FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Zach Arnett never stopped trusting his defense.
Mississippi State’s defensive coordinator-turned-head coach knew full well the Bulldogs were struggling on that side of the ball, the primary reason they had lost their first three Southeastern Conference games entering Saturday’s road tilt with Arkansas. An open week gave MSU an extra week to prepare, and the defense rose to the occasion time after time, keeping the Razorbacks out of the end zone all day long in a 7-3 Bulldogs victory.
“We’ve got a lot of competitors on that side of the ball,” Arnett said. “We’ve seen the stats, we know the results were not to our satisfactory level. They went to work during the bye week. That’s what you do. There’s no magic formula. You put in the work, show up every day for practice, take a critical eye at situations that you failed to perform and go about correcting them.”
That defensive performance, in which MSU (4-3, 1-3 SEC) held Arkansas (2-6, 0-5) to 200 yards, was just enough to overcome a difficult day for the Bulldogs’ offense. Mike Wright made his first start of the year at quarterback in place of Will Rogers, whose streak of 38 consecutive starts was snapped due to a shoulder injury sustained two weeks ago against Western Michigan.
Wright’s day could not have started off worse. His first pass of the game was intercepted by Alfahiym Walcott, who undercut receiver Zavion Thomas to give the Razorbacks the ball at MSU’s 35-yard line. MSU’s defense bent but did not break, holding Arkansas to a short field goal — after which the hosts never scored again.
“We rallied behind Mike,” safety Shawn Preston Jr. said. “As the game kept going on, we continued to play good defense. As a defense, we took it upon ourselves (and said), ‘this is our game, let’s own this, let’s win this.’ And we didn’t allow a touchdown today.”
Each team punted on its next two possessions before the Bulldogs put together the only touchdown drive of the game, which bridged the first and second quarters. The Razorbacks were called for interfering with a fair catch, which gave MSU the ball on its own 31, and a 16-yard rush by Wright coupled with another Arkansas personal foul quickly moved the ball across midfield.
Some tough running by Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks, who played through a leg injury, put the Bulldogs in the red zone before a swing pass from Wright to Thomas got them near the goal line. Wright found Marks in the right flat two plays later for the 2-yard score.
The Vanderbilt transfer threw the ball just 12 times, completing eight passes for 85 yards to go along with 60 rushing yards on 11 carries.
“As a quarterback, you want to give as much confidence as you can to the team,” Wright said. “The emphasis this week was focusing on ourselves. Focus on your job, focus on your assignment, and by any means necessary go out there and get a win.”
MSU had Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jefferson completely flustered in the first half, but Arkansas’ 6-foot-3, 247-pound signal-caller began to make some plays with his legs after the break. Still, the Bulldogs stopped him on the opening drive of the second half on a fourth-and-1 shy of midfield as linebacker DeShawn Page recovered Jefferson’s fumble, giving MSU outstanding field position.
The Bulldogs had anything but outstanding field position late in the third quarter, after a Razorbacks punt pinned them at their own 3. Thanks to three pre-snap penalties on the offensive line, they soon faced third-and-11 at the 2. But Wright stood tall in the pocket, and unleashed a long throw from the end zone that receiver Justin Robinson hauled in by going up and over cornerback Jaylon Braxton for a 30-yard gain.
“I’m not going to get back on that bus without giving our SEC receivers a chance,” Wright said. “Those are the best athletes on the field. The throw to Justin Robinson… I told them, there is no such thing as a 50-50 ball. When the ball is in the air, (they) go get it and go be special.”
Wright appeared to give MSU some breathing room early in the fourth, taking off down the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown run, but an illegal blindside block by Robinson called the play back. The defense, though, had yet another stop in it. Cornerback Decamerion Richardson sacked Jefferson to bring up a third-and-14, and Preston cut in front of receiver Jadeon Wilson to nab his third interception of the season.
The Bulldogs then caught a massive break as they were set to go for a fourth-and-1 at their own 40. Wright mishandled the snap and Arkansas eventually took the ball into the end zone after it was kicked around several times — except MSU had moved before the snap, making the entire play moot.
Following a punt, the defense continued to put the clamps on Jefferson. After starting his day 15-for-18 passing, continuing a worrisome trend for the Bulldogs, Jefferson completed just four of his last 13 passes, including the Preston interception. He finished 19-of-31 for just 97 yards.
“We did a good job of limiting his yards,” Arnett said. “He’s going to get his, because he’s such a special player, but our guys knew that to slow down that offense, we had to start by slowing down that quarterback. They were excited for the challenge.”
MSU got the ball on the Razorbacks’ 20 with just over two minutes left following a turnover on downs but was unable to ice the game with a first down. Freshman kicker Kyle Ferrie, playing in his home state, missed a 29-yard field goal attempt to give Arkansas one more shot, but a final heave toward the end zone from just across midfield fell incomplete.
Linebacker Nathaniel “Bookie” Watson led the defensive charge with 14 tackles and two sacks, and his partner in crime, Jett Johnson, added 11 tackles while playing through a bloody nose for most of the second half.
The road to bowl eligibility suddenly looks wide open again for the Bulldogs, who can take a big step in that direction with another road win next Saturday at Auburn.
“We played five games in the month of September. Obviously our record was not what we wanted it to be,” Arnett said. “October was going to be a big month for our program. We have three games in the month of October, and we’re 2-0 right now and we’ve set ourselves up for a chance to go 3-0. We’ve got a great opportunity ahead of us as a program.”
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