STARKVILLE, Miss. - Knile Davis rushed for two touchdowns and added the game-winning 7-yard touchdown reception in double overtime as Arkansas beat Mississippi State 38-31 at Davis Wade Stadium.
Davis, a sophomore, rushed for a career-high 187 yards on 30 carries as the No. 13 Razorbacks won their fifth consecutive game overall.
“It was a great win on the road,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “I’m real proud of our football team and real proud of our coaches. This was hard. We had to work extremely hard to get the win.”
Arkansas led 31-21 before Vick Ballard’s 4-yard touchdown run with 4:24 remaining pulled the No. 21 Bulldogs within a field goal. Mississippi State got that kick from Derek DePasquale on a 25-yarder as time expired in regulation.
The drive began at the Arkansas 46 following a Davis fumble with less than two minutes remaining. In addition to his three touchdowns, Davis had two fumbles lost.
Ballard, who finished with 150 rushing yards and three touchdowns, fumbled away the Bulldogs’ first possession in overtime when a hit by Jerico Nelson jarred loose the ball, which went out of the endzone for a touchback.
“You just can’t do things like that when two top 20 teams are playing and expect to win,” Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said.
Arkansas couldn’t capitalize, however, as Zach Hocker missed a 39-yard field goal that would have given the Razorbacks the win in their offensive half of the first overtime.
Arkansas (9-2, 5-2 SEC) got the ball first in the second overtime and took the lead on Ryan Mallett’s pass to Davis – the first receiving touchdown of his career.
Mallett finished the game completing 17 of 26 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns. He was also intercepted once.
“It was unfortunate Knile fumbled the ball when we were trying to run the clock out in the fourth quarter,” Petrino said. “We haven’t fumbled a lot of balls all year long. On the touchdown play they blitzed everybody. They went blitz zero and he had a free release and was hot on the play. He and Ryan have worked that tons of times and he was hot. Ryan threw it right to him in the endzone. It was a great way to finish.”
The Bulldogs got as far as the 11-yard line during their half of the second overtime session, but Chris Relf was sacked by Tenarius Wright to end the game. Arkansas had taken a timeout prior to the play to go over strategy.
“It was intense,” defensive end Jake Bequette said. “We knew we had them fourth and long, and we knew it was a good chance to rush the passer. Our coaches turned me and Tank loose, and said, ‘Go get him.’ Tank made a nice play and we got the game over with.”
Arkansas built a 14-7 lead on a 62-yard touchdown run by Davis and a 25-yard touchdown reception by D.J. Williams in the first quarter. That lead didn’t hold, however, as the Bulldogs used a pair of Ballard touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 21-17 halftime lead.
That was still the score when Arkansas safety Elton Ford forced and cornerback Darius Winston recovered a Mississippi State fumble at the Razorbacks 22 late in the third quarter. Arkansas was backed up on the play, though, when Anthony Leon was ejected for throwing a punch at Bulldogs receiver Chad Bumphis.
It wouldn’t matter as Mallett hit Jarius Wright on the ensuing play for an 89-yard touchdown pass to give the Razorbacks a 24-21 lead with 2:03 left in the third.
“When Jarius was coming out of the huddle he didn’t know whether it would be him or Joe (Adams) getting the ball there,” Mallett said. “We saw the right coverage and we took advantage of it.”
Arkansas would add to that lead with Davis’ second touchdown run from a yard out early in the final frame. Davis eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing for the season during the game. In the last five games he has 737 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.
“I’m happy for him and I’m happy for our offensive front,” Petrino said. “Any time you get a back who does that, it belongs to our offensive front and the tight ends.”
The Razorbacks have now won 11 of the last 12 meetings with Mississippi State. It was the third time the two schools have played an overtime game in Starkville. Arkansas needed just one extra period to beat the Bulldogs here in 1996 and 2000.
The Razorbacks improved to 9-2 all-time in overtime contests.
Arkansas now looks ahead to a rivalry game with No. 5 LSU (10-1, 6-1) at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium in what might turn out to be a play-in game for the Sugar Bowl.
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I keep saying it: if we could just hold teams under 20 points per game, we’d win almost all of our games by at least two scores. While the defense did make just enough plays to win in the 2nd OT period, I am officially finished with Willy Robinson. If I read the look on Petrino’s face correctly on the sideline while our defense was ushering MSU down the field, I think Petrino is tired of Robinson’s defense, too. Points given up is the most important defensive statistic, I think, and we give up too many points. I hope Petrino can replace Robinson with a top-notch defensive coordinator after the season is over. Other than a near meltdown by the defense, it was a good game in the other phases. Go Hogs!
I’m not one to call for heads, but Willy does need to “resign for personal reason.”
Great win… and relief. Tough venue.
Yeah they ran the same running plays over and over again, and we still got gashed. We need a change at defensive coordinator. Bottom line man. Yes we have made some progress, but the same weaknesses and bad coaching schemes still exist. We need to go in a different direction…
We need to recruit some real linebackers, and our DBs are still weak.
we were still able to hold them to under 4 ypc. The real problem was that we didn’t put it away when our first opportunities presented themselves. Hopefully Knile has that under control because the game could have been a lot more open and a win wrapped up by the beginning of the 4th. I think we are still clicking, we just had some miscues tonight.
I am sick and tired of watching catches made without coverage within 5 or 10 yards time after time with a good rush on the QB. Time for a new DC or have 2 to 4 losses a year with a potential NC team.
what really teed me off is that little delay option that Auburn gashed the Hogs for yardage,Miss St was doing it to,and Willey still did not have a clue,but give the Hog D Credit they came up with the Big plays when they had to.
What infuriated me while watching the game was to see our D-linemen rush up field a few steps, then stop for the sole purpose of trying to cut off running lanes for their QB. That left plenty of time for the QB to find receivers that were wide open. For about half of the entire game, we weren’t even TRYING to put pressure on Relf.
Are you guys the same ones that wanted Houston Nutt gone? Because if you are, then let this coaching staff get it’s recruits in here. The defense has been better and better every year since Petrino arrived. Good Gosh, we’re playing for a birth in the Sugar Bowl this week. When did we ever have the opportunity to do that in the passed.
You dudes kind of make me sick. Add to that, the huge emotional energy that State played with last night because of Nick Bell’s death, the crowd noise, and a top twenty team, on the road, and I’d say we did exactly what we needed to do. State is a good team. The Hogs are better. And we will rock L.S.U’s world, so shut up with the “fire Willy Robinson” crap.
I don’t think the should fire him, Arkansas has always played this way for years. Some weeks we are supp to win big and only get out by a point or a field goal. But if we play that way against LSU we have no chance at all. In my opinion i think our D has vastly improved this year so i say give it another season see what happens
yes the D has improved,but when another team is gouching you for yards on the same play,over and over and over,you think one of the defensive coaches would pick up on it.
azhog, you make all kinds of excuses for why MSU played “inspired” ball and were able to score so many points against us. That’s nothing but rationalizing due to a poor defensive performance, because we hear the same excuses week after week. The other team always has reasons that they perform better offensively against us than they do against other teams. Yeah, the reason is our defense makes them look better. MSU was 11th in scoring offense in the SEC coming into our game with them, yet we make them look like Auburn. Look, without question our defense is our team weakness this year. Sometimes they play well, sometimes they play terribly. We need a DC that will get them playing consistently well every week. Willy has had the same three years to turn around the defense that Petrino has had to turn around the offense, but Willy is still lagging far behind the offensive improvement. Any top-notch DC in the country should be chomping at the bit to coordinate a defense alongside a great offensive mind like Petrino. We’ve had dominant defenses in the past, and we need one again if we’re going to compete for a national championship.
azhog, people that cant recognize this teams one big weakness and the one reason we are not in Auburns spot right now and keep saying we dont have the players yet, make me sick. We will do this year after year with this DC. We have the players, we need new and ever changing schemes during these games. These opposing QBs have career games against piss poor coverage and this was our 11th game. Thank god for Bp, Mcgee and our offense. Our defense is experienced and much more depth, they have improved, but we can be more consistant through a game with better coaching. Again I say I like Willy, keep him on staff, just not DC!