FAYETTEVILLE - A quarterback passed for three touchdowns Saturday night in Reynolds Razorback Stadium, and it wasn’t Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.
Arkansas redshirt sophomore Brandon Allen, who was questionable during the week because of a shoulder injury, tied his career high with three touchdown passes while setting career highs with 17 completions in 36 attempts for 282 yards in the No. 10 Aggies’ 45-33 victory over the Razorbacks.
Allen had more passing yards and touchdowns than Manziel, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner who completed 23 of 30 passes for 261 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“That was a big lift,” Arkansas center Travis Swanson said of Allen’s return to the lineup. “We have faith in whoever they put out there, but obviously Brandon is the starter for a reason. He just does a great job, and I’m glad we got him back.”
Allen said after the game the loss hurt but that his right shoulder felt fine. He took a few hits but wasn’t sacked.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of pain, really,” Allen said. “Credit the offensive line. They kept me clean mostly the whole game, so I didn’t take too many shots. It was fine the whole game.”
“I felt fine throwing the ball. There wasn’t anything holding me back at all.”
Rutgers rallied to beat Arkansas 28-24 last week when Allen didn’t dress out after injuring his shoulder while diving into the end zone to score a touchdown against Southern Mississippi on Sept. 14.
“Any time you want to be out there with your teammates and you’ve got to be on the sideline watching them, it’s very frustrating,” Allen said. “It’s just something I had to deal with.
“It felt great to be back out there with my teammates and competing again.”
Allen threw an incompletion on his first snap - a rushed pass into the ground to avoid a sack - but quickly showed that he was ready to play after a two-week layoff.
Later in the opening possession, Allen hit Javontee Herndon for a 29-yard gain on third and 7 from the Arkansas 41, then capped the drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Keon Hatcher on third and 6.
“It was like he never got hurt,” said Arkansas freshman tailback Alex Collins, who rushed for 14 times for 116 yards. “He bounced back from an injury and played really well. He got us excited and got us pumped, knowing he could bounce back from an injury like that.”
The Razorbacks finished with 483 yards in total offense - 200 more than they had at Rutgers.
“I thought we did all right,” Allen said. “I thought we moved the ball against them.”
Allen threw two interceptions, the first of which came on Arkansas’ first possession of the second half and was returned by Aggies safety Deshazor Everett 26 yards for a touchdown to give Texas A&M a 31-20 lead.
“They rolled to a coverage late, and I got stuck on one side and tried to force it in there,” Allen said. “That was on me. I told the whole offense, ‘That was my fault, and we’ve got to come back.’ “
Allen led Arkansas on a 75-yard touchdown drive on the next series, including two completions to freshman tight end Hunter Henry for a combined 47 yards.
Henry finished with four catches for 109 yards.
“Hunter’s a big, athletic guy and he’s a mismatch against a linebacker or a defensive back,” Allen said. “He’s a great athlete, and he goes up and makes big plays for me.”
Allen’s other interception came on Arkansas’ final series when they Razorbacks started at their 12 with 2:55 left. Aggies linebacker Steven Jenkins intercepted a pass intended for Herndon.
“They had it covered pretty well,” Allen said. “I tried to back-shoulder it, and I missed my target pretty badly and they were able to make a good play.”
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said after Thursday’s practice that Allen didn’t throw passes in practice all week but revealed after the game that Allen threw in Wednesday’s practice. He rested his shoulder Thursday to see how it would responded.
“He was a little bit sore on Thursday but felt better on Friday,” Bielema said.
Bielema posted on his Twitter account Friday night after Allen medically was cleared to play that he was “back,” but it wasn’t clear at the time if Allen would start.
“I was going to take it all the way up to game time and someone told me, ‘Hey, Coach, if you announce BA is going to play… you might get that crowd a little bit jacked up,’ ” Bielema said. “I didn’t know it had that big a power, so I just give a credit to just good news.”
Allen said he sustained a sprained right shoulder against Southern Miss but that he didn’t take any shots for pain. He said he did take some pain medication before Saturday night’s game.
“Give credit to the training staff for being with me the whole time the things we did rehabbing,” Allen said. “They did a great job and got me back as fast as we could.It was probably the middle of the week that I started feeling good … thought I’d be good enough to play on Saturday.”
Allen said he also wore some extra padding on his shoulder.
“Just a little precaution to tape it down,” he said. “Make it more stable than it would be without.”
Allen had an 8-yard scramble in the second half when he ran out of bounds.
“I really didn’t think about it,” he said. “The shoulder wasn’t going to hold me back from doing anything. If I saw I needed to run, I was going to run.”
Allen said he doesn’t expect any setbacks from playing Saturday night and will be able to start at Florida next Saturday.
“We’re ready to move on with the rest of the season,” he said. “We’ll be ready for Florida.”
Sports, Pages 34 on 09/29/2013