FAYETTEVILLE — Five observations from No. 22 Arkansas’ 34-30 win over No. 12 Ole Miss on Saturday.
— Santos saves season
Maybe a little dramatic but probably not too far off, plus alliteration is great. So was Ramirez late in the game, making a pair of game-defining plays on Ole Miss' final two drives.
First, the sophomore strong safety broke up a Chad Kelly pass by walloping Ole Miss receiver Van Jefferson, arriving with force to separate Jefferson from the football and force a critical punt with Arkansas trailing 30-27 midway through the fourth quarter.
He topped it on the Rebels’ next drive after Arkansas scored a touchdown to take a 34-27 lead with 2:20 left. With Ole Miss facing fourth-and-11 from its own 20-yard line with less than two minutes left, Kelly found a running lane and took off for the first-down marker. It looked like he would’ve picked it up and extended a potential game-winning drive until Ramirez swooped in to force the fumble, causing it to roll out of bounds and forcing a turnover on downs.
Ramirez, arguably the best quote on the team, summed it up succinctly: “Big-time players make big-time plays.”
The late-game heroics were a welcome sign for a group of safeties that has been the subject of critique this year after struggles tackling and with angles. They weren’t perfect Saturday. Ramirez and free safety Josh Liddell missed a key tackles near the goal line on touchdown runs earlier in the game, while junior De’Andre Coley was ejected for targeting for the second time this season, a penalty that will cause him to miss the first half of next week’s game at Auburn.
But there were definite positives, too. Liddell finished with nine tackles, eight solo. Both he and Ramirez had a number of solid, physical stops after he came downhill to meet the ballcarrier.
There were also several tackles made after 8-12 yard gains, the type of stops the safeties had missed in previous weeks, leading to 30 or 40-yard gains.
Ramirez capped off the night with the two biggest plays of his young Razorback career, an encouraging sign for a secondary the Hogs hope is trending in the right direction.
Defense harasses Kelly
Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly made his share of plays, but Arkansas’ defense did a solid job overall against the preseason first-team All-SEC selection.
For the first time this season, Kelly completed less than 50 percent of his passes, going 18 for 39 253 yards, his second-lowest yardage output this year. Arkansas’ secondary came up with seven pass breakups, a season-high, along with an interception by nickelback Henre’ Toliver.
A lot of that was the result of pressure the Razorbacks got on Kelly. Arkansas had six hurries and two sacks, often forcing inaccurate passes as Kelly threw off the back of his foot with pressure in his face. The Hogs brought pressure more frequently in the second half after Kelly completed 13 of 21 passes for 190 yards in the first.
In the first half, Arkansas blitzed just four times on 22 dropbacks, including just once in the first 15. Robb Smith switched it up in the second half, dialing up 13 blitzes in 22 dropbacks. All were linebacker blitzes with Brooks Ellis and Dwayne Eugene. Some were delayed. Others were not.
The pressure made a difference. On the 13 blitzes, Kelly was just 2 of 11 for 23 yards with an interception, a sack and a run (the fourth-down scramble).
In all, Kelly completed just 5 of 18 passes for 63 yards and was sacked twice after halftime, an impressive turnaround that played a huge role in the win. There were some Ole Miss dropped passes and Kelly was able to get loose for a few big runs, but the somewhat-uncharacteristic heat Arkansas brought made life tough on one of the best quarterbacks in the conference.
Renewed run game
Austin Allen and Frank Ragnow botched a snap late in the third quarter, a fumble that resulted in a loss of 24 yards and turned a red-zone trip into a punt. Allen kneeled three times for a loss of 24 yards on the final drive as the Razorbacks ran the clock out.
Take away those four plays and the Hogs ran for 248 yards on 5.3 yards per carry, a marked step up from the offense’s 2.5 average through the first two SEC games. Those matchups were against Alabama and Texas A&M, two undefeated, top-six teams. Ole Miss came in with the 13th-ranked run defense in the conference, ahead of only Arkansas.
The matchup presented Arkansas with a needed opportunity to get its run game back on track. The Razorbacks did just that. With Kody Walker out for the season with a foot injury, the Rawleigh Williams-Devwah Whaley one-two punch was unveiled in full for the first time this year, with very promising results.
Williams ran for a career-high 180 yards on 27 carries, while Whaley was solid spelling him, picking up 65 yards on 11 attempts. The offensive line opened up holes on a number of big runs for its backs.
Whaley’s status as the No. 2 back is cemented by the Walker injury, which takes the team’s best pass blocking back out of the equation. That puts an added onus on Whaley being able to pick up blitzes in pass protection, an area he struggled with against Alabama when he was benched after giving up a sack. Saturday was a different story. Whaley picked up a blitz on Austin Allen’s touchdown pass to Drew Morgan in the first quarter and also had a key pickup on a fourth-down conversion on the game-winning drive, impressive growth in the span of a week and a show of trust by the staff to have him in the game in that situation.
The backs and tight ends were better in pass pro Saturday. Allen was sacked three — once on a bootleg the Rebels stayed home on — and hit nine times in 38 dropbacks. After being hit on his first two dropbacks, including one sack, the line gave up just seven hits the final 36 dropbacks, markedly better than the 21 knockdowns and seven sacks he endured against Alabama.
In all, the line was better Saturday. Sophomores Hjalte Froholdt and Brian Wallace, especially Wallace, appeared improved.
Hatcher, Cornelius key winning drive
Jared Cornelius became Arkansas’ best offensive weapon against Texas A&M, a role that held true against Alcorn State and Alabama. Saturday, he had a bit more modest game catching the ball, finishing with 40 yards on three receptions.
Still, Cornelius’ number was called with the game on the line and Arkansas facing first-and-goal in the final minutes. He scored on a 6-yard run after motioning into the backfield, cutting inside to give the Hogs a 34-30 lead that held up for the win.
To get in scoring position, Arkansas and Allen leaned on Keon Hatcher on its go-ahead drive.
With Arkansas facing fourth-and-4 from midfield, the Ole Miss corner played off Hatcher, making Hatcher a free access and allowing Allen to swing him the ball for an 10-yard gain to move the chains for a crucial first down.
Three plays later, following a timeout, Allen hit Hatcher, his first read, for an 11-yard pickup to convert a third-and-9 inside the Ole Miss 30. Hatcher battled for the football, using his size and strength to shield the defensive back away from the pass.
Cornelius scored three plays later. Neither played a huge role for most of the game, but both made key, game-winning plays down the stretch to lift the Hogs to their first SEC win.
— McFain emerges, excels
Adam McFain beat out embattled sophomore Cole Hedlund for the placekicking job in the week leading up to the Alabama game, then retained it by hitting a 25-yarder against the Crimson Tide.
McFain’s performance Saturday boosted his job security immensely.
The senior hit a 43-yarder true and with distance to spare early in the second quarter to increase Arkansas’ lead to 17-6, the Hogs’ first make of more than 40 yards this season. Hedlund missed the only other attempt, a 44-yarder against Alcorn State in his final kick, part of a 4 of 6 start that lost him the job.
McFain also made a 36-yarder later in the quarter to stretch it to 20-13. The make marked the first time since Nov. 19, 2011 (Zach Hocker) the Razorbacks made two field goals of 35 yards or longer in the same game and the first since Oct. 29, 2011 (also Hocker) that a kicker made two field goals 35 or longer with no misses in the same game.
McFain, who made 7 of 10 field goals as a sophomore, has a firm grip on the job after hitting his first three attempts this fall.