Three takeaways forced by the Tennessee defense helped power the 12th-ranked Vols (5-1, 2-1 SEC) to a 34-31 win over Arkansas (2-4, 0-2) at home on Saturday.
Following a 3-yard rushing touchdown from Peyton Lewis, Tennessee had a 34-17 lead over the Razorbacks with 13:14 remaining in the game. A pair of touchdown passes from Taylen Green in the final 10 minutes tightened the screws, but Tennessee had enough to hold on.
Arkansas fumbled on its second drive, ending a threat just before it reached scoring positioning. Arkansas fumbled again on its first drive of the third quarter, ending a drive at the UT 14-yard line. Then it fumbled again early in the fourth.
That final giveaway led to Lewis’s touchdown run — the only points Tennessee scored off Arkansas’s 3 turnovers. Though the Vols didn’t punish the Hogs on the scoreboard for their sloppy security, the damage was felt.
Arkansas had 17 points with 4:36 to play in the second quarter. It didn’t score again for nearly 30 minutes of game clock. During that span, Arkansas had 2 drives that gained a combined 96 yards and produced 0 points.
They couldn’t finish.
Tennessee, meanwhile, handled the line of scrimmage when it had the ball. DeSean Bishop had 14 carries for 146 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Quarterback Joey Aguilar had 59 rushing yards. Lewis had 33 yards and 2 scores on 8 carries.
As a team, Tennessee ran for 264 yards at 6.6 a carry. And there’s no need to adjust for sacks with that number; Arkansas didn’t touch Aguilar when he dropped back to pass. The scorekeeper credited Arkansas with only 1 quarterback hurry all game.
Arkansas put up yards, to be fair. A maligned Tennessee defense still struggled. The Hogs outgained the Vols 496-485 in the game. Green completed 21 of his 31 passes for 256 yards and 2 scores. Tailback Mike Washington ran for 131 yards and a score on 19 carries.
But Tennessee had the ball last, and a 7-yard run from Lewis on a do-or-die third-and-1 play sealed the win.
It also spoiled the debut of Bobby Petrino as the Razorbacks’ interim head coach. Petrino will have his hands full next week, too, when Arkansas takes on Texas A&M in search of its first SEC win.
Tennessee, which entered the game with the ninth-best odds to win the SEC, travels to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama in a game with major conference title implications.
Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31
Here’s the Tennessee-Arkansas box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Joey Aguilar vs Taylen Green
A statistical breakdown of how Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar and Arkansas’s Taylen Green played:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
