GAINESVILLE, Texas -- Just when you thought you could trust the Arkansas Razorbacks again, this happens.
Just when it appeared that the Hogs were about to emerge from the football wilderness, they show how they got there.
Just when you want to sing "Arkansas, Fight!" comes a call from the audience for The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again."
Unless football is not an overriding personal concern or you were otherwise out of pocket, here's what you might not know: Something sinister happened to the Razorbacks in late afternoon and early evening Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where they had won on four previous trips, thus delighting stadium landlord and University of Arkansas graduate and former football player Jerry Jones.
A fifth Arlington victory appeared likely when Arkansas led 28-14 over sixth-ranked Texas A&M, a nine-point favorite, early in the fourth quarter with first-and-goal from the 1.
Then came one of the more unfortunate penalties by a Razorback football team in some time. Way back upfield, Dan Skipper, a 6-10 offensive lineman whose pancake block against Northern Illinois the previous week was widely replayed, was called for tripping. That blunder not only cost Arkansas 70 yards in field position but sapped the Razorbacks' hard-earned momentum, largely earned on a 51-yard touchdown run by punter Sam Irwin-Hill late in the first half.
Arkansas scored neither on that drive or on the second-quarter series, with the score 14-14, that Brandon Allen's 34-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Henry was negated by penalty -- holding against Skipper, the referee ruled.
Bret Bielema said afterward, "We talk all the time ... about playing clean. And that means playing penalty free. Don't put yourself in a position to beat yourself by what you're doing. And we can't win with eight penalties.
"Dan Skipper has done a lot of really positive things for us ... but there was no need for that there. So it's a life lesson that we've all got to endure. That play didn't lose the game for us, but it's part of the process and I think he'll understand that."
Skipper's two costly penalties and John Henson's missed field goal, which if good would have made it 31-21 with 2:29 left, were instrumental in A&M's comeback. But what sticks in memory are long Aggie pass plays against hopelessly beaten Arkansas defenders.
Just when Kenny Hill's Heisman Trophy candidacy looked shaky, the sophomore quarterback engineered the first fourth-quarter comeback of his Aggie career. Touchdown passes of 86 yards to Edward Pope and 59 yards to Josh Reynolds, the latter with 2:08 left only two plays after Henson's 44-yard miss, made it 28-all.
And then on the first play of overtime, Arkansas winning the toss but going on defense first (a decision college coaches often make, each team given four downs from the opponent's 25), Hill threw over the middle to a wide-open Malcome Reynolds for the capper in a 35-28 Aggie victory.
"It's the first time this year we've really been in that situation," A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, now 3-0 against Arkansas, said. "We were off a little bit. Things here, there; we turned it over. We needed to win a game like that, particularly in the fashion that we did at the end with our defense having to stop them, not just in overtime."
The Aggie defense stayed on the field 37 minutes in regulation, at times overpowered by Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams, occasionally breaking. But it's a cold, hard fact that Arkansas scored only once, on Allen's 44-yard pass to a wide-open AJ Derby, after Irwin-Hill's fake punt staked the Hogs to a 21-14 halftime lead.
The clock couldn't run fast enough for Arkansas in the fourth quarter, even with its offense geared to power running. Game managing might always be Allen's best feature as a quarterback, but Arkansas looked uncertain down the stretch, Bielema calling timeout before calling on Henson to kick on fourth-and-six from the Aggie 27.
Bielema stressed the need for the Razorback offense to "stay true to who we are. ... be able to effectively run the ball and the play-action pass game. They did some minor adjustments, and we adjusted back with that. But we've got to be able to execute when the time comes."
Arkansas' first bye week comes just in time, coaches getting to correct mistakes but also encourage players for good performances. Arkansas started September with two winnable games at home and needing at least a split on the Texas road, which it got. Arkansas starts what could be its season-defining October stretch -- Alabama in Fayetteville, Georgia in Little Rock -- with a 3-2 record, which many fans would have found acceptable Sept. 1.
But will the fourth quarter and overtime in Arlington cast a rain cloud over the season that never goes away?
"The good Lord has got a plan for everybody," Bielema said. "And for whatever reason, we weren't able to have the success we wanted to in the end here. But there are a lot of positive steps, (although) I didn't fly to Dallas to make a positive step. I came here to win, and I think our players did.
"We've got to get our guys healed up -- a lot of broken hearts. The good thing is these hearts can be mended if they're handled the right way and treated the right way. I let our kids know I love them to death, but there's going to be some things that they have to hone in to at home to make a positive out of a very negative situation here today."
Sports on 09/29/2014