Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

11/20/2010 at 10:36pm

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- It's never easy here in Starkville, no matter who the better team on paper might be. Arkansas has come away with three overtime wins, including this one, and in the first two they may not have been the more talented team on the field. They may not have had that big of an edge on Mississippi State Saturday night either.

But the Razorbacks escaped with their fifth win in a row, 38-31 in two overtimes over the Bulldogs. It keeps Arkansas' slim hopes for a BCS bowl alive, with No. 5 LSU coming to Little Rock on Saturday. The Hogs are 9-2, and it's only the fifth time Arkansas has won nine games since joining the SEC in 1992.

Knile Davis had one of those games with so much to remember and yet so much to forget, with two fumbles -- one that might have slowed Arkansas' momentum in the first half when the Hogs were in position to put some distance between themselves and the Dawgs. His second fumble came near the end of regulation and allowed the Bulldogs a short field to drive to a tying field goal.

But in the overtime, Davis was the recipient of what proved to be the winning points, taking a 7-yard pass from Ryan Mallett in the left flat when the Bulldogs came on an all-out blitz. Davis was able to walk into the end zone with the go-ahead points, and then Arkansas' defense stiffened and stopped MSU on their series, with a fourth-down sack by Tenarius Wright of Chris Relf sealing the deal.

Davis had 187 yards rushing on 30 carries, and he moved over the 1,000-yard rushing mark. His 62-yard scoring run got the Hogs going in the first quarter after MSU had taken a 7-0 lead.

Mallett hit the 300-mark again, completing 17 of 26 passes for 305 yards and three scores. His 89-yard scoring pass to Jarius Wright in the third quarter turned the game around. Mississippi State had dominated the line of scrimmage in that period.

The Bulldogs snapped an amazing 100 plays to Arkansas' 61 for the game and had 13 more minutes of possession time.

"Usually you hear that and you're talking about losing the game," Hogs junior defensive end Jake Bequette said.

Instead, the cowbells had finally quit ringing with the fourth-down sack of Relf, and every one of the Hogs rang THEIR bell that was situated outside the entrance to their locker room. The bell that is typically at Fayetteville signifies a "having your best performance to date," as Bobby Petrino says. It took that and more for Arkansas to move to 5-2 in the SEC and 9-2 overall, as well as 3-1 on the road in the SEC this season.

Tagged: Mississippi State Bulldogs, Southeastern Conference, Jake Bequette, Bobby Petrino