LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas floundered with a series of penalties and a costly turnover to fall behind small-school Samford in the third quarter and dredge up a haunting memory of last year’s stunning loss to Louisiana-Monroe at War Memorial Stadium.
Instead of fading, as the Razorbacks did against ULM, Arkansas (2-0) charged up behind its big offensive line and tailbacks Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams to rally for a 31-21 victory over the upstart Bulldogs before a crowd of47,358 on Saturday night.
“I think we defined several things to show them how to lose a football game,” Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. “There’s a lot of teams that would’ve lost that game right there. Give them credit, they took over in the fourth quarter when it mattered.”
Collins rushed for 172 yards and a touchdown and Williams added 126 yards and a score to become the first two Arkansas running backs to open the season with back-to back 100-yard rushing games.
The Razorbacks held a two-touchdown lead after their first two possessions, but got sloppy for most of the next two quarters. Arkansas had six penalties for 65 yards, lost the turnover battle 2-0 and ceded momentum to Samford (1-1) in the third quarter after a Williams fumble led to a Bulldogs touchdown.
“We really just kind of fell apart,” senior center Travis Swanson said.
“Maybe we got a little comfortable but I think this was a good learning experience for us because like our coach said after the game, we taught ourselves how to lose but we won the game,” said receiver Javontee Herndon, who caught a 7-yard touchdown pass for Arkansas’ second score.
Samford took a 21-17 lead with 5:09 left in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs ran just six more plays, had no first downs and were bowled over by Arkansas’ running game. The Razorbacks did not throw a pass in the fourth quarter while racking up 163 rushing yards on 21 snaps.
“We wanted to wear them out, wear them out, and in the fourth quarter, you could see them start to get tired,” Collins said. “We took advantage of that. We started pounding it a little bit harder, just trying to wear them out.”
The Razorbacks held the ball for 16:34 of the final 20:09 and racked up 212 total yards on 32 plays during that span while Samford managed 10 yards on six plays in 3:35.
“It’s great, especially at the end of the game when there’s about eight minutes left, and we were able to just run the ball the rest of the way out, control that clock and not have to rely on our defense to make another stop,” quarterback Brandon Allen said. “We controlled the ball and controlled the game.”
“They put the game on your shoulders … and you have to show what you can do,” Williams said. “They put it on me and Alex’s back and we came out with a victory.”
Williams’ fumble, an offensive pass interference penalty on tight end Hunter Henry, a personal foul on Tevin Mitchel and a dropped third-down pass by Kody Walker all hurt the Razorbacks in the middle part of the game.
“It’s not really about the opponent, it’s just about you,” Swanson said. “You play yourself every single week. Saturdays should be easy and we made this one hard on ourselves.”
Samford was all too happy for the breaks.
“Our kids fought the whole game,” Samford acting head coach Bill D’Ottavio said. “They played hard. They didn’t back down an inch.
“No one gave them a chance coming in here, but they believed we could win this football game. Then we got up in the third quarter because of that, and we kept fighting. Arkansas is a good football team and they played real well down the stretch. They made the plays to beat us, so you’ve got to give them credit.”
Arkansas’ slippage during the middle part was reminiscent to its blown 28-7 lead in last year’s 34-31 overtime loss to Louisiana-Monroe.
“Yeah, we were talking about it [that] on the sideline,” said Allen, who was also on the field during Monroe’s comeback after an injury to starter Tyler Wilson. “We can’t have the mishaps and the lull and just let the game slip away when we have it won. So real proud we were able to come out and control the game there late in the second half and really get that run game going and just control it.”
The Razorbacks defense was missing three starters from last week - safety Rohan Gaines, linebacker Jarrett Lake, and defensive end Trey Flowers. Gaines rested a knee injury from last week; Flowers was dressed but held out with a bruised knee, and Lake was suspended for an undisclosed disciplinary reason.
The Bulldogs cashed in Williams’ lost fumble at the Arkansas 24 with a touchdown on senior quarterback Andy Summerlin’s 2-yard throw to Zeke Walters to pull Samford within 17-14 early in the third period.
Arkansas got behind in the field-position battle after that with Walker’s dropped pass and a line-drive rugby punt from Sam Irwin-Hill, and the Bulldogs eventually drove 50 yards for their go-ahead touchdown, helped by Mitchel’s 15-yard personal foul call.
“Obviously way too many penalties and two of them inexcusable,” Bielema said, referencing Mitchel’s penalty and an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Collins after his 2-yard touchdown run that created the final score with 9:04 remaining.
Arkansas jumped out to a 14-0 lead behind Allen touchdown passes to Mitchell Loewen and Herndon on its first two series before a jumble of penalties, the Williams fumble and Samford’s tricky Spread offense turned momentum to the visitors.
Arkansas regained its footing, and the lead with a drive that took up 6:31 late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. Allen found Julian Horton for 11 yards on a thirdand-11 to open the sequence, then connected with Henry for a 13-yard gain on thirdand-7 against a Samford blitz. Collins provided the most damaging blow on the drive, a 21-yard run over the left side to set up Williams’ 1-yard blast behind Kiero Small for a 24-21 Arkansas lead.
The Bulldogs went three and-out after the Razorbacks rammed the ball at the tiring Bulldogs’ defense again. Collins followed Swanson around left end then accelerated for a 55-yard run to the Samford 14. Collins finished off the drive with a 2-yard score, after which he ran up to the stands for a couple of high-fives that drew a penalty.
The Razorbacks’ final drive consumed the final 7:35 and amassed four first downs during the 13 plays.
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/08/2013