Arkansasâ Sam Pittman admits he âdidnât know what to doâ during loss to Mississippi State
Sam Pittman said he didn’t know what to do during Arkansas’ 7-3 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday.
During the third quarter, the Razorbacks had a fourth-and-2 at the Mississippi State 33, trailing 7-3. Pittman hesitated, and the Hogs instead were flagged for delay of game. The result wasn’t a field goal or an attempt to go for it. Arkansas punted the ball instead.
“I didn’t know what to do to be perfectly honest with you,” Pittman said. “So, I was probably 8 seconds in on the 40-second clock. I decided to kick a field goal, and we didn’t get it off in time. That’s the truth. I did not want to call a timeout at that point because I wasn’t even sure I wanted to kick a field goal to be perfectly honest with you.”
The punt put the Bulldogs in a hole.
“We kicked it down to the 2 and the fans got really involved in it. To be honest with you, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t make the decision fast enough. Once I got it in there, I thought we had plenty of time to kick it, but, at that point, I wasn’t going to burn a timeout because my feeling was I wasn’t for sure I was making the right decision anyway.”
Arkansas ran just four plays in Mississippi State territory the rest of the game.
Mississippi State’s defense limited Arkansas to 200 yards a lone field goal, which came on the Razorbacks’ first drive, as the Bulldogs picked up their first SEC win on the season, 7-3. Vanderbilt transfer Mike Wright started in place of the injured Will Rogers and threw a second-quarter touchdown pass to Jo’quavious Marks to give Mississippi State the only points it would need.
Wright finished 8 of 12 passing for 85 yards and he ran for another 60 on 11 carries.
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.