Shadarius Toodle's 3 sacks sink Arkansas for Auburn

Arkansas led 10-3 at halftime at Jordan-Hare and still flew home 3-6. The Razorbacks beat writers did not take long to say what that means.

For about 30 minutes this looked like the game Arkansas has been waiting all year to play. It scored first in an SEC game for the first time this season and held Auburn to 3 points in the first half. The problem was the kicking. Max Gilbert went 3-for-5 on field goals, so the 2 misses left points on the board, and a 10-3 lead is a lot easier to blow than a 16-3 lead. Ryan Silverfield said it himself after the game: 'We are not playing good enough football to miss those opportunities.'

Then the second half got away from them, and most of that was Byrum Brown plus a pass rush Arkansas couldn't block. Brown finished with 302 total yards: 180 passing with 2 touchdowns, and 120 rushing with another score on 23 carries. Auburn's defense finished with 6 sacks and 12 tackles for loss, the most sacks it has had since the 2021 Iron Bowl. Silverfield was asked about the protection problems afterward.

The guy Arkansas couldn't block was a kid nobody had game film on. Shadarius Toodle is a true freshman from Mobile, Alabama, and a 4-star recruit. 3 weeks ago he was on Auburn's practice squad. He only got real snaps because linebackers Elijah Melendez and Demarcus Riddick went down with injuries during the game. He finished with 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 3 sacks. That is the most sacks by an Auburn linebacker in a game in program history, and he is the first SEC freshman since at least 1996 to get 3 sacks in his first career game.

Alex Golesh basically admitted the staff should have played him sooner. He said Toodle 'did not look like a freshman' and that they 'maybe waited too long to play him.' Toodle kept his answer simple: he said he's been 'coming in everyday, putting my head down and working... just trying to earn the trust in the coaches.' He has that trust now. Melendez and Riddick are banged up and Auburn has 3 games left, so he should be on the field a lot.

Alex McPherson ended it with a 43-yard field goal with 33 seconds left. Auburn moved to 5-4 overall and 3-4 in the SEC, which keeps a bowl game in reach in Golesh's first year. Arkansas is 1-5 in the conference after another close loss, and Silverfield's line about it was blunt: 'Close doesn't matter except for in horseshoes and hand grenades.' On a day a practice-squad freshman wrecked his offensive line, it's hard to argue with him.