ARLINGTON, Texas - Gasoline to a fire.
That's how receiver Malcome Kennedy summed up Texas A&M's quick-strike offensive ability.
If it weren't for a late rally by the No. 6 Aggies over Arkansas Saturday, the national title hopes for A&M would have gone up in smoke in a similar fashion.
Kennedy's 25-yard touchdown catch on the first play of overtime proved to be the difference as A&M scored the final 21 points to beat Arkansas 35-28 at AT&T Stadium. The Aggies were far from perfect but good enough down the stretch to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 2001 and 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play.
Texas A&M scored the game-tying touchdown on a Kenny Hill 59-yard pass to Josh Reynolds with 2:08 remaining in regulation and then got the Kennedy TD to open the extra period. Arkansas' possession to try and tie the game ended with Alex Collins getting stuffed by Julian Obioha on 4th and 1 from the Texas A&M 16, sending Aggies streaming onto the field both excited by the victory and relieved after a game in which for three quarters they weren't the best team on the field.
"You have to have a personality as a football team that allows yourself to think you're good enough to win," Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. "I think our offense lends itself to that. We're never out of the game. It helps our defense. It helps everybody's confidence. We made enough plays to win. Was it perfect? No. It was a heck of a football game."
Arkansas (3-2, 0-2) ran over the mistake-prone Aggies for most of the first three quarters. A fake punt resulted in a 51-yard touchdown run by Razorbacks' punter Sam Irwin-Hill and sent Arkansas to halftime with a 21-14 lead. That lead went to 14 points after Brandon Allen and A.J. Derby hooked up for a 44-yard score with 5:02 remaining in the third quarter.
But the Aggies found the gasoline for their fire on offense and defense in the fourth quarter. Kenny Hill found Edward Pope in stride for an 86-yard score early in the quarter and the A&M defense began to hold up.
Arkansas still had a chance to put the game away with 2:58 remaining but kicker John Henson's 44-yard field goal sailed left. Two plays later Hill connected with Josh Reynolds on a 59-yard play in which the Arkansas defender fell down and Reynolds did the rest to tie the game with 2:08 remaining and set the stage for overtime.
While the Aggies were down for much of the game, they never believed they were out. That especially held true for the defense and Hill. On a night he was off target nearly as much as he was on (21 of 41), he still threw for 386 yards and four touchdown. Three of those four came in fourth quarter and overtime as he was getting words of encouragement from A&M Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
"We came into halftime and knew we needed to make some more plays," said Hill. "We just kind of came together as a group at halftime knowing we had to turn it up. It was tough kind of mentally. We faced a little adversity. We hadn't faced that yet. I thought we handled it well."
The same could have been said for the Aggie defense. For three quarters Arkansas ran at will against A&M, piling up 395 yards of offense and 19 first downs. But A&M limited Arkansas to just 89 yards and three first downs the rest of the way, giving the offense enough time to ignite.
The Razorbacks didn't have a single three and out in the first three quarters but had three on their four possessions in the fourth quarter.
The inability to put away the Aggies proved costly.
"You know that when you've got your foot on somebody's throat keep it on it," Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said. "I think we need to have that killer mentality, to put the thing away."
