AUBURN, Ala. — What Arkansas presented to Auburn’s defense hardly qualified as a surprise attack.

Every Auburn coach and defender knew the Razorbacks would rumble into Jordan-Hare Stadium believing their only chance to win was to run the ball. So the Tigers spent the week preparing heavily to stop the run.

By the time the secondranked Tigers left the field sullen and silent Saturday, they had experienced one surprise — that their previously confident, quickstrike defense had been abused in a 27-10 Arkansas victory.

Unranked Arkansas made the upset possible by trampling Auburn for 279 yards rushing.

ADVERTISEMENT

“That’s terrible,” defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks said. “We knew coming in they were going to run the ball. I guess we didn’t stop it, did we ?”

Let Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville answer that one.

“We didn’t come close to stopping it,” Tuberville said.

A little perspective: Auburn entered the game third in the SEC and 23 rd nationally in run defense and had allowed its first five opponents just 441 yards rushing. Auburn was one of two teams nationally that had not allowed a rushing touchdown, the other being Michigan. Arkansas scored two on the ground.

Auburn had held 23 of its previous 30 opponents to fewer than 20 points. No team had rushed for more than 250 yards on Auburn since 2002 when Arkansas rolled up 426 on the same field.

“It was really encouraging to be able to run the football when we had to and they knew we were going to,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said.

Trying to run outside on Auburn is difficult because of the defense’s speed. Arkansas ran right at the Tigers.

The offensive line opened holes between the defensive linemen and neutralized Auburn’s smallish linebackers, locking on to them with blocks and not allowing them to use their speed.

“It’s hard to swallow when you get beat by a more physical team,” Tuberville said.

Marks said Arkansas “dominated the line of scrimmage.”

Running backs Darren McFadden, who had 145 yards on 28 carries, and Felix Jones, who gained 104 on 13, also took advantage of Auburn’s speed with cutbacks.

Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said he “tried everything.” He changed up the sets and, in the second half, put bigger players on the field at some positions.

Muschamp took the blame for the loss and said he should have played more base defense. Arkansas’ two big scoring plays came when Auburn blitzed.

“We knew the No. 1 thing they had to do coming into the game was run the ball,” Muschamp said. “They just played Arkansas football. They were the same running plays we prepared for.”

Somebody asked Muschamp if he was surprised that Arkansas didn’t have freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain do more than throw a few passes and hand off the rest of the day.

“They didn’t have to ask him to do much,” Muschamp said, irritated by the question. “They were jamming it down our throat.”