By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — For three weeks, Ryan Mallett spoiled us with throws so precise that an incomplete pass was breaking news.
Against Mississippi State, he authored some negatives, reminding that he is a redshirt sophomore who is still learning. The Arkansas quarterback actually threw two interceptions in his first 20 attempts — he only had four in his first 294 throws this season — and both of those on Saturday were his fault. He also threw a mile over the head of 6-foot-3 Greg Childs when the Razorbacks had a third-and-three and Arkansas’ lead over Mississippi State was only 28-21.
The thing is, his memory is very short and he does not hang his head. What he does is keep on pitching, with confidence.
When the Razorbacks finally put away the Bulldogs, it was Mallett who did the heavy lifting. The opportunity occurred because the defense, abused by MSU much of the third quarter, came up with a turnover. Zach Stadther and Tenarius Wright doubled up on 235-pound Anthony Dixon and Elton Ford recovered the fumble at midfield.
From there, Mallett twice located an open D.J. Williams and the Bulldogs helped out with a personal foul to the MSU 11. Both times, Mallett had time. Most any competent college quarterback could have completed those passes. But, from the 11, the throw Mallett made to Greg Childs was only for the strong and the elite. Fleeing to his right, he somehow saw Childs running parallel to him near the back of the end zone, sort of hopped on one foot and threw back across his body for the TD that restored the margin to 14.
A monotonous storyline is at the heart of Arkansas’ fourth straight victory — Mallett throws for a bunch of yards, Arkansas’ offense does not lose a fumble, and the defense gives us some big plays. The 6-foot-7 Mallett was good on 18-of-34, a far cry from his 60-of-73 for 972 yards during the preceding three weeks.
Several minutes after the 42-21 decision was final, Mallett was still on the field. A rock star in the making, he doffed his helmet to pose with a couple of young women, took time for a TV interview, then signed autographs for young men, one of whom had to jump to touch the name on the back of the jersey.
Arkansas has lost a couple of team fumbles, but an offensive starter has not been guilty of such a sin since Mallett against Georgia. Maybe, the lack of fumbles stems from the fact that the Razorbacks don’t run the ball as often as many teams and opponents don’t get as many chances to strip the ball. For instance, the Bulldogs had twice as many rushes as the Razorbacks.
With LSU dead ahead, it is disconcerting that the Bulldogs ran the ball without the hint of a passing game. Sophomore Chris Relf, a 235-pounder who was the quarterback most of the second half, only completed 3-of-6 in the final 30 minutes. Despite that, MSU ran for 231 in the second half.
Some of their yards resulted from solid blocking, some from a first step in the wrong direction by Dixon, and some from poor tackling. During the third quarter, Wendel Davis, Jerico Nelson, and Ford each reached for a ball carrier and ate a straight arm.
A sequence in the third quarter exemplified run vs. pass.
Eleven straight running plays produced 94 yards and a touchdown that narrowed the UA lead to 21-14. On third-and-10 from the Arkansas 36, the Razorbacks used a fake cadence to check out the defense. A cluster of wildly gesturing coaches let Mallett know that a blitz was coming and he threw a quick screen to Cobi Hamilton who did the rest.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
