Track meet: BYU can't keep up in loss to Arkansas

Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson Jr. (1) runs the ball while playing the BYU Cougars in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (Ben B. Braun, Deseret News)


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PROVO — There was still a lot of football left to be played when it happened.

But one moment in the second quarter stands out when Arkansas' football team took control of its road trip to BYU.

KJ Jefferson rolled out of a tackle, bounced off another would-be sack artist and connected with Trey Knox for a 36-yard gain on third-and-11 with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter.

It was all downhill from there in the Razorbacks' first-ever trip to the Wasatch Front.

Jefferson threw for 367 yards and five touchdowns, and Raheim "Rocket" Sanders ran for 175 yards and two scores as Arkansas hung a half-hundred on BYU in a 52-35 win Saturday afternoon at LaVell Edwards Stadium, snapping the Hogs' three-game losing skid in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

"This is everything," Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said, later adding: "To come in at half with a 10-point lead was huge, because they had the ball. The first possession of the second half."

The Razorbacks ran up 644 yards of total offense against the Cougars (4-3), the most since Toledo posted 692 total yards in BYU's 55-53 win in 2016.

"I said last time (against Notre Dame), you're not going to win many games by scoring only 20 points. You won't win a lot of games when you give up 52," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said after the game. "Even with that being said, there were moments and I think what was most frustrating was losing the turnover battle. That's not our identity; we're focused on taking care of the football.

"There were quite a few mistakes on the coaches, on myself, and mistakes that the players made. We'll have to focus that before a tough game next week. ... We don't have a lot of time to worry about this game. We played some really tough teams, and I felt like we still had some moments. Just couldn't generate the momentum."

Six years after BYU struggled to contain the Rockets, the Cougars once again struggled to contain "Rocket" — and the rest of the Razorbacks, too.

On offense, Jaren Hall and the Cougars had enough to hang with Jefferson, who also ran for 32 yards in his first game since exiting concussion protocol with the Hogs. The Cougars posted 471 yards of total offense, including 356 yards with three touchdowns and an interception from Hall and a pair of hundred-yard receivers in Puka Nacua (125) and Kody Epps (141).

"I thought they had a really good team, and I was worried about Hall — very worried about Hall," Pittman said of the Cougars' redshirt junior quarterback. "I was hoping we could run the football, but I told KB all week, 'Let's just open it up and throw the ball on first down. Throw the ball in the middle of the field.' That's where we thought we might complete some passes.

"I was worried, because their receivers are really good at one-on-one catching. They're big, and they catch the ball extremely well. I was more concerned about their passing game than I was their running game."

Christopher Brooks even ran for 53 yards, and Nacua added two rushing touchdowns on jet sweeps. BYU's Achilles' heel was more of a molehill than a mountain, it seemed.

BYU tight end Isaac Rex (83) runs into the end zone for a touchdown against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
BYU tight end Isaac Rex (83) runs into the end zone for a touchdown against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (Photo: Ben B. Braun, Deseret News)

But that's only part of the game, and offense wasn't the problem. At least, not the biggest problem.

"They put up 52 points; that's just not good enough defense," said linebacker Ben Bywater, who had seven tackles. "On Monday, we'll be looking at film, but it's going to be a tough few days with some honest conversations with ourselves, with the coaches, and with everybody. We've got to step up. We didn't do our jobs today."

After a turnover and a punt, Arkansas (4-3) scored on eight consecutive drives, including seven touchdowns, before the Cougars forced a goal-line stop with 27 seconds remaining in the game. By then, the Cougars trailed by 17 and Jacob Conover finished out the final seconds at quarterback.

Keanu Hill added 61 yards on four catches, and Isaac Rex pulled in a 4-yard touchdown for the Cougars, who started strong with three consecutive scores in the first half before back-to-back turnovers (including Hall's third interception of the year) turned the tide during Arkansas' big run.

BYU scored on just two of five drives in the second half, adding a second fumble with 3:59 left in the game.

The Cougars started out fine, at least on offense, but couldn't sustain the pace.

Nacua went downfield — way downfield, that is, about 34 yards — to set up BYU's first scoring drive on Hall's 4-yard strike to Rex to go up 7-0 with 5:39 left in the opening quarter.

Saunders averaged 11 yards per carry on his first six touches, including a 15-yard touchdown in the opening frame. But Hall found Epps with a 21-yard score to give the Cougars a 13-7 lead after the first quarter.

That play capped a four-play, 75-yard drive that included a trio of pass interference or other defensive penalties against the Hogs, who had four penalties for 60 yards in the first quarter. Then the Razorbacks went on their run, converting four of the next five drives into touchdowns (with a 34-yard field goal by Cam Little for good measure), and the rest is history.

"I think the biggest thing is just execution," Nacua said. "There were a lot of good things we did out there. But thinking of my fourth-down play, other ball security, a fumbled snap; it came down to execution on both sides of the ball. Obviously, our team had their struggles on both sides of the ball, but I can only focus on what we do as the offense.

"Jaren left us out there to make plays, and I had bad ball security. Just execution; they didn't do anything to get us out of our game plan. We knew we were going to come in for a shootout. Just execution in all phases: special teams, offense and defense."

Unlike the Razorbacks, who converted on 12-of-15 third downs and only faced a fourth down once, BYU was successful on just 7-of-13 third-down opportunities and 1-of-3 on fourth down.

The Cougars also gave up three sacks and three turnovers, including interception by Hudson Clark who had a game-high 11 tackles.

Micah Harper and Max Tooley had eight tackles apiece to lead BYU, which travels to Liberty next Saturday (1:30 p.m. MDT, ESPNU).

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