RAZORBACKS’ LOSS: Defense Collapses Late
FOURTH-QUARTER TOUCHDOWN NOT ENOUGH AGAINST NO. 17 LSU
Posted: November 30, 2009 at 2 a.m.
Arkansas tailback Dennis Johnson is tackled by LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson at the end of a big gain on the opening drive of the Razorbacks’ game Saturday in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas defensive end Jake Bequette wasn’t making any excuses Saturday night.
The Razorbacks got everything they needed on offense, scoring a touchdown to take the lead in the fourth quarter in Tiger Stadium. But with 1:12 left, Bequette and the defense couldn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
“They had some time, but we have to stop them there,” Bequette said after the loss. “It was all on us to finish the game off there and we couldn’t get it done.”
Plenty went wrong for the Razorbacks during their 33-30 overtime loss at No. 15 LSU on Saturday. Arkansas’ offense started poorly in the fi rst half and settled for field goals, the Hogs gave up a special teams touchdown and place kicker Alex Tejada missed his fourth attempt to end the game.
But Arkansas’ defense pointed the finger at itself for allowing LSU to patiently piece together an eightplay, 41-yard drive capped by Josh Jasper’s game-tying field goal with nine seconds left. It came a week after LSU struggled during its fi nal drive in a 25-23 loss to Ole Miss and was the second time the Hogs were stung by a late scoring drive on the road.
“Every time you get a game that you should have won it cuts deep,” Arkansas defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard said. “Everybody gave their all and everyone competed. It just didn’t fall in our favor at the end of the game.”
Two screen passes on the drive hurt Arkansas the most.
LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson completed an 8-yard pass to running back Stevan Ridley on fi rstand-10 from Arkansas’ 48. The yardage wasn’t the problem, though. It was that Ridley broke a tackle, then slipped out of bounds to stop the clock.
After a 9-yard run, Ridley got open again and caught another 8-yard pass to set up the field goal attempt.
“We needed to do a better job,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “The first time they threw the running back flare, we needed to get him tackled and keep him in bounds.They didn’t have any timeouts. That would’ve been huge. The second time they threw it to him, we were not in the right coverage.”
The drive ended up spoiling what had been a decent day for the defense.
Arkansas, which had given up big scoring plays in bunches all season, limited the Tigers to 326 yards. LSU’s longest gain was a 24-yard catch by receiver Brandon LaFell. But the end result left Arkansas feeling much like it did after a 23-20 loss to top-rankedFlorida on Sept. 17.
Arkansas tied that game 20-20 in the fourth quarter, but the Gators marched downfield and got in position for a game-winning field goal. As much as Arkansas learned from that experience, it couldn’t capitalize.
Sports, Pages 7 on 11/30/2009
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