First Close Loss Of The Silverfield Era At Arkansas Featured Several Red Flags

FAYETTEVILLE — There was an energy inside Razorback Stadium on Saturday that hadn't been present in quite a while, and it was because the beleaguered Razorbacks finally had a shot to win a football game against a Power Four opponent.

Arkansas, two-touchdown underdogs against No. 15 Tennessee, fought to the bitter end in a 24-17 loss to the Volunteers that saw the Hogs take a 14-7 lead in the third quarter and possess the football while tied at 17 in the closing minutes.

For a team that was outscored 122-34 in its first three games against Power Four competition this season, it was both surprising and refreshing to see the Hogs in a dogfight with a potential College Football Playoff team. The end result was all too familiar.

Ryan Silverfield's first one-score loss at Arkansas was incredibly frustrating. Arkansas had a mountain of missed opportunities that could've led to its first win against an SEC opponent in Fayetteville since it beat UT on Oct. 5, 2024.

From a KJ Jackson fumble on Arkansas' first drive of the game, a missed field goal from Max Gilbert right before halftime, a three and out after the aforementioned pick from Lewis and the baffling decision to punt the ball back to Tennessee on what turned out to be UA's final drive, it was the different verse of the same song Razorback fans are tired of hearing.

After trailing 7-0 at halftime, Arkansas looked the best it had all season in the third quarter. The Hogs imposed their will on Tennessee's defense with a run game that suddenly had life, and the UA defense responded in kind.

"There's no magic speech," Silverfield said. "There's nothing that I said that's like, ‘Hey, go win one for the Gipper’. It was, ‘Hey, let's execute better. Let's find ways’. And I literally told them before we came out, I said, ‘ We got them exactly where we want to be’. Just keep playing one play at a time and go out there and execute at a higher level. And I asked, I said, ‘give everything you can for the next 30 minutes. Give everything you got. Just lay it all out there’, and to the young men's credit, I think they did.

"And for them, and for everybody, it's hard when you don't win the football game because, man, they believe and they fight, and so it's my job to make sure they continue to believe and continue to fight. But I know they will, because you know, what are we? Five games into the season, six games into the season. I know these guys are going to continue to show up and work and do exactly what they need to get better."

The improvement Arkansas showed on Saturday was encouraging. But the mistakes it made, especially in regard to decision making, were not. If the Hogs are going to be in more close games this season, they must look at Saturday as an example of what not to do if they want to win them.

The conservative decision making and lack of a killer instinct on Saturday were major red flags, and Arkansas won't win football games moving forward playing like they did on Saturday.

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