LITTLE ROCK — Twice on Arkansas’ opening drive against Ole Miss, Tyler Wilson missed open receivers who looked ready to score touchdowns.
First Wilson overthrew tight end Chris Gragg. Then he threw a pass too low for running back Jonathan Williams.
Arkansas had to settle for a field goal.
There were some big plays for Wilson, too, but overall the Razorbacks’ senior quarterback didn’t look like himself as the Rebels won 30-27 on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.
Wilson completed 24 of 43 passes for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he also tied a career high with 2 interceptions and twice was called for intentional grounding.
“He made a couple bad reads, threw the ball a couple times where maybe he shouldn’t have, but he battled his butt off,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “He competed hard.
“Obviously, we all need to play better and we need to coach better, because we lost.”
Wilson took a shot to his hip from an Ole Miss defender while throwing a touchdown pass to Gragg on Arkansas’ second drive.
“It never hurts as bad when it’s a touchdown,” Wilson said. “You can smile and go, ‘Yeah, I felt it, but we got seven points out of the deal.’ ”
Unfortunately for Wilson and the Razorbacks, he limped through the rest of the game.
“He got hit pretty good,” Petrino said. “That might have affected him a little bit.”
Wilson also took a hit to the chin later in the game.
“This is football. You’ve got to play through that stuff,” Wilson said. “It’s part of the game.”
The Rebels broke up 10 of Wilson’s passes and could have had more interceptions.
“They were very aggressive in the secondary. They made a number of plays,” Wilson said. “They bit on a lot of our short routes and we didn’t hit any deep balls.
“Unfortunately we didn’t take advantage of throwing the ball outside and making any plays on it.”
Wilson said the Rebels did a good job of disguising coverages.
“I thought there were a number of opportunities,” he said. “I missed a couple of throws you’d like to have back.”
Wilson’s intentional grounding calls stalled Arkansas drives after the Razorbacks took possession at the Ole Miss 34 on a Ross Rasner interception in the second quarter and after they had moved to their own 43.
“I was trying to eliminate a 15-yard loss and get it out of my hands,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, [the officials] didn’t see it that way. That put us in a bad position, and we can’t have that.”
Petrino said he didn’t believe Wilson was telegraphing his passes, especially those intended for Cobi Hamilton, who had 12 receptions for 146 yards.
“A couple times they were just jumping Cobi,” Petrino said. “When that’s the case, you’ve got to throw to somebody else.”
Hamilton said Wilson played well.
“He’s our leader,” Hamilton said. “He’s a heck of a quarterback. I’ve got complete trust in him.
“I drop balls all the time, so you can’t blame Tyler. We’ve got to connect and keep competing and keep playing hard.”
Hamilton said he couldn’t tell during the game how much Wilson’s hip bothered him.
“He’s been through a lot of battles and a lot of bruises,” Hamilton said. “He’s so tough you really don’t know if something is wrong with him in the huddle because he’s still calling out plays, still calling out protections, still being Tyler.
“Whatever Tyler has, he’ll get over it like he always does. He’ll be ready to go next week.”
Wilson and the offense also were impacted by the loss of Gragg, who didn’t play in the second half because of a leg injury.
Gragg had missed the previous three games with a leg injury.
“You’d like to have all your weapons on the field at all times,” Wilson said. “But unfortunately, it hasn’t happened.”
Wilson said there is no doubt he’ll be on the field for next Saturday’s game against Tulsa.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I’ll be there.”
Sports, Pages 36 on 10/28/2012