OXFORD, Miss. — Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee was grabbed by an Ole Miss fan as he walked happily toward the press box elevator late Saturday afternoon at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The guy wanted to know how Arkansas had lost any conference games this season.

“I said, ‘Well, we were ahead in all three of them. We ought to be undefeated,’” Lee said.

Instead, a down-on-its-luck Arkansas team was winless in SEC action before Saturday when it called on equally frus trated Ole Miss.

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Arkansas dominated, taking out the frustration of its pain ful SEC start with a 44-8 victory against the Rebels, who played punching bag to the hilt. Just about everything went right for Arkansas (4-3, 1-3 SEC ) in front of a well-under-capacity crowd of 52, 671, which resounded with more Hog calls than Ole Miss cheers after the Razorbacks took control early.

“We’ve done a good job of staying together, one heartbeat, one focus,” Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. “We had the theme of this is a new season and it starts in Oxford.... We came out and jumped on them.”

Arkansas won its fourth in a row against the Rebels and has taken five of the past six in the series.

Arkansas scored touchdowns on its first three possessions, Darren McFadden and Felix Jones each rushed for 100-plus yards, Casey Dick threw three touchdown passes, the defense made four interceptions and five sacks, and the Hogs kept their foot on the gas all game.

“It’s just like anybody, you know, you get them down and just keep pounding on them, eventually their spirit is going to leave,” said McFadden, who had 110 rushing yards for his sixth 100-yard game of the season. “I felt like that’s what we did to them.”

Ole Miss (2-6, 0-5 ) had hung in tough against SEC heavyweights Florida, Georgia and Alabama, but the Rebels looked hapless in their inability to slow the Arkansas running game on a brilliant fall afternoon. The Razorbacks blasted for 293 yards on 54 carries and racked up 437 total yards.

“You just kill their spirit when you’re running the ball, beating them up like that,” Arkansas guard Robert Felton said.

“We did not come to play out there, and I have to take the blame as the head coach,” Ole Miss’ Ed Orgeron said. “They got out fast in the first series. It was really ugly.”

It clearly wasn’t Ole Miss’ day. A halftime fireworks display apparently hit a power line and knocked power out on campus, including the JumboTron, the referee’s microphone and video message boards around the stadium.

Arkansas led in the fourth quarter of all three of its SEC losses but had this one in the bank before the final period started.

“We’ve got a good team,” Nutt said. “We could easily be 7-0 or 6-1. I know it doesn’t sound right, but it’s true. We lost some tough games.”

Arkansas went the first six weeks of the conference season neither creating breaks nor benefiting from sheer good fortune. But the Razorbacks flushed away those demons by stopping an impressive-looking Ole Miss drive to open the game, then driving 68 yards in four plays to seize the lead.

McFadden ran for 30 yards on a third-and-10 draw play to give the series a jolt. Jones burst off right tackle on the next snap, powering 38 yards for a touchdown.

“When our power play is working off tackle, everything’s good to go,” Lee said. “If we can run the power, we’re going to give people fits. When we can’t, it’s a hard afternoon for us.”

The Razorbacks gave the Rebels fits in this one. Jones had 101 yards rushing and two touchdowns as he and McFadden broke the 100-yard barrier together for the fifth time this season and the ninth time in their careers.

Ole Miss quarterback Seth Adams was hit early — on Jamar Love’s 6-yard sack on a third-down snap from the Arkansas 25 on the Rebels’ first series — and he was hit often. His timing and his aim were off, and he appeared to start worrying more about pressure than finding open receivers.

“I have to give credit to our defensive line,” said Arkansas cornerback Matterral Richardson, who had two of the team’s four interceptions. “They made [Adams ] do some things we hadn’t seen him do on film.”

Arkansas jumped up 14-0 after Jones ’ second score, an 11-yard burst at left guard on a WildHog handoff. But the Rebels were on the move inside Arkansas territory when defensive end Adrian Davis stepped inside a swing pass intended for BenJarvus Green-Ellis and returned it 27 yards to set up the Hogs’ third score.

“We did a great job of sacking them and keeping them behind in the count,” Nutt said. “We intercepted the ball today.”

Love finished with two sacks, and Weston Dacus, Marcus Harrison and Malcolm Sheppard had one each.

“How many sacks did we [allow ]?” Orgeron said. “I don’t have it here, but we gave up sacks all over the place.”

Arkansas turned into a third-down conversion machine, converting 10 of 15 third-down chances and scoring on each of its first three possessions while Dick threw like a man possessed.

When Dick hit Andrew Davie with a clever 1-yard play-action touchdown throw with 14: 04 remaining in the second quarter, the Razorbacks had built a 21-0 lead.

Dick’s streak of 19 consecutive completions at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, dating to 2005, finally came to an end on a play-action throwaway out of bounds in the final 30 seconds of the first half.

The Razorbacks left the Rebels as the last winless team in SEC play.

“Winning’s the cure for everything,” center Jonathan Luigs said. “You get back into feeling good, singing the fight song on the road, that makes everyone feel good.” Game sketch

Arkansas scored touchdowns on its first three series to crush the Rebels’ spirits. The Razorbacks defense had five sacks and intercepted Ole Miss quarterback Seth Adams four times. Arkansas had 293 rushing yards and outgained the Rebels 437-294. RECORDS Arkansas 4-3, 1-3; Ole Miss 2-6, 0-5 STARS Darren McFadden and Felix Jones struck again, each rushing for more than 100 yards in the same game for the fifth time this season. Casey Dick had his second three-touchdown game in Oxford, completing 11 of 17 passes for 96 yards. TURNING POINT Jamar Love’s sack of Seth Adams on the game’s first series turned a 42-yard field-goal try into a 48-yarder that Joshua Shene missed. After Darren McFadden ran 30 yards on third-and-10 and Felix Jones went 38 for a touchdown on the next play, this game was the Razorbacks’. KEY STAT Arkansas converted 10 of 15 third-down plays to keep the game under control. UP NEXT Arkansas hosts Florida International (0-6 ) for homecoming.