Arkansas’ offense never found its footing Saturday night, and Utah made sure the Razorbacks paid for every misfire in a 43-10 rout at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
The night started with a little promise. Arkansas put together a 14-play, 64-yard opening march that chewed up 7:16 and ended with a 29-yard field goal from senior kicker Max Gilbert, giving the Hogs a 3-0 lead at the 7:44 mark of the first half.
That was about as good as it got. From there, the offense stalled over and over again: four punts, two turnovers on downs, one interception and a missed field goal.
Arkansas’ only other touchdown came late in the fourth quarter with sophomore quarterback AJ Hill on the field.
Junior quarterback KJ Jackson opened with some rhythm, completing 8 of his first 12 passes for 72 yards. But the night unraveled fast. He finished 14 of 34 for 139 yards with no touchdowns and one interception, a rough finish in a game where Arkansas couldn’t keep anything moving.
“The opening drive, I think there's some confidence that they'd be able to move the ball a little bit effectively, and then I don't have that exact answer,” Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield said after the loss. “It may be a drop here, it may be a blown protection here, maybe a penalty here, it may be a three-and-out, and then all of a sudden, you just can't get it going.
“You look at really the middle eight, the last five minutes before half. They scored twice, and then they came out and scored when they received the opening kickoff.
That's kind of where the game got out of hand. But something we weren't getting back in sync.”
Hill got two drives in the fourth quarter and completed 8 of 14 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown to senior wide receiver Ismael Cisse. The score came on a play that looked like it might be intercepted, but the Utah defender couldn’t finish the play and Cisse stayed locked in to secure Arkansas’ lone offensive touchdown. It cut the deficit to 43-10 with 6:43 left.
“AJ did some good things, but it's clearly not good enough,” Silverfield said. “There's some mistakes that were made, some incompletions, some dropped passes as well.
Two sacks at the end that he took that were not necessary. Obviously one was a blown protection.
He did some good things.
“Right now, I've probably got to stick with KJ. I haven't made that decision.
I've got to go back and watch the film. But there's a reason why we chose KJ to be the quarterback.
We've got to be better in all facets.
“He has to be better. The receivers got to be better.
Tight ends got to be better. The offensive line's got to be better, running backs got to be better.
And it starts with me, so we'll get it fixed.”
The ground game was just as stuck. Arkansas managed only 61 rushing yards on 28 carries, a 2.2-yard average that never threatened Utah.
No running back got past 25 yards. Sophomore Cam Settles led the backs with 25 yards on six carries, junior Braylen Russell had 13 yards on five attempts, and fifth-year Sutton Smith finished with 13 yards on seven rushes.
Jackson led Arkansas on the ground with 34 yards on seven carries, including a 13-yard run on the final play of the first half.
Silverfield pointed back to the line and Utah’s defensive approach as major reasons the run game never got going.
“It starts with the offensive line didn't do a good enough job,” Silverfield said. “Then they played man coverage almost the entire game or pressured us with a cover three behind it. That means there's always going to be an extra hat in the box, and we did a poor job.
“If you want teams to stop loading the box, then you have to be able to throw the ball effectively. Our lack of the ability to throw the ball at all downfield or even beat man coverage, we're going to struggle to run the football. I think it goes hand-in-hand, but clearly not good enough job by anybody.”
Arkansas now has a fast turnaround before Week 3, when No. 2 Georgia visits Razorback Stadium on Saturday.
Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. CDT, and ABC will televise the game.
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Ryan Silverfields Week Three depth chart gave a clear read on where Arkansas stands heading into Georgia week: the defense and special teams are holding steady, while the offense gets only a few small tweaks. The biggest piece of continuity is at quarterback, where junior KJ Jackson remains the starter, a sign the Razorbacks are not looking to shake up the most important position this late in the buildup.
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