Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

11/6/2011 at 12:59am

Image by Mark Wagner

Jarius Wright's 68-yard touchdown reception helped Arkansas to a 44-28 victory on Saturday. Wright finished with four catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

FAYETTEVILLE — Oh, what might have been for Arkansas.

Take away dropped touchdown passes from normally sure-handed Cobi Hamilton and Ronnie Wingo Jr., correct the aim on a couple of Zach Hocker field goals, erase the interception Tyler Wilson threw while trying to avoid a sack and just think about the outcome.

Of course it’s not like the nation’s No. 7 team didn’t look impressive on Saturday even with those miscues. Eliminate mistakes and what would have been was a performance more dominating than an already impressive 44-28 victory against No. 9 South Carolina with an 73,804 at Razorback Stadium and an ESPN audience watching.

“It could have easily been 60 points on the board,” Bobby Petrino said before wrapping up his postgame comments. “We made some mistakes. One thing we didn’t do when we made mistakes was get down. We kept competing.”

Arkansas (8-1, 4-1) was clearly a better football team than the Gamecocks (7-2, 5-2). In a matchup of BCS Top 10 teams, the Razorbacks looked faster and more physical, even if they were left wishing for a handful of plays back.

Contributions came in all three phases as the program got its first Top 10 victory in Fayetteville since 1965. There were more than enough big plays to negate the ones that didn’t happen in Arkansas’ fifth consecutive victory. Now the Razorbacks are 8-1 for the first time since 2006.

Scores came via field goals, rushing, receiving and special teams. Plus the defense came away with four turnovers and a season-high five sacks to negate South Carolina opportunities and set up chances for the Razorbacks.

“Arkansas played very well, and they were a lot better than we were tonight certainly on offense, defense and special teams,” South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier said.

Any time South Carolina seemed to have momentum, it didn’t last long. Arkansas made sure of that.

Dennis Johnson’s 98-yard kick return eliminated the first deficit Arkansas faced, pushing the Razorbacks up 10-7 in the first quarter. Jarius Wright’s 68-yard touchdown gave the Razorbacks the lead for good at 17-14. Wingo Jr.’s four-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 37-28 with 8:09 remaining and Jake Bequette’s sack and forced fumble set up an easy scoring opportunity at the one.

Wright, who finished with four catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns, worked quickly to negate a huge mistake from Wilson in the first half. South Carolina defenders were bringing him down for a sack, but before they could complete the play Wilson tossed the ball. It wound up in the hands of Devin Taylor, who returned it 48 yards for a 14-10 lead.

Wilson found Wright on the first play of the ensuing possession. Arkansas went up 17-14 and never trailed again.

“It felt like they had a little momentum at that time,” Wright said. “They acted like they had a little momentum, so for us to be able to quiet them down after that big play was real big for us.”

Again and again Arkansas answered.

Hearing throughout the week how good the Gamecocks were up front irritated the Razorbacks. South Carolina entered the game with 16 sacks and was supposed to be too hard to move the football against, even for Arkansas, who had the SEC’s top passing offense.

“We took it upon ourselves to prove them wrong,” said Johnson, who contributed 86 of the team's 136 rushing yards.

Arkansas succeeded for the most part, posting 435 yards and 44 points on a defense that entered the game allowing 266.1 yards and 17.1 points per game. Still, the team couldn’t help but feel somewhat unfulfilled. South Carolina didn’t hit 100 yards of total offense until the third quarter and Arkansas had a 253-49 edge in the opening half, but had just a 24-14 halftime lead to show for it.

“We could have buried them at halftime,” Wright said.

True, but no worries. Arkansas just shook it off and wound up with an impressive victory anyway.

This was a different show of resiliency than we’d seen from this team in recent weeks. But it was no less impressive than watching the Razorbacks battle back form double-digit deficits against Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.

“It shows the ceiling of this team,” Wilson said. “It’s unbelievable. We got so many opportunities it could have been a greater score deferential tonight than it was. The sky’s the limit. We’ve obviously got some big games ahead. And we can prove that.”

Tagged: 2011 BCS Standings, South Carolina Gamecocks, Steve Spurrier, Bobby Petrino, Jake Bequette, Jarius Wright, Tyler Wilson, Arkansas Razorbacks