FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema described Saturday's 51-50 loss to Mississippi State as one that "rips your heart out," and now the Razorbacks face a short week to prepare for Friday's season finale against Missouri.
"Nobody's going to feel sorry for us," Bielema said. "What's done is done."
The Razorbacks had been riding high, winning four games in a row by outscoring Auburn, Tennessee-Martin, Ole Miss and LSU by a combined 201-140 since their bye week, before running into a determined Mississippi State team.
"We really wanted to win out," Arkansas defensive back Kevin Richardson said. "But we've got to come back better prepared for next week.
"We probably won't watch much film on this. We'll probably try to get ahead on Missouri since it's a short week. We're going to try to get this one off our minds quick."
Arkansas will take a 3-3 home record, and a 3-2 record at Reynolds Razorback Stadium into the senior day game against the struggling Tigers.
"We've got to bounce back," said tight end Hunter Henry, who caught 7 passes for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns. "We've got to put this behind us.
"We've just got to continue to play our game. ... I don't know that we really played downhill tonight, so we've got to work this week."
Ace Allen
Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen wrote his name all over the Arkansas and SEC record books in Saturday's loss. Allen became Arkansas' career leader in touchdown passes with 63 and broke a three-way tie for the Razorbacks' single-game record with seven touchdown passes. He had been tied with Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson.
Allen became the first SEC player to throw for six or more touchdown passes in two SEC games in the same season. He completed six scoring passes in Arkansas' 53-52 overtime victory at Ole Miss on Nov. 7.
Lost chance
Arkansas let one opportunity slip past late in the third quarter that might have altered the course of Saturday's 51-50 loss to Mississippi State.
The Razorbacks had scored 28 consecutive points to lead 42-31 and faced fourth and 1 from the Mississippi State 26 with 1:20 left in the third quarter.
The Hogs ran fullback Kody Walker on a quick dive play over the left side on the previous play, a third and 2 from the 27, but the Bulldogs collapsed quickly and held him to 1 yard.
Arkansas ran play action on fourth down and Brandon Allen's deep pass for tight end Hunter Henry at the goal line sailed over his head.
"It was supposed to be a quick kind of power pass," Allen said. "They did a good job of covering it up. I was trying to give Hunter a chance and I overthrew him a little bit. It wasn't a great pass on my part. Fourth down, I've got to give him a chance, and I kind of overthrew him on that."
Coach Bret Bielema said he considered trying what would have been a 43-yard field goal, but opted against it.
"We knew it would be a longer-range field goal, exactly kind of what you saw at the end, and was worried about a block in that situation," Bielema said. "Obviously it was fourth and a short 1, but Dan [Enos] felt like he wanted to take a shot. Obviously it didn't happen. I'd probably go for it again. The call we might go back and revisit, but not the decision to go for it."
Pull the cord
Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen might have felt a little like the Razorbacks did after their wild 53-52 overtime victory at Ole Miss on Nov. 7.
"I've never jumped out of a plane," Mullen said. "I wanted to when I was younger to be a sky-diver. "I'm guessing [the game' is like jumping out of a plane, we just pulled the rip cord four hours later. I was in a free-fall for four hours."
Half a hundred
Arkansas' 51-50 loss to Mississippi State marked a school-record fourth time the Razorbacks scored 50 or more points in a game this season. The Razorbacks had scored 50-plus points in an SEC game four times before 2015 and they've done it three times this year.
Arkansas had scored 50-plus points in three games in 1910, 1916 and 2007 before this year.
Dak attack
Dak Prescott's school-record 508 passing yards against the Hogs exceeded his career best by 55 yards. His previous high had been 453 yards in the Bulldogs' 49-34 loss to Georgia Tech in the 2015 Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. Prescott, with two rushing touchdowns, accounted for seven touchdowns, also a school record.
"I had a lot of respect for Dak coming into this season going through these last two years," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "Then when I flipped on the film last Sunday I realized what a big jump he had made. He's really done a nice job. ... He's very accurate."
Prescott completed his first 12 passes and finished 38 of 50, with 5 touchdowns and an interception. His 14-yard touchdown pass to Fred Ross with 3:05 remaining was the third lead change of the fourth quarter and the fifth of the game.
"That was a lot of craziness back and forth," Prescott said. "We got up big, then came out in the second half and had to fight some adversity and stuck together as a team and overcame."
Rush stop
Mississippi State schemed well to neutralize the Arkansas running game led by Alex Collins. The Bulldogs lined their defensive ends up wider than normal in what is called a "Wide 9" formation, got solid penetration on the edges and middle, and had strong run fits by their linebackers and safeties across the board.
Arkansas, which entered the game third in the SEC with an average of 203 rushing yards per game, ran for 73 yards, its second-lowest total behind 44 yards in a 27-14 loss at Alabama.
Collins had a streak of four 100-yard games end with his 53 rushing yards. Collins fell from No. 15 in the nation (120.9 rushing yards per game) to No. 19 (114.7).
Players of the week
Offense
QB Brandon Allen
• Allen, a senior from Fayetteville, established new school records for TD passes in a game (7) and a career (63) while completing 30 of 43 passes for 406 yards. Allen also caught a 2-point conversion pass.
Defense
DE Deatrich Wise
and DT Taiwan Johnson
• Wise, a junior from Carrollton, Texas, had 1.5 sacks and 7 tackles and forced a fumble. Johnson, a junior from Manvel, Texas, had a season-high 8 tackles, a 15-yard fumble return and a pass breakup.
Sports on 11/23/2015