All Hogs

Arkansas' Last Line of Defense Had Its Most Difficult Day

Pittman said no matter what the Razorbacks tried against Ole Miss it just didn't work

Bob Stephens

Ole Miss Rebels wide receiver Jordan Watkins gets behind Arkansas Razorbacks safety TJ Metcalf on his way to one of five touchdowns at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
Ole Miss Rebels wide receiver Jordan Watkins gets behind Arkansas Razorbacks safety TJ Metcalf on his way to one of five touchdowns at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images
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Arkansas' defensive backfield is probably feeling pretty defensive right about now. After allowing six touchdown passes in a 63-31 beatdown by Ole Miss at Razorback Stadium Saturday, the UA secondary guys need a minute or two to wrap their heads around what happened.

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman didn't see it coming and UA players surely didn't, but they also couldn't stop the onslaught that resulted in Ole Miss receiver Jordan Watkins tying the SEC record with five touchdown catches and quarterback Jaxson Dart becoming the second player in league history to throw for 500-plus yards and six TDs.

Dart looked like the real deal, a possible NFL starter. In his scintillating performance against Arkansas, Dart broke a record held by the most legendary Ole Miss player ever, the guy who is the patriarch of football's royal quarterbacking family.

You might've thought Eli had the Rebels' record for most total yards in a game. You'd be wrong, but you'd be close. That honor used to belong to the father of NFL legends Eli and Peyton Manning: the estimable Archie Manning.

Watching from afar, Saturday's slaughter was painful to endure. I don't care if you're a longtime Razorback rooter or new to the show. I don't care if you were in the stadium, on your couch somewhere in Northwest Arkansas or anywhere in the Land of Opportunity, that game was tough to take.

Even as a totally impartial reporter during my three decades or so covering the Hogs and pro sports in Denver, I always felt just a bit of compassion and sympathy for a coach and players when they were on the wrong end of this kind of game.

Play long enough and it's likely to happen to everyone. But nobody likes to lose, especially in embarrassing fashion, especially on national TV, especially in front of the home fans. Especially 63-31 when there's not much you can do to stop it.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was ecstatic to see this kind of offensive outburst from his team. The Rebels had humiliated a couple of early-season cupcakes -- opponents who come to Ole Miss knowing they'll lose on the field but are willing to take the big check to show up.

One the Rebs hit conference play, it got tougher and Kiffin's high-powered offense couldn't get out of second gear. They were averaging just 24.5 points a game in their first four SEC games, far below the standards of the coach who has been in high demand for more than a decade while also serving as Alabama's offensive coordinator during their 2015 national championship season.

Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin after game Saturday
Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman shakes hands with Ole Miss Rebels coach Lane Kiffin after the game at Razorback Stadium Saturday. Ole Miss dominated to win 63-31 after taking a 35-10 lead to the halftime locker room. It snapped a five-game losing streak for Ole Miss in Fayetteville and is just the third victory at Razorback Stadium in 16 tries. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Pittman said he knew the Hogs might have some matchup problems -- especially the offensive line against Ole Miss' highly rated D-line studs that'll see some NFL time. And, maybe, just maybe his second trying to contain Dart and his buddies could be a problem.

Seemed the Hogs caught a break when the SEC's best receiver sat this one out with an injury, but that just opened the door for Watkins to shine. Tre Harris' absence should've helped the Hogs -- he leads all SEC receivers with 141 yards per game -- but all Watkins did was nab eight for a startling 254 yards.

Whatever the UA defense tried to stop Dart and the rest of the Rebs didn't work. And they tried just about everything, Pittman noted. Three-deep coverage in the secondary should stop long passes. Blitzing should slow down the quarterbacks' effectiveness. 'Twas not to be on this day, however.

Ole Miss Rebels
Ole Miss Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart (2) rushes in the first quarter against Arkansas at Razorback Stadium Saturday. Dart passed for six touchdowns and kept the Hogs off-balance early with a few designed runs. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

"We were in 3-deep and they ran by us," Pittman said of his secondary. "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."

Two of the last three weeks, the Hogs have struggled to stop or slow down pocket passers. Before Dart, it was LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier who led a 34-10 victory and barely got his jersey dirty

"I think both of them have a lot of similarities," Pittman said. "One of them is we didn’t get pressure on either one of them, so they just sat back there. Even when we tried to pressure, we didn’t get pressure on either one. So that’s going to build their confidence as well.

"Both of them have really good wide receivers and put us in a little bit of a jam at times matchup wise. I told T-Will (Arkansas' highly regarded defensive coordinator Travis Williams), I said 'I don’t care if they rush for 500 yards, we gotta quit getting them behind. We can’t let them get behind us and make him run the football.’ That’s when he went back into soft coverage and unfortunately they ran by us in that today too."

The Hogs' secondary was penalized twice in the first quarter for pass interference. The first flag was against Jaheim Singletary, the second against TJ Metcalf. Then came the bombs over their heads, for 62 and 66 yards to Watkins in a span of 2:03 to break the game open early in the second quarter as Ole Miss jumped out to a 28-3 lead.

"You know, when you're fragile, and I think we're a little fragile there (in the secondary)," Pittman said. "I think we are. 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."

The Hogs have a bye week to figure it out. Then No. 6 Texas and its SEC best defense come to town along with NFL prospect Quinn Ewers at quarterback. Ewers, who makes about $1.7 million in NIL money, was a top Heisman Trophy candidate before getting banged up and missing two games. He returned to the lineup October 12 and Texas had this weekend off.

This will be Arkansas' second bye week, a good break in the schedule that didn't use to happen. Pittman likes the double bye and hopes it helps the Hogs recover mentally and physically.

At halftime of Saturday's game, the SEC Network announcers spent some time talking about how the Hogs' offensive line was having all kinds of trouble holding off Ole Miss' talented defensive linemen.

"I think especially with our depth not being quite as big at the end of the year, I like the two open dates," he said. "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 you’re 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 (in the locker room) was certainly different than what we all wanted it to be.

Pittman said he laid it on the line in the post-game locker room, letting both players and coaches know that they failed as a group and in some cases, as individuals.

"I just told them that we got out-played, out-coached, out-physicaled … and that we’ve got three games left," Pittman said. "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 (players) 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."

Then, he spoke positively about his kids, the players he's been in the trenches with since spring practice, the ones he's believed in because he sees them up close day in and day out and knows how much they've sacrificed to be their best this season -- notwithstanding Saturday's embarrassing result.

"I like this team. I hate that we got beat. I hate it for the university. I hate it for the state," Pittman said. "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."

HOGS FEED:

• Razorbacks Help Unknown Ole Miss Receiver Equal SEC Record

• Ole Miss Quarterback Throws Darts All Over Arkansas Defense

• Razorbacks Drop TCU Scrimmage, Season Opener Wednesday

• Live Blog: Arkansas Razorbacks vs. TCU Horned Frogs

• Arkansas looking to play as positionless as possible

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Bob Stephens
BOB STEPHENS

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