HawgBeat - After watching the film: LSU game
HawgBeat provides a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of what we saw on film from Arkansas' loss at LSU.
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The Arkansas Razorbacks fought hard, but came up just short in a 34-31 loss at the LSU Tigers in front of nearly 100,000 fans Saturday night at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
After starting the season 2-0, Arkansas is now on a two-game losing streak after dropping games to LSU and BYU. The Razorbacks were 17.5-point underdogs prior to the game against the Tigers, so they played much better than some thought. But the Hogs could've won the game and more self-inflicted wounds led to the loss.
I've gone back and studied the tape, and I went quarter-by-quarter to talk about the things that stood out to me.
Some of the little details go unnoticed during the live action, so it's always good to go back and study the tape and see what led to the outcome on big plays, touchdowns, turnovers and more. With that said, here's what I saw after watching the tape from Arkansas-LSU...
Note: It's unrealistic for me to write about every individual player and play, so I apologize if I missed anyone doing something impressive. To give your thoughts, visit The Trough premium message board today!
First Quarter
Arkansas went right to Tyrone Broden for his third catch of the season on a curl route to start things off with a 5-yard gain.
Quarterback KJ Jefferson went to Broden again on the next play, but it was incomplete. We wrote about the Hogs being able to use wide receiver size prior to the game and they went right to the 6-foot-7 Broden to start.
LSU's left tackle got away with a pretty obvious hold against Trajan Jeffcoat on 2nd down of the Tigers' first drive, which resulted in a three-and-out.
Jefferson evaded rushers and scrambled up the middle for a 25-yard gain to get in LSU territory. For some reason, they elected to run a designed quarterback run on the next play and LSU was actually given a sack on the five-yard loss for Jefferson.
The Arkansas offensive line was doing a great job of getting enough push for solid gains in the run game on that second drive. The Hogs got the ball down to the LSU 4-yard line and Jefferson looked to have completed a touchdown pass to Luke Hasz, but he was stopped short of the goal line somehow.
On 3rd-and-goal from the 1-yard line, right guard Josh Braun had what would end up to be a very costly false start. Jefferson then threw incomplete after being backed up five yards and Cam Little had to kick a field goal.
LSU picked up a first down on 3rd-and-3 from midfield and that kept a nice drive alive, but Dwight McGlothern jumped a route and picked Jayden Daniels off. The play design was great because McGlothern was able to come off his man with safety help over the top and he jumped the tight end route to give the Hogs the ball.
Literally the next play, Jefferson had probably his worst throw of the year. He was looking for Broden over the middle, but he didn't put nearly enough juice on the throw and Andre Sam was able to cut Broden off and give LSU the ball back.
On the ensuing LSU drive, Hudson Clark made a really nice open field tackle on a pop pass that the Tigers tried to get on the outside. He ran in and made a perfect stop to force a third down. Clark made a few good open field stops in this game.
The dreaded connection of Daniels and Malik Nabers started on a 15-yard completion on 3rd-and-11 near midfield as the first quarter was winding down. Jaheim Singletary was in coverage on that play and he then had a bad rep on the next play by just playing back too much and allowing Daniels to pick up extra yardage on a run.
Before the quarter came to a close, Daniels took a shot to Nabers over the middle with freshman Jaylon Braxton in one-on-one coverage. Braxton recovered with his elite speed and got his hand up right in time to make a pass deflection.
Second Quarter
Keivie Rose opened the second quarter with a sack where he just put a quick side-step on the center and ran right into Daniels. The next play, Singletary broke up a deep shot to Brian Thomas Jr. that would've been a touchdown.
After forcing a punt, Arkansas took over and drove 75 yards in 12 plays just to kick another field goal. At that point, the Hogs were controlling the time of possession battle, but they needed to have 14 points and not six.
The drive started off great with a wide receiver screen to Andrew Armstrong that went 22 yards. Isaac TeSlaa made a perfect block, but I still think that's a play designed for Isaiah Sategna.
TeSlaa had his chance to make a play with a very impressive catch over the middle. The duo of TeSlaa and Armstrong continues to prove they belong in the SEC.
Jefferson and Rashod Dubinion picked up a combined 20 rushing yards on four straight carries to get the ball in the red zone. A really impressive catch by Armstrong on the sideline put the Hogs on the LSU 6-yard line, but they just couldn't punch it in again.
On 3rd-and-goal, Jefferson had to roll out right and he really wanted Armstrong to move up from the back of the end zone.
You rarely see Jefferson get upset with his guys, but he was visually angry with Armstrong after that one and the Hogs had to settle for three points again.
LSU's first big chunk play came on 1st-and-10 from its own 40-yard line. Running back Josh Williams picked up 41 yards and the Tigers got 10 more yards because of a horse collar tackle by Al Walcott, who was also called for holding (it was declined) on the play before. Williams put his hand on Walcott's facemask and didn't give him much of a choice, but it is what it is.
On the run, Jaheim Thomas could've easily plugged the hole, but he guessed wrong on the RPO and went the other way to allow Williams room to run.
The next three plays featured defensive tackle Cam Ball in on a tackle. He helped with a pair of run stops and then he picked up half a sack on 3rd-and-goal to force a field goal.
On 3rd-and-9 of the next Arkansas drive, Jefferson found his go-to guy — Armstrong — for 14 yards. Armstrong is not only a great possession receiver, but he's great at running after the catch.
Arkansas picked up 41 yards on the next five plays to get into the red zone. Beaux Limmer had a few key blocks, including one on a 15-yard rush by Rashod Dubinion.
On 2nd-and-5 from the 19-yard line, we saw a play that should be utilized a lot more. Jefferson just gave Broden a chance one-on-one in the back of the end zone and Broden made a great catch while being interfered with and falling down. For a guy who's dealt with drop issues, that was a very big touchdown grab to put the Hogs up 13-3.
Just when the Hogs had all the momentum going into halftime, the Tigers put together a three-play, 75-yard scoring drive in 18 seconds. Yep, 18 seconds.
Daniels found Thomas over the middle on a route that Singletary let up on. It looked like he was just playing zone coverage, but he didn't have help over the middle. The next play was a 49-yard touchdown to Thomas and it was almost liked he went to the sideline and told Daniels to throw it to him if Singletary was on him. Thomas just burned Singletary to give LSU all the momentum going into halftime.
Just for good measure, Harold Perkins picked up a sack and forced Jefferson to fumble, though he fell on it, and that was the end of the first half. Andrew Chamblee just got blown by at left tackle for the second play in a row and Perkins crushed Jefferson.
Third Quarter
LSU opened the second half exactly how it ended the first half — 3-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 49-yard touchdown catch from Thomas.
Trajan Jeffcoat went offsides and the Tigers snapped the ball for a free play. It almost looked like the Arkansas defense gave up on the play and there was just a miscommunication between Singletary and Clark in coverage.
Patrick Kutas had a false start to start the next Arkansas drive and it looked like things were about to unravel. But the Hogs methodically drove down to the LSU 19-yard line before they were forced into a 4th-and-2.
After originally lining up to go for it, Pittman took his first timeout to go over the decision. The third down call was a keeper for Jefferson, which is something we've been wanting to see in short yardage situations but it didn't really work.
After the timeout, they lined up for a field goal, but Max Fletcher took the snap and ran eight yards to the right to convert on the fake punt. Pittman said after the game that it was the same fake punt they ran in the 2021 game, but to the right with the Australian punter.
Jefferson took a sack after Dominique Johnson's chip attempt was unsuccessful. On 3rd-and-16 with the play clock ticking down, Jefferson called a timeout and the Hogs were left with just one timeout with 6:07 to go in the third.
Out of the timeout, Jefferson took another sack, this time it was Kutas and Devon Manuel who allowed the pressure. This was the play where Da'Shawn Womack's helmet came off and he sacked Jefferson and then pushed him down after the play was over. Anyways, Little had to kick another field goal to make it a 17-16 LSU lead.
The next LSU drive was when I started to think the Arkansas defense was gassed. After a strong first half, that group gave up at least eight yards on seven of the nine plays the Tigers ran on a 75-yard scoring drive.
Arkansas' defensive front was rotating, but they were all getting pushed around quite a bit. On 2nd-and-5 from the 8-yard line, Daniels found a wide open Nabers on a crosser over the middle that was just a missed assignment it looked like. Jaheim Thomas dropped back with the tight end when he should've stepped up to get Nabers and the Tigers were able to take a 24-16 lead into the fourth quarter.
