Hogs' offense doesn't rev up until fourth quarter

Arkansas receiver Jared Cornelius catches a pass during a game against LSU on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Fayetteville.
Arkansas receiver Jared Cornelius catches a pass during a game against LSU on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas football team had 61 yards in total offense after the first half of Saturday night's game against LSU.

Then things got even worse statistically on the Razorbacks' first drive of the third quarter.

By the end of the three plays on offense to open the second half Arkansas was down to 53 yards in total offense.

Quarterback Ty Storey threw an incompletion on Arkansas' first offensive snap, ran for no gain on second down, then was sacked for an 8-yard loss by LSU blitzing safety Grant Delpit on third down.

Arkansas finally was able to put together two fourth-quarter touchdown drives, but it wasn't enough as the Tigers held on to win 24-17.

"I just think at halftime, we just had to find a way to sustain, put some drives together, put first downs together," Razorbacks Coach Chad Morris said. "We were very inconsistent. There were times we were just getting handled a little bit. That's what was happening.

"We had the looks we wanted ... When we would have a crease it would close in a hurry."

Arkansas finished the game with a season-low 216 yards. The previous low was 248 yards in a 24-17 loss to Texas A&M.

"They're obviously great athletes, but they were really disciplined, too," Storey said of the Tigers. "It was hard to get them out of place.

"They all kind of knew what they were doing it looked like, and didn't mess up. We knew going in it was going to be a tough challenge. They have NFL guys all across the board."

The Razorbacks came into the game averaging 378.4 yards in total offense and had a high of 477 in a 37-33 loss to Ole Miss.

Holding down Arkansas was sweet redemption for an LSU defense which allowed 566 yards in a 29-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama last week.

Arkansas had 19 rushing attempts for 16 yards, including Storey being sacked three times for 21 yards in losses.

"They have some really big guys up front, so it's tough to get some movement on double teams," Razorbacks senior guard Hjalte Froholdt said of the running game struggles. "They have some really athletic linebackers, and everyone knows about Devin White, but they're all extremely athletic.

"Whenever we can't really get to linebackers they made some plays. You saw them fly around a lot and make plays in the backfield, and they have a really good back end as well that even if we blocked it up right they fill real quick.

"We had a couple of plays that led to a safety making a tackle when it could have been a big play, but they kept it to no more than 6, 7 yards. It's a really good defense, they fly around and they don't really stop whenever you're on them. They stay active, and as you can see are a run-stopping defense."

Rakeem Boyd -- the only Arkansas running back to have any rushing attempts --gained 30 yards on 10 carries.

"They made us one-dimensional," Morris said.

Story completed 19 of 38 passes for 200 yards and an interception.

"I thought Ty was tough," Morris said. "I thought he played with toughness. He stood in the pocket and he took some hits.

"The grit that he showed kept us in the game, especially late third quarter into that fourth quarter. The pressure they were bringing, we'd seen before.

"I thought there was times they were bringing some delayed pressures on us, but we just couldn't get off and pick them up."

The Razorbacks showed some life offensively in the fourth quarter when Storey and tight end Cheyenne O'Grady connected for two touchdown passes to cap drives of 76 and 75 yards.

O'Grady did a dance in the end zone when he caught his second touchdown catch -- which cut LSU's lead to 24-17 with 5:27 left --

and the 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration helped the Tigers get a 25-yard return to their 41 on the ensuing kickoff.

LSU then closed out the game with a 58-yard drive to the Arkansas 1.

"At that point I got a little too excited," O'Grady said of the celebration penalty. "Definitely out of control.

"It was just a very immature move on my part, and it's definitely not going to happen again."

Sports on 11/11/2018

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