Running room hard for McFadden to find
Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Darren McFadden is now Arkansas ’ career leader in rushing yards (3, 582 ) and all-purpose yards (4, 676 ), but he was in no mood to celebrate Saturday night.
Not after Auburn beat Arkansas 9-7 to drop the Razorbacks to 0-3 in the SEC.
McFadden, a junior tailback from Little Rock, broke Arkansas’ career rushing record that had been held since 1979 by Ben Cowins (3, 570 yards ) on a 13-yard gain in the third quarter, which was his longest run of the game. He broke the all-purpose yardage record held by Gary Anderson since 1982 (4, 353 ) on a 4-yard run in the second quarter.
“I wasn’t never concerned about [the individual records ],” McFadden said. “I’m proud to have those records, but I’m about playing football.
“ It’s hard to enjoy them after you lose and only scored seven points.”
The last-second loss to Auburn ended any realistic hope for the Razorbacks of repeating as SEC West champions.
“It’s real tough,” McFadden said. “Going back to Atlanta [for the SEC Championship Game ] is pretty much down the drain.
“ We’ve just got to come back and regroup and get ready for next week.”
McFadden wore a padded vest to protect bruised ribs he sustained earlier this season, but said his ribs didn’t bother him.
The big problem he had Saturday night was the Auburn defense, which held McFadden to 43 rushing yards on 17 carries for a 2. 5-yard average.
Those were shocking numbers for McFadden, who was the nation’s most decorated running back last season when he won the Doak Walker Award, was a consensus All-American and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.
“They came here ready to play ball,” McFadden said of the Auburn defenders. “I feel like we didn’t come out here like we should have.
“ They came out with a lot of fire, and they brought the fight to us.”
McFadden had 10 yards in losses, which is uncharacteristic. He came into the Auburn game averaging 155. 8 rushing yards per game to lead the SEC and rank third nationally and with just 22 lost yards on 130 carries.
It was the fewest rushing yards for McFadden since the 2006 season opener when he had 42 yards against Southern California, but carried just nine times because he was recovering from toe surgery.
The only game in which he’s had a worse per-carry average was at Ole Miss as a freshman in 2005, when the Rebels held McFadden to 22 yards on 13 carries — a 1. 7-yard average.
Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt credited the Tigers ’ defensive linemen for getting off blocks and the speed of the linebackers in helping chase down McFadden, but said the Razorbacks also need to execute better on offense.
“[McFadden ] has got to have a little help,” Nutt said. “We’ve got to do a better job of blocking, and of course we know we have to get better in our passing game.”
The Razorbacks had 126 passing yards against Auburn, and 26 of those came on their fourth-quarter touchdown drive. Arkansas also drew a pass-interference call for a 15-yard gain on the drive when McFadden threw a deep ball intended for London Crawford.
“We struggled the whole game [on offense ],” McFadden said. “But I feel like when we needed to get a touchdown at crunch time, we put one up.
“ I don’t know what I had rushing, but it wasn’t a good game for me at all. But I’m proud of our team overall. We fought hard.”
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