Gators mix it up with Hogs, land knockout blow

Arkansas Alex Collins pulls in a pass past Florida defender Darin Kitchens during the 3rd quarter of Saturday night's game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - After a fast start, Arkansas’ offense got bogged down in The Swamp on Saturday night against Florida’s SEC-leading defense.

The Razorbacks gained 120 yards in the first quarter - just 82.5 shy of the Gators’ per-game average - and put together a 64-yard touchdown drive to take the lead, but Arkansas struggled to gain yards the rest of the game as No. 18 Florida came back to win 30-10.

“We were feeling good, but unfortunately they don’t call the game after the first quarter,” Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. “Four-quarter game.”

The Razorbacks were held to 155 yards over the final three quarters and finished with 275 in total offense, including 72 on a 19-play drive that ended at the Florida 4 when Brandon Allen threw an incompletion with 55 seconds left.

“We had a lot of things not go our way, a lot of plays on offense we wish we could do over again,” Allen said. “Definitely some big momentum swings that we weren’t able to get back on our side.”

The biggest momentum swing may have come when Florida cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy intercepted an Allen pass and returned it 42 yards to give the Gators a 10-7 lead with 8:33 left in the second quarter. The pass was intended for Keon Hatcher.

“I threw it behind the receiver and he [Purifoy] made a good play on it,” Allen said.

Purifoy also forced a fumble by Allen - which Florida recovered to set up a field goal that cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 10-7 - with a sack on a blitz.

“Credit their defense,” Allen said. “They’re No. 1 for a reason. They had a lot speed. Against that kind of defense, you’ve got to get it out quick.”

Allen completed 17 of 41 passes for 164 yards.

“I missed a lot of throws,” Allen said. “I definitely wish I could take back the pick-six. A lot of things that I could have done better. I’m not proud of my performance at all. I didn’t think that I did what it took to win this game.”

Florida was penalized twice for late hits on Allen, who said he didn’t believe the Gators were trying to intimidate him.

“I think that’s just football,” Allen said. “They’re out there playing fast, playing hard. It’s hard to stop when things get going.”

Allen left for part of a series in the third quarter with what he said after the game was jammed fingers.

“B.A. battled his tail off when he came back in there,” Bielema said. “They were obviously hitting him pretty hard. We were breaking down in our protections. A couple guys got turned loose and got blind-side shots. We’ve got to get that corrected.

“I don’t care if we’re going to run one or two protections, we’re going to protect our quarterback. We won’t survive in the SEC playing like that.”

Fullback Kiero Small said he was proud of how Allen came back into the game.

“He’s a tough kid,” Allen said. “He wouldn’t let them knock him out of the game.”

Allen, a redshirt sophomore who missed Arkansas’ game at Rutgers because of a shoulder injury, made his first road start Saturday night, but he said he didn’t believe that’s why he struggled on many plays.

“I don’t think that was much of a big deal for me,” Allen said. “They obviously have a good crowd and it was pretty loud on the field, but we didn’t really have too many communication errors. Not a whole lot of things had to do with the noise and being on the road. It was just us stubbing our toes and hurting ourselves.”

Arkansas freshman tailback Alex Collins, who came into the game averaging 119.4 yards, rushed 13 times for 54 yards. He had a 28-yard run on his first carry.

Collins also had a five catches for 45 yards, including a 30-yard gain, but for the most part he struggled to find running room after the first quarter.

“Basically everything we practiced, everything we planned was working in the first quarter,” Collins said. “We were doing the same thing we did in the first half, we just couldn’t get anything going. “We were going 100 percent. We just couldn’t get those open lanes we were getting in the first half.”

Allen said the Gators did a good job of disguising their coverages to keep the Razorbacks off balance after slowing down the run game.

“They started bringing more pressure, putting more people in the box and stopping the run,” Allen said. “So we had to go to the pass, and they’ve got some pretty good defensive backs. They threw a lot of different things together. They’ve got a lot of different schemes. They can mix it up, and it’s tough to catch on to one thing they’re doing.”

Sports, Pages 32 on 10/06/2013