Copyright Arkansas Online
FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green's health will be under examination the next couple of weeks. He was injured but left the field under his own power following the Razorbacks' last offensive snap in a 38-35 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday. The Razorbacks (2-7, 0-5 SEC) have an open date this week prior to a three-week finish against LSU and Texas on the road and then Missouri at home two days after Thanksgiving. Green was wrapped up and spun around by his shoulder pads into the grass on a fourth-down sack by safety Nevaeh Sanders with his head and neck area taking the impact. The redshirt senior, who was flagged for intentional grounding on the play, stayed down on the field for a couple of minutes. When he stood up, he headed straight into the locker room for further evaluation. A UA spokesperson said he did not anticipate the school providing an update on Green's health on Sunday. However, the nation's total offense leader was able to return to his own living quarters and was not taken to a hospital or held for further evaluation following the game. "He got hit and twisted and he got hurt," Arkansas interim Coach Bobby Petrino said Saturday night. "He's with the doctor right now, and we'll just have to see how everything comes out. But it was ... it didn't look good. Ugly-looking play." Green had been slowed by a knee issue two weeks ago, following a knee-to-knee collision with a Texas A&M defender during a 45-42 loss to the Aggies on Oct. 18. He was not able to practice at full speed the week of the Auburn game and tallied a season-low 14 rushing yards during a 33-24 loss to the Tigers on Oct. 25. Green was averaging 7.1 yards per carry through the first seven games, with sack yardage included, to rank among the national leaders, but he has been limited to 2.5 yards per carry the last two games and has been sacked five times. TFL time Arkansas defensive end Quincy Rhodes Jr. worked over Mississippi State backup right tackle Jimothy Lewis Jr., notching 4.5 tackles for losses that totaled 23 yards. Rhodes put up the most tackles for loss by a Razorback in a game since linebacker Desmond Sims posted 4.5 in a 14-10 loss to South Carolina in 2005. The junior from North Little Rock became the first Razorback to reach double-figure tackles for loss in a season since Landon Jackson posted 13.5 in 2023. Rhodes' 14 tackles for loss are the most at Arkansas since Trey Flowers posted 15.5 in 2015. Penalty particulars The Razorbacks' school-record 18 penalties for 193 yards came in all forms in all three phases of the game, plus the sideline, during the flag fest. The 18 penalties exceeded the previous school record of 17 (for 144 yards) set in a 35-0, season-opening win over Air Force on Sept. 13, 1975. The penalty yardage was well beyond the prior record of 155 yards in a 19-7 win over Oklahoma State in Little Rock on Sept. 29, 1956. Arkansas' rash of penalties against Mississippi State featured 7 for 60 yards on offense, 6 for 87 yards on defense, 4 for 36 yards on special teams and 1 for 10 yards on interim Coach Bobby Petrino as he argued about a hit on quarterback Taylen Green. Basically every one of them proved costly. Two of them came on missed attempts by Mississippi State kicker Kyle Ferrie, the Harding Academy graduate. Keshawn Davila jumped offside on a missed extra-point attempt by Ferrie that clanged off the left upright. The left-footer made the second try from 1.5 yards closer to give the Bulldogs a 14-13 lead. Ferrie also missed a 51-yard field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter but was given an extra shot after Miguel Mitchell drew a penalty for running into the kicker. Ferrie cashed in the 46-yard try to bring Mississippi State within 35-31 with 5:07 left in the game. The Razorbacks were hit with four holding penalties, which negated gains of 7, 9, 14 and 13 yards by tailback Mike Washington Jr. and Green. They were called against, in order, Kavion Broussard, Corey Robinson II, Fernando Carmona and Jaden Platt. The Razorbacks failed to move the chains after three of the holding calls, but they did convert on third-and-20 after one of them on Green's 38-yard pass to Raylen Sharpe. That play set up Scott Starzyk's 30-yard field goal with one second remaining in the first half. The defense had at least one foul on every Mississippi State scoring drive except one. Quincy Rhodes Jr.'s unncessary roughness flag came after his 5-yard tackle for loss on Davon Booth, turning what would have been a second-and-15 play at the Bulldogs' 35 into a fresh set of downs at midfield. Streaking The loss extended Arkansas' losing streaks to seven games overall and eight in conference play, dating to last year's 58-25 road rout of Mississippi State on Oct. 26. Mississippi State stopped a 16-game slide in SEC games and Kentucky ended a 10-game losing streak in league play on Saturday with a 10-3 win at Auburn, giving Arkansas the longest current SEC skid. After an open date, the Razorbacks have road games at LSU and Texas and a home finale against Missouri to try to break the losing streaks and avoid the program's third 10-loss season since 2018. Young injury Arkansas nickel back Jordan Young needed help getting off the field after he was tackled by Davon Booth at the end of his 12-yard interception return in the third quarter. Young's first interception as a Razorback was his first in more than two years. He notched his first for Cincinnati on Oct. 28, 2023, in a game against Oklahoma State. "He wanted to celebrate, but he couldn't at the time after he caught his interception," Arkansas defensive tackle Cam Ball said. "We just knew he was in pain, and we knew we had to get him off the field and get him the good attention that he needed. So man that was that for a moment. You know, we'll joke and laugh about it 10 years later, it's just how close of a brotherhood we are." Wrong guy The statistical program used by the University of Arkansas assigned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to receiver CJ Brown for leaving the bench area to go onto the field in the dust up after quarterback Taylen Green was slammed down by Mississippi State's Isaac Smith in the third quarter. It turns out the wrong No. 3 was identified, as Brown was actually in the offensive formation on the play. TV replays showed the offending player was safety Larry Worth III, who was later disqualified due to a targeting penalty against quarterback Kemario Taylor. Worth will have to sit out the first half of Arkansas' next game at LSU on Nov. 15. The fallout of the non-call against Smith, after which Green jumped up and pushed the Mississippi State defender, resulted in two fouls against Arkansas, on Worth and interim Coach Bobby Petrino. Maddox Lassiter was flagged for a hit out of bounds on Davon Booth's kickoff return and Worth was ejected for his hit two plays later, giving Arkansas 55 penalty yards in a span of three plays. Mississippi State drove 45 yards in four plays to trim its deficit to 28-21. Stop rate Arkansas owns the nation's third-worst defensive "stop rate," as calculated by the percentage of opponent drives that wind up in punts, turnovers or turnovers on downs, as published by ESPN. The Razorbacks stop 43.2% of opponent drives to rank No. 134 in the FBS, ahead of Georgia State (41%) and Air Force (35.5%). No. 1 Ohio State leads the nation with an 84.2% stop rate and Texas (78.8%) leads the SEC at No. 4 in the metric.
