Over the past calendar year, Auburn is a. 500 football team.
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Brandon Allen’s touchdown to Drew Morgan on the first play of the fourth overtime gave the Razorbacks a 54-46 victory and improved Arkansas to 3-4 on the year while dropping a heartbroken Auburn to 4-3. A team that has struggled and underachieved as Auburn had in the first half of the season, you may have felt more trepidation than eagerness on the Tigers’ final possession, their opportunity to tie the game and usher in overtime five.
The Tigers rallied from 14 points down in the first half, and quarterback Sean White led them on a game-tying drive late in regulation – capped by a 41-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson. But former Arkansas offensive coordinator didn’t have the personnel to either counter or execute any of it. Auburn receivers dropped, unofficially, seven passes.
“Today we got a few conditioning in”, Bielema said in his trademark maroon sweatsuit. “Our kids showed a lot of character, a lot of fight…”
Arkansas has had two weeks to prepare a plan for Muschamp that ought to include running right over the Tigers, who are awful in run defense and not much better against the pass. The Razorback defense will have to account for the quarterback running, like it did very well in the 24-20 win at Tennessee; but the Hogs won’t see a difference-maker such as Texas A&M’s Christian Kirk on the Auburn side.
Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn shared his concern for Williams after the game.
After a disappointing first half of the season, Arkansas hopes to rekindle its hopes of a bowl berth with a win this week against Auburn. Their losses come to Ole Miss and a Jacksonville State team that took Auburn to overtime. They just didn’t get it done.
With both defenses starting to establish themselves, a huge fourth quarter connection between the freshman White and Jason Smith put the Tigers deep in the Arkansas red zone, culminating in a Jeremy Johnson punch in and eventually the score being even again. It’s also the first time Arkansas is playing at home since a loss to Texas Tech back in September, the Hogs should be feeling well about playing on their own field in front of their own fans.
Arkansas is just not a good football team right now and has lost four of its last five games.
“Rawleigh underwent successful surgery Saturday night after injuring his neck in the third quarter of yesterday’s game”, said Bielema in a statement. I’ve always had confidence in the guys that we could do it and tonight we just put it together and got the win.
The freshman has 254 yards rushing and a touchdown this season for Arkansas, averaging 4.5 yard per carry.
The Auburn Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks face off at the Donald W. Reynolds Razborbacks Stadium Saturday.
Prediction Arkansas will win with the passing game.
That was the best play of the day, in the best game of the day so far.
Auburn recovered after the slow start to force the overtime and almost won the game in both the first and third overtimes, but the Razorbacks scored on a pair of fourth downs – including Allen’s 6-yard scoring pass to Morgan on fourth-and-3 in the first extra period.
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Asked about Louis’ drop during the fourth overtime, Malzahn said, “Ricardo made two plays to send it to overtime”.
