Woo Pig Sooie! KJ Jefferson leads No. 16 Arkansas football past No. 7 Texas A&M.
Arkansas football
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – KJ Jefferson passed for 202 yards and two touchdowns before being injured early in the second half,
and No. 16 Arkansas hung on for a 20-10 victory against seventh-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday,
the first in the series for the Razorbacks in their ten years as SEC rivals.
Texas A&M’s (3-1, 0-1 SEC) 11-game winning run was also ended.
After being tackled out of bounds to open the second half,
Jefferson returned hobbling and favoring his left leg, and he departed a few plays later.
He did, however, return late in the game and was on the field to take the last kneel-down in Arkansas’ first 4-0 start since 2003 in the SEC opener.
The Aggies hadn’t given up a passing touchdown all season until Jefferson’s 85-yard touchdown to Treylon Burks, who surged past a defender and caught a ball at the 40-yard line.
Burks looked to fall, but he sprang up and raced down the right sideline for a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Arkansas leads the series, which goes back to 1903 and includes their tenure as longstanding Southwest Conference rivals, 42-33-1 overall.
Texas A&M, on the other hand, has won all nine encounters since entering the SEC in 2012, 20 years after the Razorbacks first competed in the conference.
AJ Green received a ball in the left flat early in the second quarter, shed one defender, took a stutter step around another,
and then got a lift when linebacker Aaron Hansford essentially shoved him past yet another defender inside the 25-yard line on his way to a 48-yard touchdown.
Jefferson completed 7 of 15 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns.
The Razorbacks racked up 443 total yards, with Trelon Smith adding 82 yards running.
Midway through the third quarter, Isaiah Spiller took a handoff up the middle, found an open gap,
and outran four defensive backs to the end zone, cutting the Aggies’ deficit to 17-10. That took up most of Spillar’s 95 yards.
THE TAKEAWAY
Texas A&M: On the opening four plays of the game, the Aggie defense allowed gains of 16, 15, 12, and 23 yards to Arkansas.
If it hadn’t been for a downfield holding penalty, one of them would have been 10 yards longer.
In its first three games, Texas A&M had allowed just 232 yards passing, making it the only squad in the nation to allow less than 100 yards each game.
By halftime, Arkansas had 229 of its 246 yards passing.
Arkansas: Montaric Brown’s diving interception of a deflected ball early in the fourth quarter was the game’s lone turnover, and it set up a nine-play drive that concluded with a 24-yard field goal by Cam Little.
Little made a 46-yard field goal early in the game, the Aggies’ first points in eight quarters.
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POLL IMPLICATIONS
Arkansas will almost likely go up a few places, to its best ranking since the 2012 season,
when it was ranked eighth. The Razorbacks were rated No. 16, which was their highest ranking since then.
The Aggies will still be ranked; the only question is how far down they will go following 15 straight AP polls in the top 10 since last October.
UP NEXT
Arkansas will play No. 2 Georgia in the second of four games against rated SEC opponents.
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Woo Pig Sooie! KJ Jefferson leads No. 16 Arkansas football past No. 7 Texas A&M
