Treylon Burks Had First-play Wide Open for Touchdown ... and Missed

Sam Pittman thought Arkansas' first play against Mississippi State was going all the way for a score but fell incomplete

Sam Pittman didn't waste any time against Mississippi State trying to get a big play from Treylon Burks.

On the first play of the game, Burks came to the right and pulled up to throw a pass to a streaking De'Vion Warren who was in a zip code by himself.

"Oh man," Burks said later laughing. "We repped that all week long and it was money throughout practice and everything. I take responsibility. I didn’t get my feet set. I just didn’t make a good pass, but it’ll get better."

Burks had six catches for 82 yards and added another 39 yards on three rushing attempts in the 31-28 win Saturday.

Treylon Burks loosening up his arm in pregame warmups before Mississippi State / Tred McClenning

There was that missed pass, but Warren's luck wasn't any better trying it later.

"I almost guaranteed we were going to score on the first play of the game," Sam Pittman said after the game. "We were going to fair catch the kickoff. We were going to put it on the left hash and we were going to go up 7-0. It didn’t happen.

"He got behind him, but we just didn’t throw and catch. We knew we had to have creative ways to run the football against Mississippi State."

The Bulldogs were holding opponents to under 90 yards per game on the ground this season. Arkansas' rushing attack hung 202 on them behind Dominique Johnson breaking loose with 107 yards on 17 carries.

Finally, nine games into the season, the Razorbacks seem to have found a workhorse at running back and that they need to get the ball to Burks as often as possible.

KJ Jefferson's growth and maturity has also made a big difference. For an offense that had some much chaos for a couple of years, first Feleipe Franks and now Jefferson have calmed that part down.

Nothing showed it more than when the Hogs went for a first down on a fourth-and-short on the final scoring drive with less than two minutes to play.

Ted McClenning

Jefferson saw Burks was being held and threw the ball into the ground.

Burks knew it was a penalty.

"I knew I had him," Burks said. "He was beat. But his way to get me was to grab me, so I just went with the grab, fell to the ground and it worked."

The result has the Hogs at 6-3 on the season and headed on the road for a couple of games that suddenly appear much more getable (courtesy nod to Ruscin & Zach's trademark phrase on ESPN Arkansas).

Neither LSU or Alabama are invincible this season.

Now all Arkansas has to do is find a way to win.

Dominique Johnson runs through gaping hole for winning touchdown against Mississippi State / Ted McClenning

They didn't get into the polls' Top 25 on Sunday. Auburn (16th) and Wisconsin (17th) are the only three-loss teams that are ranked.

The only ranking that matters won't come out until Tuesday night.

That's the College Football Playoff rankings and, no, the Hogs won't be in the running for one of the final four spots.

But just getting into that Top 25 would be huge for the program.

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