STARKVILLE, Miss. — It was a game that deserved overtime and no loser. A Southeastern Conference classic.
One that rocked with hard knocks, enthusiasm and energy.
Momentum swung back and forth openly and often.
An outrageous crowd, fourth-largest in school history, mostly stood and mostly cheered for their often overlooked hometown heroes, who on this night would fight to the double-overtime end.
With 0:01 showing on the clock Derek DePasquale’s 22-yard field goal tied it at 31-31 and sent it to overtime, which rarely favors the visitor.
Unless they are Razorbacks, who in the secondovertime shelved the conservative play-calling and relied on Ryan Mallett’s arm, and he answered with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Knile Davis.
The Hogs defenders reached deep in their hearts and on fourth-and-7, Tenarius Wright wrapped up Chris Relf and it was a 38-31 escape for the Razorbacks.
On a night when Relf showed there was no need to even consider paying $180,000for a quarterback, the No. 21 Bulldogs appeared ready to upset the No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks.
To jerk the Sugar or Cotton Bowl welcome mat from under the feet of their visitors.
They did it the old-fashioned way; they lined up and ran it up the gut, slamming and whamming into grass-stained uniforms of the Hogs.
Relf and Vick Ballard were like battering rams and when they weren’t jarring the Hogs they were stutter-stepping behind their blocks.
Only the Hogs persevered, and appeared poised for the victory when Davis’ fumble led to the tying field goal. Yet, it had been a fumble caused by Elton Ford and recovered by Darius Winston that hadled to an 89-yard touchdown pass play from Mallett to Jarius Wright and the 31-21 lead.
Arkansas won the coin toss to open overtime and chose to defend, and it started badly. But when Ballard was stripped on Mississippi State’s fourth play, the ball went out of bounds in the end zone for a touchback.
Freshman kicker Zach Hocker’s 39-yard field goal attempt hooked left, only his second miss of the season, but the game was headed to a second overtime and Mallett’s passing.
Earlier the Hogs had appeared ready to make a huge statement. One that would quiet the cowbells, the crowd and maybe send the BCS computers spinning intooverdrive.
D.J. Williams took a short pass, followed great blocks by Wright and Davis and covered 25 yards to the end zone, and it looked like more as he went from the right sideline to the left.
With a 14-7 lead, Eric Bennett recovered a fumble for the Hogs at the MSU 31.
Visions of big bowls were dancing in the heads of the Razorbacks, but Davis, who scored the Hogs first touchdown on a 62-yard run, was stripped and the bells echoed across the darkness and into the deer woods 50 miles away.
The Bulldogs began a time-consuming, almost mind-numbing 70-yard drive on which they converted onfourth-and-3 and on fourthand-1.
The drive took 6:03 and left the score tied a 14-14. The home team held the Hogs, then proceeded to drive 60 yards for a 21-14 lead. To put it mildly, Relf was unhurried and unharmed most of the game, until the final play when Wright put him down.
It was not just a great game, it was a classic matchup of coaches trying to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses, and in the end, the Razorbacks moved to 9-2 and are in the hunt for a big bowl, maybe even BCS.
Sports, Pages 25 on 11/21/2010