Arkansas Football: 3 takeaways from Hogs’ heartbreaking loss to Ole Miss

The Arkansas football team faced one of the best offenses in the SEC when they played Ole Miss this week

Ole Miss quarterback and Heisman hopeful Matt Corral torched the Arkansas football team in a heartbreaking 52 to 51 loss during Week 6 of college football.

The Razorbacks got off to a first quarter lead on a 5 yard KJ Jefferson run, putting the Hogs up 7-0. However, Ole Miss came roaring back in the second quarter, putting up 21 points at a feverish pace, giving the Rebels a 21 to 14 halftime lead.

Fortunately, No. 13 Arkansas was able to match the fire power of No. 17 Ole Miss’ offense in the second half. In fact, the Razorbacks out-scored Ole Miss 37 to 31 in the third and fourth quarter.

The last score of the game was the most important. With Arkansas trailing 45 to 52 in the fourth quarter, the Hogs were able to score with no time left on the clock in the fourth quarter, making the score 51 to 52.

Head coach Sam Pittman elected to go for the two point conversion and the win. The play was unsuccessful and with no time remaining, the game was over.

The Razorbacks are now 4-2 on the season after losing last week to Georgia and Ole Miss this week.

The real story of this game was the Arkansas defense’s inability to stop the offense of Ole Miss, particularly on fourth down. Ole Miss successfully converted four out of five fourth-down conversion attempts.

Here are three takeaways from a hard-fought Arkansas football game.

No. 1 Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral tamed the Arkansas Defense

The Barry Odom-led defense had no answer for this high-octane Ole Miss offense. In fact, it was the worst defensive performance of the season for the Razorbacks. Entering this game, the most points the Razorback defense had given up was 37 to Georgia.

Against the Rebels, Arkansas gave up 611 total yards, including 324 yards on the ground.

Corral had another impressive outing to add to his Heisman résumé.  The junior quarterback was 14 of 21 passing for 287 yards and two touchdowns. He also carried the ball 15 times for 94 yards, scoring two touchdowns. He threw zero interceptions which is a stark contrast from last season when he threw six interceptions against Arkansas.

Corral made the Hogs pay on two different occasions with two 60+ yard bombs, both of which led to touchdowns in the first half.