FAYETTEVILLE — There wasn’t any comeback magic for Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett on Saturday against No. 1 Alabama.
Mallett passed for 357 yards, but also threw three interceptions, including two in the fourth quarter as the Crimson Tide rallied to beat the Razorbacks 24-20.
“Ryan’s going to take it hard, there’s no doubt,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said. “He didn’t play as well as he wanted to play, especially when the game was on the line.
“But he’s tough, and he’ll bounce back.”
A week ago at Georgia, Mallett completed three consecutive passes to move the Razorbacks 73 yards in 32 seconds and pull out a 31-24 victory, hitting Greg Childs with a 40-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left.
He got another shot when Arkansas got the ball at its 21 after Alabama took a 24-20 lead on Saturday. The Razorbacks had 3:18 left on the clock and two timeouts.
Mallett said there was no doubt in his mind the Razorbacks could score a gamewinning touchdown, just as they had at Georgia.
“We have a great team, and we were ready to go score and end the ballgame,” Mallett said. “We just didn’t do it.”
Mallett moved the Razorbacks to the Alabama 48 with completions to Jarius Wright, Joe Adams and Childs. But when he attempted to throw the ball away as he was pressured on a second-and-9 play, Alabama cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick intercepted it along the sideline with 1:48 left.
The Tide then were able to run out the clock to hold on and win.
“His feet were not in a good spot,” Mc-Gee said, referring to Mallett’s mechanics on his third interception. “He didn’t do a good job of getting the ball out of bounds. That kid [Kirkpatrick] made a break on it and made a play on it.
“It’s tough playing quarterback out there. I feel bad for Ryan right now, because he’s really down. But he turned the ball over, and that got us in trouble.”
Said Mallett, “I’m just disappointedin myself. ... I was just trying to throw it away, and I didn’t get it far enough out there.”
Mallett’s second interception came on third-and-11 from the Arkansas 19 with 4:40 left and the Razorbacks leading 20-17 after an Alabama field goal.
Tide free safety Robert Lester intercepted a pass over the middle intended for Childs and returned it 33 yards to the Arkansas 12, setting up Mark Ingram’s touchdown run with 3:18 left that put the Tide ahead 24-20.
“Just a bad throw,” Mallett said.
Lester also intercepted a Mallett pass in the end zone on third-and-goal from the Alabama 6 with 11:32 left in the second quarter and Arkansas leading 10-7.
“I should have just thrown it away,” Mallett said.
McGee called it “another bad decision” by Mallett, who came into Saturday having thrown for 39 touchdowns with 9 interceptions in 16 games with the Razorbacks.
“He would like to have it back right now,” McGee said of each interception Mallett threw against Alabama. “You can’t have it back, you’ve got to play the game when the game’s going on.
“But I know he’s down right now.”
Mallett completed 15 of 22 passes for 250 yards in the first half, but was 10 of 16 for 107 yards in the second half.
“We had to get after him and make some kind of effect on him so he wouldn’t be so comfortable back there and complete passes and go for like 500 [yards] on us,” Alabama defensive end Marcel Dareus said. “Our main adjustment at halftime was just to get after him.
“We really had to pin our ears back and get after him, no playing around.”
Mallett said the Tide “brought a little pressure” in the second half.
“But it wasn’t nothing we couldn’t handle,” he said. “We just didn’t execute.”
Mallett said he had no interest in a “moral victory” against defending national champion Alabama, which has won 18 consecutive games.
“What’s a moral victory? You lost,” Mallett said. “You’re not going to find anybody harder on me than myself.
“Any loss I take personally, especially when I play like that in the fourth quarter. I didn’t play very well.”
McGee said that considering how tough Mallett will be on himself after Saturday’s game, it’s a plus the Razorbacks have an open date before their next game on Oct. 9 against Texas A&M at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“I’m glad we’ve got an off week,” Mc-Gee said. “It will be good for him.”
Sports, Pages 32 on 09/26/2010