Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

November 13, 2018 at 10:44 pm.

Hogs still fighting, Morris says

The Arkansas Razorbacks are still winless in Southeastern Conference player this season, but first-year coach Chad Morris says his team hasn’t stopped fighting for a victory.

Arkansas rallied from a 24-3 fourth-quarter deficit last Saturday against LSU in Fayetteville, Ark., scoring a pair of touchdowns to cut the margin to 24-17, but it was too little, too late as the Tigers hung on for the victory. It was Arkansas’ ninth consecutive SEC loss stretching over the past two seasons, and the Razorbacks have just two conference games remaining, beginning with Saturday’s game at Mississippi State.

“I thought our team continues to fight and play extremely hard until the very end,” Morris said Monday. “That again was evident last Saturday night as we cut the lead to one score with five minutes to go and an opportunity to get the ball back.”

Arkansas’ offense has performed well at times this season — the Razorbacks scored 31 points against Alabama — but struggled against LSU. Arkansas had just 216 yards of total offense in the loss.

The offense faces an even bigger challenge this week. Mississippi State boasts the SEC’s leading defense, allowing just 281 yards per game.

“The defense is as good as advertised,” Morris said. “No. 1 in the SEC. It’s the fastest overall defense that we’ve seen.”

Arkansas’ defense played well in the second half against LSU. After the Tigers took a 21-3 lead on a 13-yard touchdown run by Clyde Edwards-Helaire with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter, Arkansas limited them to a single field goal the rest of the way. The Razorbacks stopped LSU on a fourth-and-1 play from the Arkansas 25 in the fourth quarter to help enable the late comeback.

“Our guys did what we challenged them to do all week long, and that was to see how many red jerseys we could get to the football at the whistle,” Morris said. “We had guys flying all over the field and that was good to see.”

Arkansas will need a similar effort against Mississippi State senior quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who has a history of big performances against the Razorbacks. As a sophomore in 2016, Fitzgerald completed 23 of 33 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 131 yards and four TDs in a game that Arkansas won 58-42. Last season, he completed 12 of 23 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns and ran 22 times for 101 yards and a touchdown as Mississippi State won 28-21 at Arkansas.