we had a really good week of practice," Pittman said. "As good as we've had. So, no, I felt like we had some matchup problems, but I thought we had some answers with it. We were in 3-deep and they ran by us. We were in man, but we were in 3-deep and they ran by us, too. Couldn't get pressure on the quarterback, couldn't get there, either. When we were in man-to-man with some of their receivers they had, Watkins specifically, we were having a hard time guarding him."
(Were you surprised with how long they left Jaxson Dart in?)
Dart's final play of the game was just around the 10-minute mark in the fourth quarter with his team ahead 56-24 and his final play was an 8-yard pass to push his game total to 515 yards through the air.
Some were rubbed the wrong way that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin continued to air the ball out, even with backup Austin Simmons late in the game.
"No, I mean, Lane, I don't have a problem with Lane or what he did," Pittman said. "I don't know if they were trying to get him a record or what the case is, but I don't have a problem with how the game went except for we have an opportunity to stop it and we couldn't."
(Were you surprised by how much they went deep in the passing game?)
Ole Miss took shots down the field consistently throughout the game and three of the five touchdowns for Watkins went for 60-plus yards.
"They were having success with it," Pittman said. "I think in three plays they had two go routes for touchdowns on us, so no, it didn't surprise us. We'd been working go balls all week, but we felt like they would do it, run the hitch, hitch-and-go ... we felt like they would try to attack us like LSU did in their own way of offense, and they did."
(Any update on Taylen Green's health?)
Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green was tackled awkwardly after a 14-yard run near the 5.5-minute mark in the first quarter and he had to be helped off the field into the injury tent. Green returned to the game and quarterbacked the offense for the remainder of the first half, but it was the Malachi Singleton show for the second half.
"Taylen came back when he got hurt, then we worked on him at half," Pittman said. "We didn't know coming out of half if he would be ready to play. We said we were going to look at him throwing and moving. Bobby had him moving front and back and just was gimpy.
"We didn't want to take that chance of getting him hurt further, plus we believe in Malachi putting him in. That was the decision there, it had nothing to do with -- we just didn't want to get him hurt worse by putting him back out there. He was willing. Part of his success has to do with his legs, and he didn't have them, basically."
Green was 10-14 passing for 158 yards along with 16 rushing yards on the ground, while Singleton was 11-14 for 207 passing yards and 1 passing touchdown along with eight carries for 39 yards and one rushing score.
(Ole Miss had eight sacks against you guys today?)
The vaunted Rebels defensive line totaled eight sacks for a loss of 41 yards, plus they logged 13 total tackles for loss in the game.
"A couple of them, we were hot on outside," Pittman said. "They pushed the pocket on us. I think just off of what I saw, I would say there's probably about three of them where the pocket was pushed and then we couldn't get open. We would have had time, you know, to throw it. And then there was about three of them where we whiffed a guy. We got beat on the edge. Totally beat on the edge.
"On one of Taylen's, he got hit in the back, but there was three of them. Probably they had a pick, twist or we were sliding right into it. And how we didn't get that one picked up is, I'll have to look at the film, but we should have because it was three for three in a slide. So, I didn't feel the edge as much. You know, before it was like tackles, defensive ends getting beat one-on-one. I didn't feel that.
"I felt more of the inside twist game that was our problem. And I think we got better as the game went on. But obviously we started horribly for the entire first quarter and for most of the first half, defensively. Well, all the first half defensively."
(Seen a few glimpses of Singleton before today, but how do you think he did today?)
Singleton was tasked with running the offense for the entire second half and he did a fair job, plus he had some big plays called back due to penalty, including a 60-yard touchdown run.
"Well, I think he took control," Pittman said. "I think he went out there and I tell you guys, he made a few passes - he's made throws in there that he let the ball go way before the break and we're right on. Here that last drive, he threw an eight-yard out that, I mean he let that ball go way before the break. He did it several times.
"Obviously, him running the football is a big asset. He's a hard guy to tackle. It's a shame that we didn't have a receiver on the ball on his touchdown run. But I was really, really happy with the way he competed and the guys that were out there offensively, how they competed with him."
(Braylon Russell wasn't 100%. What did you think about Dubinion and Hill? What's Russell's status?)
Arkansas was without Ja'Quinden Jackson for the second straight game, and freshman Braylen Russell was clearly less than 100% after he ran for 175 yards last week at Mississippi State.
Russell ran four times for just two yards Saturday, while Rashod Dubinion led the team with 54 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries. Rodney Hill also returned from a knee injury and had three carries for 16 yards and a touchdown, plus a 29-yard catch.
"I think they ran hard," Pittman said. "Braylen is going to be okay. But I think they ran hard. There wasn't a lot there at times, but I still think they ran hard and tried to get, at times, something out of nothing, which I feel like they did. It got a couple yards on it.
"But we got better running the football when Malachi came in because he was threatening them with a zone read. But Rodney, to see him score, to answer the question, to see him score, and he ran hard. To get him back, that'll help us down the road as well. And R-Dub started the football game and ran extremely hard."
(Did early pass interference penalties affect anything with the secondary?)
Arkansas was flagged for 10 total penalties in the game, six of which were by the defense. Of those defensive penalties, four were pass interference calls and two were on the first drive of the game for Ole Miss.
"You know, when you're fragile, and I think we're a little fragile there, I think we are," Pittman said. "We don't have as much confidence there as what, you know, we need to have. But at the same time, confidence builds with success, you know, having success. So anytime that happens early, I think that would affect the way that you feel like you can cover because you go in there and different guys call it differently.
"You know, sometimes you can be ultra aggressive and get away with it and sometimes you can't. So to answer your question, possibly, I have to look at the film, but possibly that could have played a part of it. But cutting people wide open had nothing to do with pass interference. We've got to figure that out."
(What do you think of their pass rush?)
Ole Miss entered the game 2nd nationally with an average of 4.3 sacks per game and they had 10 just last week against Oklahoma.
"They play 10 guys (on the defensive line) probably somewhere around there," Pittman said. "Very very talented. A lot of things happen with sacks too when you can cover and you can man cover. They got some good corners. Hard to get open at times if you noticed more today we had some success throwing the football against zone coverage and we were finding holes in there.
"But I think to answer your question, they were really really talented and good and they stayed fresh, they’ve got good line games, they’ve got pick games. If you get behind on them, they’re very good against our rush trying to rush the football they put you in longer situations and it makes it very very difficult to protect him because they’re very very talented."
(Good time for bye week?)
Arkansas entered its first bye week of the season fresh off a 19-14 upset win over Tennessee back in early October, but the Hogs won't be carrying that type of momentum into an open date next weekend with a matchup against Texas next up on Nov. 16.
"Well I like the two open dates, I do," Pittman said. "I think especially with our depth not being quite as big at the end of the year, I like the two open dates. I think obviously we need it. You can look at it two ways — you’re just so mad that you want to get back out there and get the nasty taste out of your mouth in a week's time or you say, ‘Hey, we can’t fix it in a week's time we need more time.’
"That’s how we’ll look at it. We need a little bit more time. We have Texas, Louisiana Tech and Missouri left. So I like our team and obviously I wish we would’ve won today. We talked a little differently than what we’re going to talk. What that meeting was in there was certainly different than what we all wanted it to be."
(The defense was good the first eight games last year and then went downhill a bit. Similar this year?)
Arkansas fielded a solid defense for the first half of the 2023 season, but then allowed 36 points to Florida, 48 points to Auburn and 48 points to Missouri in the final three SEC games of the year.
After another solid start to the season from defensive coordinator Travis Williams' group — remember the five turnovers at Auburn on Sept. 21 — the Hogs have seen the defense struggle in three straight games against LSU, Mississippi State and now Ole Miss.
"Well, I mean each team is different," Pittman said. "I know what you’re talking about in that we’ve played really well and then we haven’t. I understand the question and I think it’s a fair question. But teams are different. We probably have to go back and look at that in the off week took and go ‘OK, are we showing our hand?’ What are we doing here? Because obviously Lane and them had something today.
"I don’t know if it was the alignment of the D-linemen. But he didn’t play a whole lot of fastball. It was see what we’re giving, check. And him and T-Will were having a check to check. And obviously they won. So I think we do have to go back to look at that, because if you look at even last week, we didn’t play … minus the turnovers we gave up about 500 yard last week too. I believe in our kids and I believe in our coaches. We’ll go look at it and see if we can’t get it fixed. I believe we can."
(What message did you want to get across to the team in the locker room?)
It's safe to say that it likely wasn't a pleasent postgame locker room speech for Pittman.
"I just told them that we got out-played, out-coached, out-physicaled," Pittman said. "And that we’ve got three games left. And if we can win each one of them we can hold our head up and go on to whatever bowl. I told them that we can’t have 80 that are going to go fight and 20 that don’t. I told them if we’re not willing to fight now then we won’t for the rest of our life. But if we do, we’ll fight the rest of our lives.
"I like this team. I hate that we got beat. I hate it for the university. I hate it for the state. But I do like this team. I know I’m gonna catch Hell for that, but I do. I like the kids. I think they’ll come back and fight and correct a lot of things that were wrong today, if we physically can do that, which we can. And come back and give a good showing when we go out there and play Texas the next time that we’re out there."
- CB
- OLB
- DT
- SDE
- WR
- S
- C
- SDE
- ILB
- DT
