Gigged again: Aggies rout Hogs after halftime

Arkansas junior quarterback Austin Allen tries to get into the end zone during the third quarter against Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The play was reviewed and Arkansas turned the ball over on downs on the next play.
Arkansas junior quarterback Austin Allen tries to get into the end zone during the third quarter against Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The play was reviewed and Arkansas turned the ball over on downs on the next play.

— Arkansas still can't solve the Aggies.

No. 10 Texas A&M scored on four consecutive second half possessions Saturday and beat the No. 17 Razorbacks 45-24 at AT&T Stadium. It was the Aggies' fifth straight win in the series known as the Southwest Classic.

The game was tied 17-17 at halftime, but Texas A&M used a defensive stop and several big offensive plays to take the lead and put the game away.

The Aggies held Arkansas out of the end zone three times from the 1-yard line late in the third quarter, then scored two plays later on a 92-yard pass from Trevor Knight to Josh Reynolds to take a 24-17 lead.

Box Score

http://wholehogspor…">Texas A&M 45, Arkansas 24

“Any time your defense can get you turnovers, shortens the field and changes the momentum of the game,” Knight said. “And then it’s just our job to make those plays.”

Texas A&M (4-0, 2-0 SEC) also had touchdown runs of 33 and 22 yards from Trayveon Williams in the fourth quarter, and a 9-yard touchdown pass from Knight to Christian Kirk after an Arkansas fumble in the red zone.

Arkansas (3-1, 0-1 SEC) dominated time of possession with just shy of 40 minutes, but the Razorbacks failed to score touchdowns three times inside the red zone. Rawleigh Williams lost a fumble at the 1-yard line and Cole Hedlund kicked a 25-yard field goal in the second quarter.

But the Aggies' biggest stop of the game was in the third quarter at the end of a long Arkansas drive that began when Texas A&M lost a fumble inside the Razorbacks 5.

Allen failed to score on a pair of quarterback keepers on second and third downs. It appeared Allen may have crossed the goal line on the third down run, but the play was upheld upon review.

"I've got to believe that the right call was made," Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. "It took forever. When those reviews take that long, usually it's because they're going to get overturned. Obviously a huge, huge play."

The Razorbacks tried an end-around run with receiver Keon Hatcher on fourth down that was stopped for a loss of five yards. The drive totaled 19 plays for 89 yards and took 9 minutes, 55 seconds off the clock.

Texas A&M hit on the long pass two plays later and never looked back.

“It wasn’t just the fourth-down stop,” Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. “It was the three before that that really, at that point in the game, said a lot about our defense, I thought.”

Arkansas took a 17-10 lead with 1:31 left before halftime on an 8-yard run by Williams, but Texas A&M responded with a 6-play, 74-yard drive that was capped by Knight's 48-yard touchdown run with 13 seconds left in the second quarter.

Knight finished the game with 157 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries, and completed 12 of 22 passes for 225 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“It was execution, pure execution,” Knight said. “I don’t think we did anything different schematically that we had planned. We ran exactly what we had planned on running."

Williams added 153 yards and 2 touchdowns on 12 carries. The Aggies out-rushed Arkansas 366-120.

Allen completed 28 of 42 passes for 371 yards and 2 touchdowns for the Razorbacks. He was sacked once and hurried three times, but was hit on a regular basis and had to be checked out by Arkansas' training staff during the first half.

"He's OK. Sore. He'll be real sore tomorrow," Bielema said. "He's a tough guy obviously. I think our guys know that. I appreciate that about him."

Arkansas plays again next Saturday against Alcorn State in Little Rock.

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