LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas lost quarterback Tyler Wilson in the first half, then the No. 8 Razorbacks saw their national championship hopes almost certainly dashed in overtime as Louisiana-Monroe pulled off a stunning 34-31 victory Saturday.
Quarterback Kolton Browning, who passed for 412 yards, applied the final blow, a 16-yard scramble for a touchdown on fourth-and-1 in overtime.
The Warhawks’ sideline erupted and their players stormed the field as they defeated Arkansas (1-1) for the first time in 10 tries and snapped the Razorbacks’ 20-game winning streak in nonconference games at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
“I’m shocked and I’m mad at the same time,” Arkansas linebacker Tenarius Wright said.
“They outplayed us, they outcoached us and they won the game,” Arkansas Coach John L. Smith said. “We couldn’t get them off the field. [Browning] made play after play after play.”
Wilson came out late in the half with an injury described as “above the shoulders.”
The Warhawks, who col- lected a $500,000 payday to go along with their first victory over a ranked team since moving to Division I-A in 1994, improved to 4-34-1 against SEC competition with their first victory over an SEC team since defeating Alabama 21-14 in 2007.
“There’s elation that comes with a win,” Warhawks Coach Todd Berry said. “I really felt that we were going to come in and play well. We were able to mitigate a lot of those things that tend to plague that first game. We played a relatively clean game.”
The victory was not a fluke, as the Warhawks outgained the Arkansas offense 550 yards to 377.
Browning completed 42 of 67 passes and 3 touchdowns, ran for a team-high 69 yards, suffered 3 sacks and accounted for 481 yards of total offense.
The Warhawks had just one turnover, Ross Rasner’s interception at the goal line in the first quarter, and made two interceptions.
Arkansas blew a 28-7 thirdquarter lead and suffered a rash of injuries that decimated their cornerback corps and forced freshman quarterback Brandon Allen to play the entire second half.
Wilson passed for 197 yards and two touchdowns before his injury late in the first half. Starting cornerbacks Kaelon Kelleybrew and Tevin Mitchel were knocked out of the game, Kelleybrew with a right arm injury and Mitchell on a helmet-to-helmet collision that hushed the crowd and sent him off to the hospital on a stabilizing board. Fullback Kody Walker suffered a leg injury and also had to be carted off.
Smith rattled off a litany of reasons for the upset.
“We didn’t play well enough in the front,” he said. “We didn’t protect well enough. We didn’t catch the ball. We didn’t run the ball, when we had to run the ball. We didn’t tackle when we had to get them off the field. We didn’t cover.”
The Razorbacks especially struggled with the Warhawks’ frenetic blitzing pressure with Allen under center. Wilson beat the pressure with touchdown passes of 20 yards to Julian Horton and 39 yards to Cobi Hamilton and a 61-yard throw to Mekale McKay that set up a Knile Davis touchdown for a 21-7 halftime lead.
Allen led a touchdown drive on his first series — a 66-yard drive that ended on his 13-yard scoring pass to McKay — but the Warhawks seized command after that. Arkansas had just one first down in the final 24:42 of regulation — on a 19-yard Davis run — and its only first down in overtime came when Louisiana-Monroe was called for holding call against Hamilton.
“We came out and did some things the first half, had a nice first drive of the second half, and then we just didn’t do anything worth a darn after that,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “That starts with me and we’ve got to get better.”
The Warhawks converted four fourth-down plays in the second half to keep scoring drives alive. Their last three touchdowns all came on fourth-down calls, including a 23-yard pass from Browning to Brent Leonard on fourth-and-10 to tie the game at 28-28 with 47 seconds left in regulation.
Arkansas moved to midfield after that, but Allen’s pass was tipped by two players and intercepted by DaCorris Ford to end the threat.
Zach Hocker’s 37-yard field goal gave Arkansas a 31-28 lead in overtime, but the Warhawks carried their second-half momentum into their possession.
Facing fourth-and-1 from the 16, Browning took a shotgun snap, looked quickly downfield, then raced out of the pocket to his right. With no Arkansas defenders on that side, Brown easily swept inside the right pylon for the winning score.
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/09/2012