Dominant Win at LSU Has Arkansas Primed for Late-Season Surge Similar to 2014
We've seen this script recently from the Arkansas Razorbacks.
But like any good Hollywood director would do, head coach Bret Bielema has a few tweaks for his sequel to 2014's blockbuster of a late-season surge.
Arkansas picked up its fourth consecutive and most impressive win of the 2015 season Saturday night, dominating an LSU team that was ranked No. 2 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings a couple of weeks ago.
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It doesn't matter what side of the ball you looked at for Arkansas in its 31-14 win over LSU in Baton Rouge—the Razorbacks had the clear edge.
Arkansas' defense, which had been struggling with injuries all season long, consistently fought through the LSU offensive line for big plays.
The Razorbacks entered Week 11 with eight sacks in nine games, a rate that ranked fourth-worst in the country among all FBS programs. LSU, on the other hand, was tied for 17th nationally in sacks allowed.
So, naturally, Arkansas sacked LSU quarterback Brandon Harris five times for a loss of 42 yards Saturday night in Death Valley.
But the Arkansas front wasn't done, as it limited falling Heisman contender Leonard Fournette to just 91 yards on 19 carries—the superstar sophomore's second-lowest total of the season.
This was the same Arkansas defense that allowed 222 rushing yards to Ole Miss last weekend, 162 to Auburn last month, and 171 to Texas Tech earlier this season.
It wasn't quite the 17-0 shutout effort Arkansas put on LSU last season to spark a late-season turnaround of three wins in its final four games.
No, this Arkansas team is looking better on the offensive side of the ball.
The Razorbacks put up 440 yards on the LSU defense, giving them at least 400 in each of their four straight wins. Brandon Allen didn't have nearly as impressive of a game as he had last weekend in the wild overtime upset of Ole Miss, but he didn't really need it.
"Arkansas Offensive Coordinator Dan Enos has said a balanced offense isn't equal rushing and passing. Enos defines balance as being able to take what the defense is giving you," Otis Kirk of Hawgs247 wrote. "If they need to pass, that is what they do, as evidenced by the Ole Miss game...or they can win it on the ground, as they did tonight."
Arkansas scorched LSU with a season-high 299 rushing yards. The powerful style of football was peak Bielema, who turned Wisconsin into a machine with that same kind of offense.
Running back Alex Collins averaged 8.8 yards per touch against the Bayou Bengals, and wide receiver Jared Cornelius put any talk of an LSU second-half comeback to bed with a slick 69-yard touchdown on a reverse.
Despite a weak performance on third downs, Arkansas only committed two penalties and was able to cash in on most of its scoring opportunities.
While the defense kept LSU off the board for most of the game, the offense made sure there would be plenty of room for its teammates on the other side of the ball to operate.
"We're not known for quick-strike touchdowns, but any time we can get points on the board we're going to take them," Allen said, per Matt Jones of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "We have people on our offense who are able to make big plays like that. They're starting to pop up here late in the season."
Now Arkansas is bowl-eligible with two winnable home games coming up against Mississippi State and Missouri. The Hogs just need victories in two of their final three games in order to surpass the record they posted last season.
As Bielema noted Saturday night, Arkansas will have a good bit of starters and contributors coming back for next season, and a strong finish to the season should set up quite a bit of hype for 2016.
Perhaps Arkansas could learn from the mistakes that doomed the team during the first few games of the 2015 season, when it went from being ranked in the preseason to 1-3 with home losses to Texas Tech and Toledo.
Next season, the Razorbacks will have a tough-looking road matchup at TCU in Week 2, but they could start the season stronger with wins over the likes of Louisiana Tech and Texas State.
The fact remains that when it's clicking, Arkansas under Bielema is the team no one wants to face in the SEC West. It's knocked off three bowl-bound teams in its last four weeks and blew the doors off a FCS foe.
If Bielema can continue to keep this momentum going through the rest of the year and into 2016, he'll have more than another fun comeback story on his hands.
He could be in charge of an entire must-see franchise.
Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of CFBstats.com.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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