FAYETTEVILLE — It wasn’t pretty most of the day, but Arkansas defeated Kent State on Saturday 28-6.

On Friday, the 5 keys for Arkansas to get a win was published on Pig Trail Nation and Hogville. Here’s a look back at how the Razorbacks did in each.

Improve Running Game

Here’s What Was Said

Arkansas only had 105 yards rushing against Western Carolina and got very little push from the offensive line. UCF had 723 yards of offense against Kent State with 389 of that coming on the ground. The Hogs will get Brady Latham back this week. He is one of two returning starters from last year and the only one playing the same position. Beaux Limmer has moved from right guard to center, where he played in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Other than that it’s all new starters and inexperienced players for the Hogs on the offensive line. But it will be inexcusable if they can’t show vast improvement this week. Arkansas will be without Rocket Sanders, but the other running backs have shown they are very capable. AJ Green and Rashod Dubinion filled in admirably in the bowl game.

Here’s What Arkansas Did on Saturday

The Razorbacks did improve the running game, but nowhere near to the point they needed to. They had 45 carries for 172 yards and a touchdown. Green was impressive carrying 15 times for 82 yards. The other two running backs who played combined for 42 yards on 17 carries. KJ Jefferson ended up running it more than was planned and ended with 13 carries for 48 yards. Sam Pittman isn’t putting all the rushing woes on the offensive line and said the following.

“I think you open up the second half and we’ve got a pin-and-pull and we run outside the kickout block. That’s not the O-Line, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of reasons why we’re not dominating the line of scrimmage like we have before and some of it has to do with we’re just not moving the line of scrimmage up front like we have in the past. We’re just not moving them. I do think this with the RPO’s on the back end of it like we saw last week you’re not going to get as many in the box and that kind of stuff. But it’s not that. We’re not knocking them off the football right now. We’re not blocking particularly well on the edge. We’re just not blocking particularly well period. AJ got in a little bit of a groove there at the end and R-Dub, but we’re just not a real physical football team. I thought we got better in the second half, but we’ve got to continue… Maybe we had too many runs in going into the game, but we’ve got to figure that out.”

Take Fight to Flashes From Start

Here’s What Was Said

Arkansas was very focused against Western Carolina. They scored on the first two possessions, led 21-0 and then 35-3 at halftime. The Hogs have had a tendency to play down to level of competition or be unfocused at times in the past with such games as this. Arkansas needs to come out and put Kent State away and get some younger players experience. After BYU, Arkansas has a brutal stretch of games. If some of these younger players are asked to play because of injuries later in the season every rep they get in this type game is very beneficial. A focused Arkansas team on Saturday should benefit all involved and should result in a blowout win.

Here’s What Arkansas Did on Saturday

Arkansas did anything but take the fight to Kent State. Instead, the Hogs played down the level of the competition for the most part of the game. I thought Jefferson had the best explanation for it afterward.

“It all comes down to focus. That’s the main thing. We have no excuses. We just got to lock in to the details and execute the game plan and come out with an edge and play with passion from the start. I mean, we kind of did that second half, with chip on our shoulder, with an edge to want to go and pull this thing out, you know what I’m saying, and get the victory. But I feel like we got to come out with an edge, with a chip on our shoulder early on in the game to go and set that tempo and set the standard.”

Cut Down on Penalties

Here’s What Was Said

Arkansas was penalized seven times for 86 yards. They will be without linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul and defensive end Quincy Rhodes due to targeting calls last week. The Razorbacks did a good job in some areas avoiding penalties and a not-so-good job in other areas. The Hogs need to try and cut down on the number of penalties they get in games.

Here’s What Arkansas Did on Saturday

This was one area that Arkansas definitely did show improvement. They were only flagged four times for 34 yards. That was much better and the Hogs can win games only getting penalized four times. The one penalty that was unacceptable though was a delay of game late in second quarter when Arkansas was just inches from the Kent State end zone. It appeared Pittman was trying to get a review to see if the Hogs had scored on the play. Meanwhile time ran out and Arkansas was penalized for delay of game. With three timeouts still remaining it might have been much better served for Arkansas to use one of them there. As it turned out Jefferson found Andrew Armstrong for a touchdown, but a team can’t get a delay in that situation.

Win Turnover Battle

Here’s What Was Said

Last week Arkansas won the battle of turnovers 5-0. That was impressive and while they may not get five creating some is huge. The defense even got a score when true freshman linebacker Brad Spence returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown. Hudson Clark also picked off a pass in Western Carolina territory. On the very next play, KJ Jefferson found Isaac TeSlaa for a 31-yard touchdown. Arkansas had two fumbles, but recovered both of them.

Here’s What Arkansas Did on Saturday

Arkansas did win the turnover battle getting the only one in the game. It happened in the first quarter when Antonio Grier Jr. picked off a pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown. Here’s what Pittman said about the play.’

“Pretty good way to start isn’t it? He’s still not, I don’t think he’s 100% to be honest with you. But we needed him to play with Pooh being out, too, in the first half. So, I think Grier will end up being better against the run and things of that nature, but right now we’re still trying to figure out who that other guy besides Jaheim Thomas is. Pooh has been hurt. He didn’t scrimmage in either one of the scrimmages, then he misses a half here, we think that he could be that guy, but we’ll have to look at the tape and figure out between him and Grier.”

Linebacker Jaheim Thomas led the Hogs with 12 tackles. He said the following about Grier’s play.

“I was happy for him.  I was definitely excited for him. So when I saw him just jump and make the play I ran over there and started celebrating with him because you know that’s big for the first play as a Razorback having a pick six.  That’s great!  I was excited.”

Be Great in Red Zone

Here’s What Was Said

Last week the Hogs made five trips to the red zone and put touchdowns on the board each time. That is a recipe for winning football games. They need to do the same thing this week. Make each trip to the red zone result in points, preferably touchdowns, but if not at last a Cam Little field goal.

Here’s What Arkansas Did on Saturday

Arkansas got into the Kent State red zone three times and scored touchdowns on each possession. So that makes them perfect on eight trips to the opponent’s red zone in two weeks.