Arkansas loss to Texas A&M shows Hogs still have plenty to fix

Arkansas scored seven points in the first quarter Saturday night.

That was it for the evening.

Texas A&M beat the Razorbacks 34-7, and the Hogs didn’t put another point on the board over the final three quarters.

Arkansas is now 2-3 overall and 0-2 in SEC play.

This one was in College Station, and it stopped being close before halftime.

The Aggies came in with problems of their own. They’d dropped two straight to Kentucky and LSU.

A week ago, they ran for just 68 yards in a 35-6 defeat at LSU. That was their lowest total of the season.

Against the Hogs, they ran for 231.

Aggies’ ground game gets well in a hurry

KJ Edwards and quarterback Marcel Reed each finished with 66 rushing yards.

Edwards reached the end zone twice. Reed added a rushing score and threw for 170 yards.

“This was a major win to get our confidence back,” Edwards said.

So the Razorbacks were good for somebody’s confidence. It just wasn’t theirs.

Arkansas quarterback KJ Jackson passed for 111 yards. He had one touchdown and one interception.

The interception didn’t take long.

Dalton Brooks picked off Jackson on the third snap of the night. That put Texas A&M at the Arkansas 28-yard line.

Carsyn Baker finished the short drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

One answer and then nothing

Edwards made it 14-0 later in the opening quarter with a 20-yard run.

The Razorbacks did respond. Chris Marshall caught a 26-yard touchdown pass just before the period ended.

At 14-7, it was a game.

It didn’t stay one. Texas A&M ran off 20 unanswered points.

Reed ran it in from 1 yard out with roughly 2 1/2 minutes left before halftime. That made it 21-7.

Then David Olano hit a 57-yard field goal, the longest of his career. The Hogs went to the locker room down 24-7.

The third quarter didn’t bring any relief.

Kiotti Armstrong turned a catch into a 54-yard gain on the Aggies’ first possession after the break. Edwards scored from 3 yards out one play later for a 31-7 lead.

Stopped a yard short

Arkansas had a chance to answer on its next drive.

The Hogs reached the 1-yard line and faced fourth-and-goal. They decided to go for it.

Braylen Russell got the ball. Brooks and Landon Rink dropped him for a 2-yard loss.

A yard away from points, the Razorbacks went backward instead.

Olano added a 50-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. That set the final margin.

That’s two kicks of 50 yards or longer in one night against Arkansas.

The Aggies weren’t perfect, either. Penalties are still something they’ll need to cut down before tougher SEC opponents show up.

It didn’t matter much on Saturday.

What comes next for Arkansas

There’s trouble on offense and on defense for the Razorbacks right now.

One touchdown in four quarters tells part of it. Giving up 231 yards on the ground tells the rest.

The fixes need to come in a hurry.

Arkansas went 2-10 last season. Five games into this one, the Hogs have already matched that win total.

The hard part is adding to it.

No. 17 Tennessee visits the Razorbacks next Saturday.

Texas A&M goes on the road that same day to face No. 25 Missouri.

The Aggies will make that trip feeling better about themselves. Arkansas helped with that.