2019 Week 14

Time for the "Knockdown Dragout" as the intrastate rivalry has become known. The Bluffies don't have Tyler Cooper due to back injury. The Razorbacks are less a guard.

Epic. Pine Bluff physically beat up on Arkansas, leaving two players severely injured. The Arkansas defense knocked Pine Bluff woozy, shutting down the PBU running game to 3 yards total. The Bluff made the first serious assault, but turned it over on Wrye's fumble at the 3. Two plays later, Dan Bookbinder brought down Arkansan QB Orlando Bowser in the endzone for a safety and a 2-0 lead.

But Bowser and his band of ruffians owned the rest of Q1, taking a 7-2 lead on a robo-drive. The Bluff notched 3 field goals in Q2 and scored a touch on a 28 yard swing pass to Wrye. Three of those four drives were courtesy a short field, courtesy in turn of the defensive effort. Pine Bluff led 17-7 at the half.

But the Hogs owned Q3 and scored 3 unanswered TDs, The first was on a long drive. The second happened when the Razorback defense hemmed Kirby Smith in the pocket of the end zone, knocked him hard and made him toss the ball right to a waiting Hog. The third came after an interception that gave Arky a short field. Arkansas led 27-17 midway through Q4.

The next score came on a 32y hail mary from Kirby to Watson who had single coverage in the end zone. Hail mary? Hail, it was 4th/10, and Kirby had just taken a 7 yard sack on a double WR screen on 3rd/3. It was a desperate pass but Watson came down with it. Pine Bluff held Arkansas to 3-and-out, but the Bluff frittered away its possession with an interception on 3rd down. Arkansas had the ball in Pine Bluff territory. One first down and the game was over. The Hogs ran for 5 yards, and PBU called timeout. Arkansas then was stopped for no gain and let the clock run down before snapping the next play. It was a short pass in the flats to the receiver, but Fred Stanley jumped the route and took off like a 6-7 275 pound startled deer. Nobody caught him, and the extra point gave the Bluff a 31-27 lead with under a minute to play.

Bowser had shown robo-mode plenty of times today, but on first down Stanley's blitz from the back side made Bowser hurry his throw, and Brian Ealy was right there to intercept it. Pine Bluff picked up one first down, burning Arkansas' remaining timeouts, then knelt at the 5 yard line to end the game.