Razorbacks rewind

Things get testy on both sides

Arkansas vs Ole Miss Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Tempers flared on both sides of the ball at multiple points during Ole Miss' 37-33 come-from-behind victory over the University of Arkansas on Saturday.

Referee Marc Curles and his crew assessed four unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the aftermath of Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey becoming the victim of a vicious targeting ejection called against Vernon Dasher.

In the scrum that followed early in the second quarter, tackle Colton Jackson and tight end Grayson Gunter drew offsetting unsportsmanlike fouls with Ole Miss defenders Jalen Julius and Austrian Robinson.

Curles threw an unsportsmanlike conduct flag on Arkansas tight end Austin Cantrell, who gave a mild shove to Ole Miss defensive end Qaadir Sheppard after a play. Sheppard fell dramatically and rolled backward head over heels to elicit the penalty, then flopped over again.

Sheppard had drawn his own unsportsmanlike penalty on a hit against Storey later in the second quarter.

Arkansas Coach Chad Morris was asked if it looked like Ole Miss was intentionally trying to rough Storey up.

"I don't know," Morris said. "I can't go to that without watching the film. I thought Ty was playing extremely well and showed his toughness and his grit.

"I thought Ty Storey was the toughest football player in the stadium without a doubt."

Arkansas cornerback Ryan Pulley was ejected in the final 20 seconds, apparently for something he said as the Rebels were kneeling to close out the game.

"Obviously we lost our composure, which is very disappointing," Morris said.

"We've got to keep a level head on the field," linebacker De'Jon Harris said. "I feel like we could have done a better job tonight calming everybody down. Pulley being an older guy, you've got to realize the situation you're in and not do that."

Ole Miss players celebrated after a couple of the hardest hits on Storey, who was eventually knocked out of the game after a hard fall early in the fourth quarter.

A personal foul penalty also was leveled against Arkansas' Terrell Collins for continuing to block an Ole Miss player out of bounds after De'Vion Warren returned the final kickoff 33 yards to the Arkansas 43.

Tough run

Arkansas ran for 299 yards Saturday to tie its season high, but the going got tough in the game's late stages when the Razorbacks were trying to hold leads of 33-24 and 33-31.

After losing tailbacks Rakeem Boyd and Devwah Whaley to injuries, Arkansas ran 13 times for 40 yards (3.1 yards per carry) in the fourth quarter. Prior to that, the Hogs had 35 carries for 259 yards (7.4 ypc).

"Yeah, they made some adjustments," Arkansas guard Hjalte Froholdt said of the Ole Miss defense. "I don't think it was our running backs. I think the defense did a really good job of stacking the box and made it hard for us to run the ball.

"It's tough being up a couple of touchdowns or 11, 12 points, because you still want to try to be aggressive, but at the same time you need to chew some clock. And we were running the ball so effectively. So why not just keep running it? ... They made some crucial stops late in the game."

Six-game streaks

Arkansas has lost six consecutive games for the sixth time in school history and the first since the 2013 Razorbacks lost their last nine games. That losing streak reached 10 games when Arkansas fell in its season opener at Auburn in 2014, then snapped it with a 73-7 victory over Nicholls State the following week.

First-year Arkansas coaches have been the victims of the six-game skids.

The Razorbacks of 1990 lost seven in a row after opening 2-1 for first-year Coach Jack Crowe.

Coach Frank Broyles' first team opened 0-6 in 1958.

Coach Otis Douglas' debut season in 1950 ended with six losses in a row.

The last six games of Douglas' tenure were all losses and that losing streak reached seven games in the first year of Bowden Wyatt in 1953.

Ta'amu takes off

The Arkansas defense had not been ripped up by running quarterbacks Kellen Mond (Texas A&M) and Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama) the last couple of weeks, but Ole Miss quarterback Jordan Ta'amu burned them on the ground Saturday.

Ta'amu ran for a game-high 141 yards, nearly all on lead draws, while also picking apart the Razorbacks through the air for another 387 yards and 2 touchdowns. The 6-2 senior finished with 528 total yards and accounted for three touchdowns.

"It was one of my most complete games," Ta'amu said. "I was just being smart with the ball and making right decisions and right reads. The O-line and receivers did their jobs and gave me enough time to make those decisions."

Arkansas sacked Ta'amu twice.

Cooley redemption

Ole Miss tight end Octavious Cooley's 66-yard catch and tackle-breaking touchdown in the third quarter helped redeemed the junior for a game-changing play in last year's 38-37 loss to Arkansas.

Ole Miss led 31-7 when Cooley caught a long pass over the middle into Arkansas territory before Santos Ramirez forced and recovered a fumble on the Hogs' sideline. The play led to a Razorbacks touchdown in the first half, helping spark the comeback.

On Saturday, Cooley ran through a Ramirez tackle en route to the long touchdown with 7:29 left in the third quarter.

"Last year has kind of haunted him with the strip in the Arkansas game last year," Ole Miss Coach Matt Luke said. "It was special for him to be able to make a play, break a tackle, go score a touchdown to really spark us. I think that play changed the game."

5 goes for 100

Rakeem Boyd, who wears jersey No. 5, is the first Arkansas newcomer to post back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances in SEC games since the most famous Razorback to wear No. 5 did it 13 years ago.

Boyd, a sophomore junior college transfer, ran for 102 yards against Alabama and added 109 in a little over one quarter against Ole Miss before coming out with a back injury.

Two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden had three consecutive 100-yard SEC games during his freshman year in 2005 and four overall.

4 for 4

Arkansas kicker Connor Limpert had a career-high four made field goals, covering distances of 43, 38, 38 and 36 yards. The junior left-footer improved to 12 of 15 on field goals this season, with a long of 54 yards.

"We definitely have gotten a groove going," Limpert said of the field goal operation. "I'm loving it and we're going to keep it going through the rest of the season."

Limpert has made seven consecutive field goals since misfiring on a 40-yard try in the first half at Auburn.

Woods' impact

Ole Miss safety Zedrick Woods had as big an impact on the outcome as any player outside of his quarterback Jordan Ta'amu.

The 203-pound senior from Lake City, Fla., slammed Arkansas tailback Rakeem Boyd to the turf early in the second quarter, causing a back injury that forced Boyd out of the game for good.

Woods also was the tackler when Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey was upended and landed hard, forcing him out of the game early in the fourth quarter.

He also applied the final nail, intercepting a deep Cole Kelley throw with 29 seconds left.

Rare lead

Arkansas took a 10-3 lead on Cheyenne O'Grady's 39-yard touchdown catch from Ty Storey at the 3:24 mark of the first quarter.

That marked the first lead for the Razorbacks since late in the fourth quarter at Colorado State, when the Rams' Wyatt Bryan kicked a 22-yard field goal to make it 27-27 with 5:19 remaining.

The Razorbacks led against the Rebels right up through Scottie Phillips' 5-yard touchdown run with 42 seconds remaining.

Sports on 10/15/2018