Mississippi State 31, Arkansas 28
November 22, 2008 at 5:51pm by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football, Recap
ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Rally comes up just short
Junior Lucas Miller had a career game for the Arkansas football team with 10 catches and an 87-yard touchdown but despite his efforts and those of the Razorbacks, Arkansas fell to the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss., on Saturday afternoon, 31-28.
Also:
- ESPN.com: Mississippi State halts Arkansas’ nine-game rule
- ArkansasSports360.com: Two-Minute Drill, Harris: Little Brother Stands Tall for Razorbacks Despite Defeat
Razorback Central
- Alex Abrams: Mississippi Blues
- Robbie Neiswanger: Redshirt Freshman Plays Well In First Start
- Vernon Tarver: Frustration Mounts For Arkansas Defense
- Nathan Allen: Fans Undecided On Croom’s Results
- Harry King: Razorbacks Miss Too Many Tackles
WholeHogSports.com
- Tom Murphy: Wide and denied
- Rob Keys: Freshman QB keeps his poise, Catching on nicely
- Chris Givens: Dixon puts it all together, powers Bulldogs, Instant replay
- Chris Cocoles: Tackling trouble plagues UA defense
- Wally Hall: Arkansas’ defense drops ball, deserves blame
- Nate Allen: Home for Christmas
- Terry Wood: Consistent execution eludes Hogs all season
Other Sites and Blogs
- The Clarion-Ledger: Bulldogs dig deep for big win, Wild ending leaves Dogs dazed, relieved
- Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: Bulldogs hang on for victory, No fancy footwork as ‘Dogs run wild
Updated 11/23/08 10:30 a.m.
Yet another missed opportunity!!! These kinds of games just heart breaking! We had 2 missed field goals and could have made the difference. One has to hope that these close games are going to be used to help this team mature next year. Worst part is that BOTH Mississippi teams won today!
Arrggh!!!!!!
How does Miss State score 31 on us. Wow!
Miss States average score this year against SEC opponents is 6.6 points per game. I said this earlier in the year and I will say it again. All I want for Christmas is a new Def Coordinator and a new Special Teams Coach.
My bad math 11 points a game was their average against SEC before today.
The defense looked like it was on fire on the first 2 Miss. St. drives, then just seemed to disappear.
I know Wendel Davis was supposed to have gotten injured, but surely that wasn’t the difference in the game. If it was, then were a heck of a lot thinner at MLB than what I already thought.
We did everything we could do to pull this one out. I just knew Tejada was going to make that FG, but it just wasn’t meant to be I guess.
Our defense has got to improve, and now that we’ve seen them fall apart after having 2 weeks to prepare for the worst offense in the SEC, it seems like the rumers of possibly needing a new D-coordinater are starting to sound pretty valid to me now.
I wonder now if the guy we had already hired, that left for SC, and was Petrino’s first pick, was the guy we really needed to lead the charge.
SC’s defense is much more exsperienced than ours, especially at LB, but one has to wonder how much better the D might have been under his guidence.
Would it have been any better? We’ve been learning a new scheem, and we’ve been beat up almost all year, not to mention the disiplinary problems we had to deal with before the season even started, promting Petrino to kick Fairchild off the team.
Who really knows how deep our defensive problems go. All I know is something has got to change.
I have to admit, Nathan looked pretty good at times.
LSU doesn’t have the pass defense they’ve had in the past, so that makes me wonder, if the Hogs O-line can give him time to set up consistantly, will he be able to lead us to a win over the Tigers.
Even if Nathan and the O-line play well enough to win, will it matter?
We don’t have the horses on the D-line like Ole Miss has, so how in the world are we going to be able to stop the LSU RBs like they did? Look what Miss. St. did to us.
Defense is definately our biggest concern right now, no matter how many points we score.
We gotta get a new Def coord and special teams coach…these areas were abysmal; it’s not necessarily the players, as they’ve played very well at times – when the right defensive plays were called. Our not-so-special teams have been terrible going on 3 years. I don’t think we’ve returned a punt more than 8 yards in 3 years, our punt coverage is inconsistent, and can we please recruit someone that can make a field goal or have a touchback?
Offense is not a problem, as we’ve seen the potential once we build playmakers.
Reason rules on this one
Guys, I’m not on board with blanket coaching changes yet. As it has been mentioned, Willy wasn’t the first choice but it doesn’t mean that he will be a good one. Talk about having your hands tied behind your back from the get go… that’s where I believe that Willy was. Certainly Special Teams hasn’t performed up to expectations either but contrary to the believe that the offensive hasn’t been a problem… that’s total garabage. We’ve struggled all year to put the ball in the end zone on a regular basis. White/Broyles/Houston left us high and dry in many respect (class, character, talent, money, etc.). We need to use this year as a transition year and move forward. That’s what I’m going to do… sitting at 4-7 isn’t what I expected at this point… but we could just about as easily be 7-4 and what I small change it would have taken to get us there. Having said that, I’d bet most would be overjoyed with a 7-4 to this point. If so, with so “little” change or “improvement” would you be willing to call for heads?
Just doesn’t make sense to me at this point (possible after next year but NOT now)!
Sorry Owasso, if you can’t get or motivate your defensive guys to play for a bowl game, you probably shouldn’t be a college def coordinator. He is more folksy than fiery. He couldn’t light a fire under them this year. Nobody is asking for blanket coaching changes and every program makes a few each year. I think Defensive coordinator and special teams should be changed. I just don’t think Willy motivates em to play. May also reflect on his recruiting.
Well this is a 2 way street so we’d better fire the offensive coordinator too cause everything you mentioned about one applies to the other. We got a few great starts but could finish the game putting the defensive in a bad spot.
Let’s just grade them all appropriately and I’m sure we could find plenty of fault.
Not finding fault, seeking improvement. I saw it in the offense, not in the defense.
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but if I remember correctly, didn’t the defense start improving with the Florida game? Didn’t we hold those guys to 17 points before the start of the 4th qrt? Didn’t we keep improving on defense up until the SC game? Isn’t that the game Mitchell and Robinson (our SR. leadership) stayed at home?
I’m all for improvement guys, but as Owasso said, the whole team has had it’s ups and downs.
Part of the reason the defense is inconsistant, IS because of the offense.
There have been times when the offense has looked good, but that is mostly because of some of the big plays they’ve came up with. (example: 70 yard TD pass to Jerious Wright against SC, and an 87 yard pass to Lucas Miller against Miss. St.)
When their not coming up with a big play, their mostly still going 3 and out.Neither one of those is going to let your defensive players catch their breath.
Micheal Smith being hurt, take’s away from your offensive balance, making the offense rely more on big plays.
Mitchell and Robinson being off the team take’s away from the defensive line in many ways. (leadership, playmaking, and depth go right out the door, leaving the responsibility to the young players. Also, Adrian Davis was our best and most consistant D-lineman up until the Ole Miss game, when he got hurt. He’s still playing banged up.
All i’m saying is, let’s give everyone a fair shake guys.
There’s been plenty of problems on this team to go around, but I think the biggest problem we might have is the exspectations that were built up by the fans themselves, myself included.