Patience helps UA persevere FAYETTEVILLE — After three long Saturdays in a row, the Arkansas Razorbacks leaped back into the victory column at Auburn by hanging tough when the conditions were rough.

Bobby Petrino has been an aggressor, be it a tight game or a big deficit this season, and the Razorbacks’ go-forit mentality, coupled with a refusal to roll over in the face of adversity, paid off in Saturday’s 25-22 victory at Auburn.

“We needed to get that one big win to know we can play,” said tailback Michael Smith, whose 176 rushing yards were instrumental. “Now, we’re ready to roll.” Not only did Arkansas not bail out on the season after three blowout losses in a row, they didn’t back off after giving Auburn one break after another for much of Saturday afternoon.

“We’re happy that we showed improvement through that four-game stretch and that we were able to keep a great attitude and a good belief,” Petrino said. “The coaches believed in what we were doing, so we didn’t try to change and panic. And our players believed in what we were telling them.” Arkansas gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown just seconds after scoring on its first drive of the game for the first time all year. But the offense just kept plugging away, knocking chinks out of the armor of a rugged Auburn defense.

Quarterback Casey Dick threw two first-half interceptions that were returned deep into Arkansas territory. But the Razorbacks defense put up walls after both turnovers, kept Auburn from notching a single first down and limited the damage to a pair of field goals.

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“My hat’s off to the defense,” Dick said. “They played a heck of a game. I think they really grew this week and came out and played an excellent game.” Dennis Johnson lost a fumble on the second-half kickoff, which Auburn turned into its longest scoring drive of the game, a 24-yard drive capped by Kodi Burns’ 3-yard touchdown run for a 20-10 Auburn lead.

Still the Razorbacks kept on course, not even flinching when a blocked extra-point attempt kept them from pulling within a field goal.

“You look at the caliber of team we just played, and we moved the ball against a good defense,” Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs said. “We were able to capitalize and put it in [the end zone ] and make plays when we needed to.” Run ? Not so much Arkansas anticipated a significantly different Auburn offensive attack from the Spread installed this year, but what they got was much the same system the Tigers had been running.

Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville explained that after firing offensive coordinator Tony Franklin on Wednesday, the coaches could only tinker with the game plan, not make a major overhaul.

He said he didn’t regret the timing of Franklin’s dismissal.

“It wouldn’t have made any difference,” Tuberville said. “We run about the same thing. It was late [in the week ] obviously, and we couldn’t make a lot of adjustments, so we basically stuck with what we put in on Tuesday. There wasn’t a lot of difference.” Arkansas coaches figured they’d be served a diet of twotight end formations, with backs Ben Tate and Brad Lester hammering away behind the physical offensive line. But the Tigers were able to muster only 56 rushing yards on 33 carries, led by quarterback Kodi Burns’ 38 yards.

“Honestly, I was a little surprised at how well the defense played, but we work hard every play,” UA freshman defensive tackle Zach Stadther said.

Auburn players credited the Hogs with using a bunch of different defensive alignments and bringing pressure from various spots. “They blitz, they slant and they do a lot of crazy stunts,” Auburn tight end Tommy Trott said. “Our game plan was to freeze, in order to see where the blitz was coming from and to call the play we thought would work. “ We called quick passes and thought that they would eventually have to play base defense. We thought that we could easily beat them, but we never executed the first part of our game plan.” Injury report Tight end D. J. Williams had the stability of his knees checked late in the first half, and the news must have been decent, because the sophomore returned with a brace on his left knee.

Williams had three catches for 24 yards in the first half, but didn’t catch a pass in the second half.

His catchand-run for an 11-yard gain, with Auburn defenders pounding him from all sides, put Arkansas at the Tigers’ 6 in the second quarter and set up Casey Dick’s 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal. For Kentucky, Arkansas’ next opponent, leading receiver Dicky Lyons Jr. went down with a knee ligament injury in a 24-17 loss to South Carolina and is out indefinitely.

Saving the day Just as he did in a 49-14 loss to Alabama, Casey Dick threw two interceptions in the first half against Auburn. The big difference was that somebody made a touchdownsaving tackle on both of the Tigers’ interceptions, and the Hogs’ defense held up strong and permitted only field goals instead of touchdowns.

Receiver Joe Adams showed impressive speed in tracking down cornerback Neiko Thorpe from behind on a 59-yard return in the second quarter. Adams tried to strip the ball as well, but Thorpe held on.

Dick had the angle on linebacker Josh Bynes and forced him out of bounds after a 31-yard return.

“We had a couple of [interceptions ], one bounced in the air,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “That’s a nightmare when the ball’s in the air that long. You’re pretty sure it’s going to get picked. The greatest thing on that was Casey went and made the tackle and we held them to a field goal.

“ The greatest thing on the other pick is that Joe Adams showed great effort, ran it down and we did a great job there on defense. It was certainly a team win.” What’s in a name The play that resulted in a touchdown pass from receiver Joe Adams to quarterback Casey Dick, which Arkansas had been practicing for weeks, has a clunky name but a smooth operation. “We call it Six-pack left, Z half, six pack,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “You want to try to get a six pack [six points ].” Check, mate Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick had a couple of options as he stepped to the line on second-and-5 from the Razorbacks’ 37 with the Hogs trailing 20-19 midway through the fourth quarter.

He checked into the running play that became Michael Smith’s 63-yard run up the middle for the winning touchdown.

“It was a check for an outside zone and the offensive line did a great job of getting to their man and locking horns and gave me enough room to get into the secondary,” Smith said.

“They do a lot of different things up front, so we gave him a couple plays to call, and then he got to the touchdown run,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “We call it an outside zone play or outside stretch play.” Smith read the blocking, hit it up inside, got a key block from center Jonathan Luigs and made a defender miss in the hole. Once in space, Smith outran safety Zack Etheridge, then twisted up two Tigers at the 17-yard line with a nice juke, even as both of his legs were cramping.

“I was cramped up and I didn’t know who was behind me and how close they were,” Smith said. Third-down threat Arkansas converted 8 of 17 third-down plays, easily the highest percentage Auburn had allowed all season. The Tigers entered the game allowing just 17 of 93 third-down conversions (18. 3 percent ), the best figure in the country.

“We executed; we did a nice job,” Razorbacks Coach Bobby Petrino said. “We had a pretty good game plan. We had good protection.

“ I was real happy with our offensive front because that was a big concern coming in. Their ‘D’ front is very, very good, very active, very well coached, and our offensive line did a nice job on protection.” Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said Arkansas didn’t make any mistakes in the second half, “other than the opening kickoff.” “They made a lot of third-down conversions in the game overall and of course the [Smith ] run was huge.... It was a little perplexing,” Tuberville said.

Information for this article was contributed by Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. PLAYERS OF THE GAME OFFENSE Michael Smith Michael Smith put the Razorbacks on his 5-7 frame and delivered a huge road victory at a critical time with his 176 rushing yards and 232 all-purpose yards. Smith’s 63-yard touchdown run up the middle was just what the doctor ordered for a team desperate to strike from long distance. He needed to take fluids intravenously after a 21-carry first half, but was still running strong after halftime.

DEFENSE Adrian Davis Defensive end Adrian Davis didn’t get the start, but boy, did he finish. The junior had the best game of his career, with an overpowering second half that included three sacks, one credited for 18 lost yards due to intentional grounding, a forced fumble and an interception. Davis should have a decent shot at SEC defensive player of the week honors.