No. 12 Ole Miss earned its second conference loss of the season on the road, against No. 22 Arkansas on Saturday night, 34-30.
For the 2nd year in a row, Arkansas beat Ole Miss thanks to a wild 4th down play
Bret Bielema got his first conference win of 2016.
Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
On the game-deciding fourth-and-16, Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly scrambled upfield and got rocked, causing a fumble to fly out of bounds and thus end the Rebels’ last chance to score.
This year’s matchup had a similar feel to last year’s 53-52 thriller, in which the Razorbacks came out on top in overtime, thanks to this fourth-and-25 play:
This year, Arkansas led 17-6 in the second quarter, but the Rebels scored two touchdowns to tie things up at 20 by halftime. Late in the third, the Razorbacks scored a touchdown to take a seven-point lead, and Ole Miss got a field goal early in the fourth quarter.
Inside the 10-minute mark, Ole Miss picked off Arkansas’ Austin Allen to take over at about midfield. Trailing 27-23, the Rebels were able to put together a quick, five-play, 45-yard scoring drive, finished off by a Kelly touchdown run to take a 30-27 lead.
Arkansas got another chance with six and a half minutes to go in the ball game. The Hogs managed to drive deep into Ole Miss territory, and capped it off with a six-yard touchdown run to take a 34-30 lead with a little over two minutes left.
Arkansas QB Allen didn’t quite have the outstanding, 442-yard, six-TD performance against Ole Miss that his brother Brandon had last season, but finished 19-of-32 passing for 229 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.
Now the SEC West looks to be down to Texas A&M and Alabama — the two will face off in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in a week.
The Rebels still have a long way to go schedule-wise, with road games against Texas A&M and LSU and home games against Auburn and Mississippi State.
Arkansas still has some interesting games remaining, including a road game vs. Auburn next week, then back-to-back home games against Florida and LSU. The Razorbacks finish off their schedule with road games against Mississippi State and Missouri.
This isn’t where Ole Miss was last year coming into this game. Last season, the Rebels were in the SEC West’s driver’s seat hosting the Razorbacks and merely needed to hold on with nearly five minutes to play in order to preserve its place in the division. Instead, the Razorbacks stormed back to send the game to overtime and win on a wild two-point conversion.
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