What a game. Ole Miss and Arkansas football may have just played the game of the year on Saturday afternoon and it came down to a two-point conversion and it was no good.
You have to love the gutsy call after KJ Jefferson’s touchdown pass to bring Arkansas within one with no time left but the two-point conversion attempt was just poorly executed. It landed incomplete but it wouldn’t have been good anyway because Arkansas had an ineligible receiver downfield.
Ole Miss won the game, but Arkansas has to feel good that its offense had a chance to win against one of the most explosive offenses in the nation. Quite the turnaround from a shutout loss a week ago.
What’d we learn from the Razorbacks’ tough loss?
3. Reheim Sanders is a breakout star
We saw the birth of a star on Saturday afternoon as freshman running back Raheim Sanders looked like one of the best players on the field all game long.
While this has been considered Trelon Smith’s backfield, it was tough to keep Sanders off the field on Saturday as he picked up a career-best 139 yards on 17 carries. Smith still averaged 7.7 yards per carry and finished just under 100 yards, but Sanders looks like the real deal.
With Jefferson able to pick up yards with his legs along with Smith and Sanders, the Razorbacks have one of the best backfields in the SEC.
Sanders is going to be a menace in the SEC for years to come.
2. KJ Jefferson out-dueled Matt Corral
Who saw this coming, especially after last weekend’s nightmare performance against Georgia?
KJ Jefferson bounced back after accounting for under 100 total yards against the Bulldogs and getting blanked to put up 51 points and he scored six total touchdowns. He out-dueled the Heisman contender in this game on the other side of the field.
Everyone wanted to see how Jefferson would respond after his worst game of the season. Would he crumble under the microscope or rise to the occasion on the road against another ranked opponent? Well, he put his team in a position to pull off a big road win over Ole Miss but his defense couldn’t help him out enough.
Jefferson finished the game with 326 yards and three touchdowns on 25-of-35 completions and he also had 85 rushing yards and three more scores.
What a bounce-back by the veteran quarterback.
1. Arkansas is a legit contender
This was a big measurement game for Arkansas. Believe it or not, a lot of people were tuning into this one to see if the Razorbacks would fade back into the background with a second straight loss to a ranked opponent on the road or if they would bounce back and make a statement against Ole Miss.
They did the latter, despite the loss.
Even though Arkansas didn’t come out on top in this one, the Razorbacks were a missed two-point conversion away from pulling off a huge road win against the No. 17 team in the country that has been as big of a surprise as them this season.
Sam Pittman has done a fantastic job with this team on the year and while the Razorbacks are now down to 4-2 on the season and likely out of the top 15, they can rest easy knowing that they are for real, not folding against the Rebels when it would have been easy to do so.
Arkansas’ season is not over just yet.