Arkansas football saw yet another frustrating outcome in the first year of the Ryan Silverfield era on Saturday, Oct. 10 – and a bizarre choice that left Razorbacks fans and neutral observers alike scratching their heads.
Facing fourth-and-10 at its own 25-yard line at the 1:36 mark after three straight incompletions, Arkansas opted to punt the ball back to No. 14 Tennessee. Silverfield made the move with the hope of forcing a three-and-out and using Arkansas' three timeous to get the ball back with minimal time elapsed and a fresh set of downs.
While that sequence could have worked in theory, Silverfield's gamble offered no guarantee that Arkansas would get the ball back.
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Indeed, Josh Heupel's Volunteers refused to let Silverfield's gambit pay off, sealing the game with 6- and 5-yard runs on first and second down, respectively, to notch a game-sealing first down. Quarterback George MacIntyre finished the game off with three kneel-downs to end the game.
Speaking after the game, Silverfield said this of the decision:
"At the time I think we were 2-of-11 on third-down situations. It was a fourth-and-10. If you don't get it, say you try to throw it, it's 1:40 left, we use all three timeouts, put it at, let's say, 1:25. They kick a field goal, OK? You're down 10 now, with no timeouts, roughly 1:20 left in the game.
"So we need to score a touchdown in that situation and get the onside kick and kick the field goal just to tie it. That's a pretty low percentage. I think a fourth-and-10 percentage, for us, especially the way we were protecting at the end, probably was, whatever, under 5% chance to get it. And if you can punt and play defense and stop the run on three downs, which we knew, we had three downs to stop the run, we get the ball back and at least give ourselves a chance to and at least give ourself a chance to tie it."
At the time Arkansas gave Tennessee the ball back, the Vols had scored on three of their four prior possessions, with the lone exception being an Arkansas interception at the Razorbacks' own 32-yard line. Conversely, Arkansas was forced to punt on three of its final four possessions, with the lone score a 55-yard field goal from Max Gilbert.
Silverfield's decision capped another loss for the Razorbacks, who fell to 2-4 with the loss.
"Obviously we didn't execute," Silverfield said. "We didn't stop the run. Had we stopped it and gotten the chance, then you're looking at one final drive to win the game."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why did Arkansas punt vs Tennessee with game on line? What Ryan Silverfield said.
