No. 9 LSU stumbles again, upset by Arkansas, 31-14

LSU’s Death Valley went quiet and began to empty out as Arkansas’ Jared Cornelius scampered 69 yards down the left sideline for a back-breaking touchdown in the fourth quarter.
In the span of eight days, the Tigers had fallen hard — and out of the College Football Playoff picture.
Arkansas gashed LSU for three touchdowns of more than 50 yards, and the ninth-ranked Tigers lost their second straight, 31-14 on Saturday night.
Combined with Alabama’s victory hours earlier, Arkansas (6-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) eliminated LSU (7-2, 4-2) from contention in the SEC West. Only two weeks earlier, the Tigers were unbeaten and ranked second by the College Football Playoff committee. They were No. 9 in the CFP this week after losing for the first time this season at Alabama on Nov. 7.
“Anybody that would think that this is a hangover from the Alabama game, it’s absolutely not true,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “I take the discredit here ... This was absolutely my fault. The kids played their hearts out. I just didn’t give (them) the right stuff.”
LSU running back Leonard Fournette had 127 yards from scrimmage and scored his 17th touchdown this season, but that may have done little to help his Heisman Trophy candidacy on a day when Alabama’s Derrick Henry rushed for 204 yards and two scores.
“Everybody is disappointed,” Fournette said. “I just have to help keep this team together. In hard times you see what type of man you are. I would never trade my team for anything in the world.”
Arkansas’ Brandon Allen passed for 141 yards, including a 52-yard TD throw to Dominique Reed.
Arkansas, which entered with eight sacks all season, took down LSU’s Brandon Harris five times.
“The offense can’t always score 70 points a game,” said Arkansas defensive end Deatrich Wise, who was credited with 2 1/2 sacks. “The defense has got to learn how to step up and today we stepped up.”
The Tigers wound up with only 59 net yards on the ground while the Hogs rushed for 299, highlighted by Alex Collins’ 80-yard touchdown dash in the first half.
“I think we can begin to get a little bit of respect in our league before we even take the field now,” said Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, whose team has rebounded from a 1-3 start to win five of six, with the only loss in that stretch coming at Alabama. “From the outside world, we’re still probably just a 6-4 football team. But I know where we’re at.”
Harris attempted 35 passes, completing 21 for 271 yards and one touchdown. He also had a pass intercepted in the fourth quarter by D.J. Dean and lost a first-half fumble that set up an Arkansas touchdown.
LSU’s Malachi Dupre had eight catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
Arkansas, which scored 170 points in its previous three games, raced to a three-touchdown lead in Death Valley, thanks to two big plays on offense and another on defense.
Reed scored first when he took a short pass from Allen in the right flat and bolted past LSU defensive backs Dwayne Thomas and Jamal Adams, then got a key block from Cornelius near the right sideline to spring him for his 52-yard touchdown.
Collins used a patient stutter-step to find a hole up the middle and then went untouched until the final few yards of his long TD, which made it 14-0.
Collins added a 5-yard score to make it 21-0, LSU’s largest deficit this season. That scoring drive was set up when Harris, scrambling right, lost his handle on the ball while attempting to throw as he was hit by Dre Greenlaw on the LSU 15. Brooks Ellis recovered for Arkansas on the 11.
The Tigers didn’t score until the last minute of the first half, and it took a fortunate deflection of Harris’ short pass off Travin Dural’s hands and straight to Dupre in the back of the end zone.