Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema admits he took last Saturday’s 51-50 loss to Mississippi State pretty hard.

For the third time in four weeks, the Razorbacks got in an offensive shootout last Saturday. But unlike their overtime wins over Auburn and Ole Miss, they fell short against Mississippi State. Trailing by one point, Arkansas drove to the MSU 12-yard line and set up for a field goal in the final seconds. But Mississippi State’s Beniquez Brown blocked Cole Hedlund’s field goal attempt, and the Bulldogs came away with the win.

“They played well, Mississippi State played well, but we could have won that game,” Bielema said during his weekly press conference on Monday.

“You can choose the adjective. It ain’t fun,” to score 50 points and lose, he added.

Bielema said he doesn’t blame Hedlund for the kick being blocked.

Bielema has been criticized for running the ball three straight plays after the Razorbacks got the ball inside the 20 on their final drive. But he thinks it was the right decision. He pointed out that Mississippi State had two timeouts and they’d been moving the ball well, so he didn’t want to give them another chance to score. He wanted to kill as much clock as possible, then kick the winning field goal. Unfortunately for Bielema and his team, the kick got blocked.

That strategy was no doubt affected by seeing Dak Prescott on the other sideline. Mississippi State’s quarterback threw for 501 yards against Arkansas. Bielema said Prescott brings challenges that other quarterbacks in the SEC don’t. He believes Prescott and Arkansas’ Brandon Allen are definitely the two best quarterbacks in the SEC.

Bielema said the team also took the loss hard, but it left them even more motivated for this week’s game. He said the Razorbacks had the best 6 a.m. workout they’ve had all year on Monday. He said Saturday’s game was the first time since he’d been at Arkansas where they’d had failure when everyone expected to win. But he also said that’s something they can build on.

“I don’t think they’ll need any extra motivation,” Bielema said.

Arkansas (6-5) hosts Missouri (5-6) on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on CBS.

With one fewer day to practice this week and Thanksgiving on Thursday, Bielema said the Razorbacks have had to adjust their practice schedule somewhat.

One thing that concerns Bielema about Missouri is its defensive line.

“Missouri’s very good up front. They’ve got three or four guys up front who could start for anybody,” he said.

Offensively, Bielema expects Missouri to go up tempo and play fast. He said Arkansas will be preparing for it this week. The Tigers have struggled on offense at times, but Bielema pointed out that Missouri freshman quarterback Drew Lock has had his two best games the past two weeks.

Bielema spoke highly of Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel. Pinkel will be coaching his final regular season game on Friday. He has Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is retiring at the end of the year.

“Gary’s a tremendous coach … He does all the things above board,” Bielema said. “I have the utmost respect for him.”

“They’ll obviously be very motivated for him,” the Razorbacks’ coach added.

A new trophy, the Battle Line Trophy, has been created for the Arkansas-Missouri game.

“We do all right in trophy games,” said Bielema, whose team has beaten LSU for the “Golden Boot” trophy each of the past two years.

“I saw the trophy this morning. It’s a heavy thing,” he added, comparing it to a three-technique defensive lineman.

Bielema said there were no new injuries.

Saturday will be Senior Day for the Razorbacks. Each senior will be recognized before the game. Bielema said that during his time as a head coach he’s tried to make Senior Day fun for the players.

“It’s going to hurt to lose these seniors,” he said.