LITTLE ROCK — Another case of last-play heartbreak Saturday left Arkansas winless in Little Rock in this endless struggle of a season for the Razorbacks.
Bryson Rose kicked a 31-yard field goal at time ran out to give Mississippi a 30-27 victory over Arkansas before a crowd of 55,378 at War Memorial Stadium .
The Razorbacks (3-5, 2-3 SEC) lost both their games at their second home on the final play in the same south end zone, with Rose’s kick joining Louisiana-Monroe quarterback Kolton Browning’s 16-yard run on fourth down in overtime as Hog-dropping efforts.
“The last two trips down here have just been miserable, so it’s a tough loss,” Arkansas safety Ross Rasner said.
“We ran out of time,” said Arkansas receiver Cobi Hamilton, who had 146 receiving yards for his fourth 100-yard game in eight trips to Little Rock.
The Hogs are also running out of time in their quest to become bowl eligible. Arkansas has four games left — against Tulsa, South Carolina, Mississippi State and LSU — and it must win three of them.
Ole Miss (5-3, 2-2) moved to the brink of bowl eligibility by utilizing opportunistic defense and special teams, scoring with its fast-tempo offense at the end of both halves, and taking advantage of the error- prone Razorbacks.
“I thought our team grew up some today,” Ole Miss Coach Hugh Freeze said. “We won on the road in this tough conference against — I don’t really care what anybody says, that’s a very good football team.”
Arkansas outgained Ole Miss by more than 100 yards in total offense, 464-355, but the advantage didn’t translate to the scoreboard.
Dennis Johnson ran for a career-best 161 yards and forged a 27-27 tie with his 5-yard touchdown run over left tackle with 2:09 remaining. Johnson accounted for the final 46 yards of the drive with three tackle-breaking runs, including a 20-yarder on which several Rebels bounced off him or were dragged down to the 5.
“I just told myself we’re not going to lose the game and if they put the ball in my hands I’m going to do everything I can to win,” Johnson said. “I feel good, but it wasn’t a good enough performance to win the game.”
Ole Miss, which went 75 yards in 1:01 at the end of the first half to score on Jeff Scott’s 1-yard run and erase a 17-14 Arkansas lead, got its two-minute drill back into gear after the Johnson score.
Quarterback Bo Wallace directed a 61-yard drive, completing 4 of 5 passes for 47 yards and taking a keeper 13 yards over the left side as the final play before Rose’s winning kick.
“I hit it, I looked up and I had everyone jumping on me,” Rose said. “It’s an awesome experience.”
“We’ve got to finish, and we just didn’t get it done,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes said. “Our thought process was to get pressure on them so they couldn’t sit back and nickeland-dime it down the field. He got them off on time, and we just didn’t make the plays.”
Wallace, a junior-college transfer, was 29 of 37 for 278 yards and 1 touchdown and ran for 38 yards. His 14-yard connection to running back Jeff Scott on a third-and-9 hot route from the Ole Miss 38 was the key play on the clutch series.
“They just said, ‘This is you, this is your spot, your time to shine,’ ” Wallace said. “I can’t say enough about everybody else on that drive and the way we played.”
Arkansas failed to win in Little Rock for the first time since the 1993 team went 0-2-1, and the Hogs went 0-2 at War Memorial for the first time. They went 0-3 in three other winless seasons.
“You want to win here to finish things out,” said Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson, who didn’t miss a play Saturday after sitting out the second half of Arkansas’ earlier War Memorial loss to Louisiana-Monroe with a concussion. “Little Rock has been good to me, unfortunately not this year.”
Razorbacks mistakes led to 10 Ole Miss points, but Arkansas failed to score, or even make first downs, after its two takeaways — a Jared Green fumble recovery in the first quarter and Rasner’s interception, forced by defensive tackle Byran Jones, at the Ole Miss 34 in the second quarter.
Ole Miss cashed in most of its opportunities.
Trailing 10-7 in the second quarter, the Rebels pushed Arkansas back to the Ole Miss 41 after the Rasner interception, then Charles Sawyer blocked Dylan Breeding’s attempted pooch punt and returned it to the Arkansas 22.
“We go three and out and then we get a punt blocked,” Arkansas Coach John L. Smith said. “That, to me, is crucial. You get a punt blocked and there’s over a 90 percent chance you’re going to lose, and I take that very personal.”
Barry Brunetti scored on a quarterback keeper four plays later to give the Rebels a 14-10 lead.
Arkansas took a 17-14 edge with a 95-yard touchdown drive that ended with tight end Alex Voelzke’s 6-yard scoring catch for his first career reception.
The pass to Voelzke was one of two touchdown passes thrown by Wilson, who completed 24 of 43 passes for 297 yards. But Wilson also threw two interceptions, giving him seven for the season, one more than he threw last season.
The Rebels responded before the half with a 10-play drive, taking a 21-17 halftime lead on Scott’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche intercepted a Wilson pass over the middle late in the third quarter and returned it 32 yards to the Arkansas 18.
Arkansas held from there. Jones received credit for a 15-yard sack on an intentional grounding penalty to push Ole Miss away from the goal line, but Rose made a 27-yard field goal for a 24-17 Ole Miss lead.
The Razorbacks thought they were in position to tie it early in the fourth quarter when Wilson connected with unguarded tight end Austin Tate for an apparent 15-yard scoring pass. But the Hogs were called for an illegal formation penalty, adding to their mistake count, and no amount of arguing from the Arkansas sideline changed the call.
Zach Hocker made a 41-yard field goal a few plays later to draw the Razorbacks within 24-20, but Wallace drove the Rebels 39 yards and in position for Rose’s 53-yard field goal.
Sports, Pages 25 on 10/28/2012