FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Until the final seconds Saturday, Mississippi State’s defense looked like the strength of the team once again.

The Bulldogs appeared to have gotten off the field for the last time, holding Arkansas on fourth down in the red zone inside the final minute Saturday at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Then the holding flag flew.

A questionable penalty kept the Razorbacks’ drive alive, and it ended in a touchdown to give Arkansas (6-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) a 31-28 win over the 17th-ranked Bulldogs (5-4, 3-3 SEC).

“We just didn’t stop them,” Mississippi State coach Mike Leach said.

Nolan McCord missed a tying 40-yard field-goal attempt as time expired, Mississippi State’s third missed kick of the day. Brandon Ruiz missed kicks of 23 and 46 yards earlier in the game.

Ruiz was replaced by McCord on a PAT early in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs made it 53 yards in 19 seconds on three quick passing plays in their attempt to tie the game, but McCord sailed his last-second attempt wide left as Arkansas players celebrated the win.

“There’s an open tryout on our campus for kickers,” Leach said. “Anybody who wants to walk on and kick at Mississippi State, we’ll hold a tryout anytime you can get over there to our building providing you’re cleared by the NCAA.”

The Bulldogs erased an early 10-0 deficit and a late 23-14 hole, scoring back-to-back fourth-quarter touchdowns to take the lead with 2:22 to go. Will Rogers found Jo’quavious Marks for a 15-yard passing score with 2:22 to go, giving MSU a 28-23 lead.

But the late heroics couldn’t make up for the difficulties throughout most of the contest.

“We allowed this thing to be closer than we had to, and we lost,” Leach said.

Mississippi State allowed Arkansas to go 75 yards on 10 plays — seven of them passes — on the Hogs’ final drive. Martin Emerson was called for holding Treylon Burks on fourth-and-1 from the 25, setting up a 4-yard score by Dominique Johnson.

Johnson added the two-point conversion as the Razorbacks made a big MSU comeback all for naught. Arkansas ran for 191 yards on 19 carries Saturday.

“Our ultimate motive was to stop the run,” linebacker Aaron Brule said. “We just didn’t get that done tonight.”

Earlier in the quarter, freshman wide receiver Rara Thomas came up big for the Bulldogs once again. Thomas caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Rogers for his second scoring grab of the game.

Thomas now has a touchdown catch in three straight games dating back to Oct. 23 at Vanderbilt. Leach dubbed the freshman from Eufaula, Alabama, the Bulldogs’ starter at the X receiver position.

“He’s playing good ball right now,” Rogers said of Thomas. “He does a lot of good things, and he’s a good target.”

Thomas’ production helped Rogers rebound from an 0-for-4 start to post a 36-for-48 passing line for 417 yards, four touchdown passes and an interception. After another pick was wiped away by a pass interference penalty on the Razorbacks, Rogers promptly hit Jaden Walley for a 3-yard score 7 seconds before the half — MSU’s first score of the night.

Instead of a two-score deficit at halftime, the Bulldogs headed into the locker room down just six points. They came out in the third quarter and ran more than 6 minutes off the clock before Rogers hit Thomas for a 6-yard score in the back of the end zone, capping a 13-play, 66-yard drive.

But in the end, the first-half hole the Bulldogs dug themselves was too deep to clamber out of. And there were plenty of missed opportunities to point to along the way.

“We lost this game by one play,” Leach said. “We had plenty of plays in the first half and in the second half, too, to win this game.”

Just take the second-quarter series in which Mississippi State set up at the Arkansas 7-yard line with first and goal and came out with no points. A pass to Malik Heath in the end zone fell incomplete, a pair of runs totaled 1 yard, and Ruiz pulled his 23-yard field goal wide right.

The difference on special teams between the two schools was stark. After Thomas’ go-ahead touchdown, Arkansas’s Cam Little made a career-long 51-yard field goal, his third make of over 45 yards. Little hit from 46 and 48 before missing from 42 late in the game.

Meanwhile, Mississippi State went 0 for 3 on field goals, none bigger than the last.

“It just sucks,” Rogers said. “There’s no other way to say it.”

Rather than a third straight win and a continued climb up the rankings, the Bulldogs will likely drop out of tomorrow’s poll. They’ll have to regroup before taking on another reeling team in No. 13 Auburn (6-3, 3-2 SEC), which lost 20-3 on Saturday at No. 14 Texas A&M.

“We’ve just got to go back to work,” Rogers said. It’s the only thing you can do. That’s what this program is about. That’s what this team is about. We’re going to go back to work tomorrow for a really, really, really tough Auburn opponent at their place. It’s going to be a really tough environment, but we know we have to be ready to play next week.”

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.