LA Tech falls at Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE – Last week, in what proved to be the best win in Sonny Cumbie’s three years as head coach at Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs called their belief in the process ‘uncommon’.

This season hasn’t been what anyone expected or wanted but Tech showed a sign of life by walking into first-place Western Kentucky’s home and coming back to Ruston with a 12-7 upset victory to keep bowl hopes alive in a season that seemed all but finished.

But uncommon belief can only go so far, and the Bulldogs found out the hard way in a 35-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday afternoon that featured all-too-common mistakes.

LA Tech drops to 4-7 overall with the loss, missing out on a bowl game for the fourth season in a row.

“We had a lot of opportunities early in that first quarter and second quarter and first half for our football team to take advantage of and we failed to do that in terms of turnovers, we failed to take advantage of turnovers that we created. We didn’t take advantage of short fields that we created with special teams plays. We failed to do that. Against a good team like Arkansas, it’s going to be hard to overcome that.”

LA Tech’s defense did all it could in the first half, forcing two takeaways – a Jacob Fields interception and a Zach Zimos fumble recovery – while limiting the Razorbacks to 1-8 on third down. But back-to-back touchdown drives by Taylen Green late in the second quarter led to a 14-0 deficit at the break, with Tech’s offense putting up a goose egg in the first half for the fourth time this year.

Tech was outgained 250-43 in the first half, picking up just three first downs with six punts.

And the Bulldogs didn’t go without chances in the opening 30 minutes, starting with Fields’ interception return giving Tech a fresh set of downs at the Arkansas 19-yard line.

But even after a fake field goal attempt by Buck Buchanan moved the Bulldogs to the 5-yard line, Tech shot itself in the foot like its previous two road contests. After moving to the 3, Tech had an incomplete pass, a false start back to move back to the 8, and then center Landon Nelson launched the snap over Evan Bullock’s head back to the 25.

To cap off the head-scratching series, Buchanan missed a 43-yard field goal to end the once-promising scoring threat.

“We basically had two negative plays with the false start,” Cumbie said as he explained the botched red-zone trip. “You prepare your players because you knew they were going to shift from a four-down front to a three-down in a lot of those situations. Anytime it’s been in a critical situation, they’ve done that. We pump crowd noise on Thursday and Friday practices because we knew it was going to be a loud place and the same thing happened to us on Friday’s practice for whatever reason. Whether it was somebody said anything, I don’t know what it was in terms of he just shot the ball back there and we weren’t ready. He thought he heard somebody, and he snapped it back.”

In the second quarter, Tech had another chance to get on the board first after Zimos’ fumble recovery set the Bulldogs up on the Arkansas 40. But Tech’s offense had nothing in its bag, going three-and-out for five yards to give the Razorbacks the ball right back. Arkansas answered with a 13-play, 80-yard TD drive that was capped off on an 11-yard TD pass from Green.

Green scored a 41-yard rushing TD on Arkansas’ next drive to take a two-score lead into halftime, despite punting three times and turning the ball over twice through five drives.

Tech finally got on the board in the third quarter with Evan Bullock finding Eli Finley for a 2-yard TD pass to cut it 21-7 with 3:59 left in quarter – Tech’s 11th drive of the game.

But Arkansas answered promptly as Green rushed for an 8-yard TD for his fourth total score of the night to bring it back to a three-score game with 14 minutes left. Green also added a 27-yard TD pass early in the third.

Bullock and Green added touchdown passes before the night was done, with Tech getting a 20-yard TD to Jimmy Holiday while Green found Ja’Quinden Jackson to cap off the dominant day.

Take away two special teams fakes by Patrick Rea and Buck and Tech had 98 yards of offense with just under 11 minutes left to play.

Cumbie was proud of his defense for doing all they could but knew at some point Arkansas would bring too many looks to stop for long.

“I think at the end on defense we ran out of gas a little bit," Cumbie said. “In the second half on offense, in particular in the third and fourth quarter, we woke up and played. But by that point, you squandered so many opportunities to help your football team.”

Tech finished with 229 yards of offense and was 4-19 on third down. Arkansas had 454 yards of offense, despite a 1-11 mark on third down. Tech also averaged 1.2 yards per carry.

Even with a bowl game off the board, Cumbie still expects Tech to finish the season strong next week at home.

“It’s been an uncommon season from the standpoint of how games have ended for us in certain cases,” Cumbie said. “I think they have felt it and they have seen the progress in how we’ve played, in particular defensively, and how much we’ve improved on that side of the football. On special teams, a couple of units are tops in the country.

“Bottom line is, we gotta play better on offense. It’s collectively. It’s everybody involved with that. I expect the guys to be able to bounce back and have a great week next week and send our seniors out on the right foot.”

LA Tech (4-7, 3-4 CUSA) closes out the 2024 season next Saturday at home against Kennesaw State (2-9, 2-5 CUSA).