Aaron Brule knew what he was up against.
The Mississippi State linebacker and his teammates were certain of what had to be done as soon as Bulldogs quarterback Will Rogers found Jo’quavious Marks for the go-ahead touchdown Saturday at Arkansas. The 15-yard score put MSU ahead 28-23 with less than three minutes to play.
But Arkansas still had 2:22 and two timeouts, plenty of time to make one last stand. Brule and the Bulldogs knew what they had to do.
“We’re thinking we can’t let them score,” Brule said. “Overall, that’s our ultimate goal: no scoring at all.”
Mississippi State couldn’t get it done. With 21 seconds left, running back Dominique Johnson sprinted untouched into the end zone for a go-ahead 4-yard touchdown. Johnson converted the two-point try to put the Razorbacks up 31-28.
The Bulldogs quickly got into field goal range, but Nolan McCord missed a 40-yard attempt for the tie at the final horn. For the third time this season, MSU lost a game by three or fewer points.
But McCord’s field goal wouldn’t have mattered if Mississippi State’s defense had held one final team. Here’s how things went wrong for the Bulldogs’ on Arkansas’s game-winning drive.
Play No. 1: First-and-10 at the Arkansas 25-yard line. Quarterback KJ Jefferson rolls right and finds a wide-open Johnson in the flat. The running back gets to the 32 before safety Fred Peters brings him down, a productive play on first down.
Play No. 2: Second-and-3 at the Arkansas 32. The Razorbacks open up a big hole on a run play, sending Johnson to the left side. He finds a big hole between left guard Brady Latham and center Ricky Stromberg — who blocks MSU nose guard Cameron Young out of the play — before Peters and linebacker Nathaniel Watson take him down at the 43. “I thought their offensive line did a good job blocking us,” Leach said.
Play No. 3: First-and-10 at the Arkansas 43. Arkansas goes with a quick out route to Trey Knox, who picks up just four yards along the right sideline. Mississippi State seems happy to give up the yardage; cornerback Martin Emerson guards the first-down marker and doesn’t even touch Knox before the wideout runs out of bounds.
Play No. 4: Second-and-6 at the Arkansas 47. Facing pressure from a pair of linebackers — Tyrus Wheat from behind and Brule from the front — Jefferson delivers a beautiful pass to Tyson Morris in between cornerback Emmanuel Forbes and safety Collin Duncan. Morris makes the sliding grab well into Mississippi State territory.
Play No. 5: First-and-10 at the Mississippi State 34. Jefferson spots Brule racing toward him and decides not to force a risky throw. He hurls the ball into the ground in the direction of Johnson, who was tightly covered by safety Jalen Green. It was the only incompletion Jefferson would throw on the drive, and it stops the clock with 1:16 to go.
Play No. 6: Second-and-10 at the MSU 34. Arkansas throws another quick flat route to Knox, who makes the catch at the 32 and gets to the 30. The play gains only four yards, but it takes just four seconds off the clock.
Play No. 7: Third-and-6 at the MSU 30. On the first third down of the drive, Arkansas can’t quite convert. Jefferson finds Knox on the left sideline, but he’s shoved out of bounds by Watson as he nears the first-down marker. Officials rule Knox out at the 25, a yard short of the sticks.
Play No. 8: Fourth-and-1 at the MSU 25. Mississippi State appears to have the stop it needs when Jefferson’s pass for star wide receiver Treylon Burks falls harmlessly incomplete. But a flag for defensive holding gives the Hogs a first down and extends their drive. Replay shows Burks tangled up with cornerback Martin Emerson and arguably no blatant contact by Emerson worthy of a penalty. It’s the 10th flag against MSU and on a call Brule deems “unfortunate,” but the drive isn’t over yet.
Play No. 8 (again): First-and-10 at the MSU 15. The penalty on Emerson wipes out the previous play, and the Hogs have first down at the Bulldogs’ 15. After an MSU timeout with a minute to go, Morris leaks out of the backfield on the left. He catches Jefferson’s toss at the line of scrimmage and gets down to the 9 before Forbes gets him out of bounds.
Play No. 9: Second-and-4 at the MSU 9. Jefferson rolls to his right and meets pressure. Brule runs into the block of Johnson on the quarterback’s left side; Wheat fights through what looks like a hold and nearly brings Jefferson down. But the quarterback escapes, and Brule trips over Wheat. Jefferson breaks the tackle of defensive lineman Nathan Pickering, runs past Peters and is leveled inside the 5-yard line by Watson. He has a first down at the 4 as the Bulldogs’ missed tackles prove costly. “I thought we needed to affect the quarterback more, and when we did we needed to finish the deal,” Leach said.
Play No. 10: First-and-goal at the MSU 4. Leach said after the game he wasn’t trying to let Arkansas score, but Johnson gets a huge hole on the first-down run. He bursts up the middle untouched for the 4-yard score to put the Razorbacks on top, 29-28. Johnson then converts the two-point conversion on a shotgun run, surging past Green into the end zone. Mississippi State’s defense couldn’t get the job done. “We just didn’t stop them,” Leach said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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