Mississippi State Rallies to Win in Fayetteville for First Time in History

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (WCBI/AP) — Beniquez Brown blocked a field goal attempt with less than a minute remaining to help Mississippi State hold on for a wild 51-50 win over Arkansas on Saturday night.

Dak Prescott threw for a career-high 501 yards and five touchdowns on 38-of-50 passing for the Bulldogs (8-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference), who have now won four straight games over the Razorbacks (6-5, 4-3).

(MSU Athletics)

Prescott’s final touchdown pass, a 14-yarder to Fred Ross with 3:05 remaining, put Mississippi State up 51-50, and Brown’s block helped hold off a school-record seven touchdown passes by Arkansas’ Brandon Allen.

Allen was 30-of-43 passing for 406 yards, becoming the Razorbacks’ all-time leader in touchdown passes (63) in the loss.

Allen, who broke the single-game school record of six touchdowns that he held along with Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson, also became the first quarterback in SEC history to throw for six or more touchdown passes in two conference games in a season.

The effort was not enough, however, to earn the Razorbacks their fifth straight win.

Instead, it was Prescott who came out on the winning side of the shootout — topping his previous best of 453 yards passing in last season’s Orange Bowl loss to Georgia Tech.

After seeing its 17-point first-half lead slip away in the second, Prescott twice led the Bulldogs on go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

His final touchdown pass to Ross, who finished with 10 catches for 154 yards and two scores, proved enough to survive in Mississippi State’s first trip to Fayetteville since 2003.

Arkansas trailed 31-14 in the second quarter and 31-21 at halftime, but it scored 21 straight points to open the third quarter to take a 42-31 lead — thanks to three Mississippi State turnovers in the first 6:01 of the second half.

And it was Allen who poached on the miscues, throwing his fourth, fifth and sixth touchdowns of the game in a 5:04 span, the last of which was an 18-yard strike to Hunter Henry.

Allen tied Mallett for the most touchdown passes (62) in Arkansas school history on that throw, and he moved past Mallett with his seventh touchdown pass of the game — a 10-yard pass to Jeremy Sprinkle that put the Razorbacks up 48-44.

Allen then caught the 2-point conversion pass from wide receiver Jared Cornelius to put Arkansas up 50-44 with 5:33 remaining.

And he appeared to once again have the Razorbacks in position to win with a drive in the final minutes, right up until Brown blocked Mississippi State, which was nearly unstoppable in the first half on its way to a 31-21 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs scored on their first six possessions, the last of which came on Fred Ross’ 55-yard touchdown catch to put Mississippi State up 31-14. Ross reached back and snared the ball with one hand before winding his way through the Arkansas defense.

The only time the Bulldogs didn’t score in the half was their final possession, when they took over at their own 35 with 52 seconds remaining in the half.

Prescott toyed with the Razorbacks defense for much of the half, completing his first 12 passes and finishing the half 21-of-27 passing for 308 yards and three touchdowns.