FAYETTEVILLE — Prior to Saturday, Brandon Allen made the wrong play to end two straight Arkansas-Mississippi State games.
In 2013, he was intercepted in overtime as the Razorbacks lost in Little Rock. He returned to Fayetteville to find his truck egged.
Last year, Allen marched the Razorbacks down the field in the closing minutes in Starkville, but was intercepted in the end zone in the final minute. The then-No. 1 Bulldogs held on for another seven-point win.
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This year, Allen played the game of his life against Mississippi State. His seven touchdowns tied an SEC record and he passed Ryan Mallett as the Razorbacks' career leader in touchdown passes.
On the final drive, Allen completed five straight passes for 17, 16, 13, 6 and 18 yards to move the Razorbacks from their own 9-yard line to the Bulldogs' 19.
He had completed both of his passes on the drive before that, throwing a touchdown to give his team the lead with 5:33 to play.
But with a minute remaining, Arkansas' coaches took the ball out of his hand.
The Razorbacks ran three consecutive run plays against a defensive front that shut it down all game. Arkansas settled for a field goal attempt from a freshman kicker who had been inconsistent and who had already had two kicks blocked in SEC play.
As it tends to do in these type games, the conservative play-calling backfired as Cole Hedlund had his third kick blocked and the Razorbacks lost 51-50.
It was a surprising decision in an otherwise brilliantly-called game by the Arkansas offensive coaching staff. After the Razorbacks struggled to establish a run game in the first quarter, Allen was given the reigns to the offense.
After Arkansas fell behind by 17 points, he led the Hogs on four consecutive scoring drives - all capped by touchdown passes. A fifth drive failed when the Razorbacks opted not to kick a short field goal and Allen overthrew a pass to the end zone.
That pass was about the only blemish for Allen, who completed 30 of 43 passes for 406 yards. He completed at least two passes to six different receivers.
Like at Ole Miss two weeks ago, Allen had to be superb because of the hand he was dealt by the other side of the ball. The Razorbacks won that one despite giving up 52 points and beat Auburn last month when allowing 48 in four overtimes.
On Saturday, it lost for the first time ever when scoring 50 points.
Even had Allen thrown a touchdown pass on Arkansas' final drive, there was no guarantee the Razorbacks would have won. As good as Allen was, Dak Prescott may have been better in passing for 508 yards and five touchdowns.
Bret Bielema said following the game that running three times on the final drive was better than risking an interception in the red zone.
Aside from a swing pass on the game's first drive, Allen hadn't come close to being picked off by the Bulldogs. He was placing passes in tight windows throughout the game, most notably on a touchdown pass to Hunter Henry that put the Razorbacks ahead early in the third quarter.
Arkansas had scored in 25 consecutive trips to the red zone prior to its last one. Only three of those scores were field goals.
Play-calling gave the Razorbacks a chance to win a game in which they gave up 631 yards and 51 points Saturday, but it came up short at the end.
It kept the ball out of the hand of Arkansas' best player and kept Allen from shots at redemption, history and finishing what he started.