TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Arkansas’ trainers, not the Alabama defense, stopped Darren McFadden.

McFadden played one of the best games of his Arkansas career Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium, but he couldn’t finish it.

And possibly because of that, Arkansas couldn’t finish off the Crimson Tide.

McFadden rushed a careerhigh 33 times for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns, but was on the sideline, helmet off, for the Razorbacks final two drives after being knocked out of the game with what Coach Houston Nutt called a slight concussion.

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McFadden’s final run was a 1-yard gain to the Alabama 12 with 9: 25 left in the game, two plays before Arkansas’ final touchdown.

“You know I’d have him in there if I could,” Nutt said. “The doctors didn’t think it would be very wise to put him out there when he has a concussion like that.”

Michael Smith took McFadden’s place. On Arkansas final set of downs, Felix Jones lost 1 yard on first down, Smith lost 1 yard on second down and Casey Dick threw an incomplete pass, giving Alabama a chance for a gamewinning drive.

McFadden bristled, and appeared insulted, when asked how badly he wanted to be out on the field late in the game. “I wanted to go, but at the same time, the trainers told me I needed to stay [on the sideline ],” McFadden said. He made quite an impact during his time on the field. With Arkansas’ offense struggling, McFadden was the only option at times, and he still delivered.

McFadden gained 107 yards in the second half, and carried the Razorbacks, as well as several defenders usually, with him. “All our backs showed a lot of heart, a lot of character,” Nutt said. “Darren McFadden played extremely hard. He earned every yard he got tonight. Every one of them.” McFadden scored on a 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to pull Arkansas within 31-24, but made his most valuable contributions on the next two series. On third-and-8 early in the quarter, he ran for a first down to the Crimson Tide 16, carrying a defender the final 2 yards. He then ran for 12 yards. After Jones lost 2 yards, McFadden ran 5 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 31-31.

McFadden’s 20-yard run kick-started the next Arkansas drive, which would prove to be McFadden’s last.

“Me being the leader, I felt like I had to do the best I could,” McFadden said. “I wanted to do what I could to help the team win the game.”

The heavy workload didn’t have an effect on his performance, or lead to injury, McFadden said.

“We made more big runs in the second half than the first half, so I feel we were wearing them down,” McFadden said. “I felt better running the ball in the second half than I did the first half. We went at them a lot. We were hitting them with 20, 30 yards a carry.”

Jones had a part in gaining big chunks in the second half, contributing a 36-yard run on Arkansas’ final scoring drive. He finished with 96 yards on 16 carries.

“I don’t know what your opinion of a good back is, but I’m going to give you mine,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said. “Five [McFadden ] and 25 [Jones ]. That’s mine.”

Several Arkansas players, including Dick, said after the game that McFadden’s absence in the final series wasn’t the difference in the loss.

It’s likely going to be hard to convince Arkansas fans of that, especially with the Razorbacks coming up one first down from an improbable victory.

“We fought, and we fought, and we fought. We just didn’t finish,” Jones said. “When someone goes down someone else has to step up. We just needed one first down to win the game and we couldn’t get it.”