Avery Howard was the best player on the field

With 2:34 left in the second quarter, Avery Howard put KJ Jackson on the ground at the Arkansas 44 for a loss of five, worth about two and a half points of expected value. Howard plays for North Alabama, the FCS program Arkansas was favored to beat by 40.5, a number that barely moved all week. Arkansas won 31-14 and snapped a 10-game losing streak. Ryan Silverfield, in his first game as head coach: "Offensively, not good. Not good by any stretch of the imagination."

North Alabama sacked Jackson three times. Arkansas sacked Wade once.

Howard is a redshirt junior from Tallahassee. The North Alabama box gives him four solo tackles and five assists, 2.5 tackles for loss covering eight yards, 1.5 sacks covering seven, and the forced fumble that turned the third quarter: Sutton Smith ran five yards to the Arkansas 35 at 3:28 and Howard knocked the ball out at the 32. Six negative plays carry his name, more than any defender on either side. Cayden Adkins and Jyheam Ingram got home too.

Who was blocking him is where the record runs out. The only film-level account of North Alabama's pressure credits a safety blitz that consistently wrapped around to reach Jackson, not an edge beating a tackle one-on-one. Arkansas's depth chart lists Kavion Broussard at left tackle, Silverfield named "three penalties on our left tackle," and Sports Illustrated's live notebook flagged Broussard for penalties and missed assignments all afternoon. Pro Football Focus graded him 55.5 and Bryant Williams 49.6. Jeff Myers and Marcus Johnson coach that line, and it goes to Utah next.

Arkansas converted 10 of 17 third downs and still needed 13 drives

Arkansas converted 10 of 17 third downs. North Alabama converted 1 of 10 and held the ball 18:35 to Arkansas's 41:25. Jackson went 6 of 9 on the down; Chris Marshall, Braylen Russell and Jasper Parker each converted two of three; Destin Wade went 1 of 6. That is why Arkansas ran 83 plays and North Alabama 43. It is not why Arkansas scored 31: the Razorbacks scored on 38.5 percent of 13 drives, went three-and-out on 30.8 percent and averaged 32.8 yards a possession.

The touchdowns: Jackson 20 yards to Ismael Cisse on third-and-10 at 0:36 of the first, two yards to Matt Adcock at 8:41 of the second, 10 yards to Jaden Platt on second-and-9 at 6:49 of the third, and Braylen Russell from a yard out at 11:58 of the fourth, ending an 11-play, 75-yard drive, the only one of the four with a published play count. Short fields did not build them. Arkansas started its 13 drives an average of 68.6 yards from the end zone, North Alabama 68.7.

KJ Jackson was 12 of 13 after halftime

Jackson completed 24 of 35 for 267 yards and three touchdowns, with no completion longer than 21 yards. This was his second career start. Taylen Green was the primary quarterback of the 2-10, 0-8 season that got Sam Pittman fired on Sept. 28 and left Bobby Petrino 0-7 as interim; Jackson started the finale at Missouri over Green, 11 of 17 for 126 yards. He beat AJ Hill for the job on Aug. 23. Where Green went afterward is not settled in this week's coverage.

The interception came at 0:19 of the second, third-and-8 from the North Alabama 14: Trevion Butler picked Jackson off in the end zone for a touchback, a swing of nearly four points. Jackson: "I forced that one, and I can't do that, especially when we're in field goal range and we have points." The defensive table credits Butler seven-tenths for that same snap. The two columns are built on different bases with no conversion between them, so the play is priced once here, at the drive swing; read the defensive column as an ordering of who made negative plays, not as points.

Cramsey counts the swing passes as runs; the index cannot

Tim Cramsey, in his first season as coordinator after four with Silverfield at Memphis, where the offense averaged 36.3 points, explained the short throws: "Why did we start throwing all those swing passes? Those swing passes, in my mind, are run plays, exterior run plays." The claim is about route type, and route type is not in the play index. Sutton Smith carried 15 times for 36 yards and caught four of five targets for 43, but which catches were swings cannot be recovered, so the claim goes untested. Chris Marshall caught seven of 10 targets for 79 yards.

Arkansas ran 49 times for 147 yards by Sports Illustrated's count and 148 by two others, 3.0 a carry either way, and Jackson's 10 carries for 27 yards sit inside that number. The 2025 team ran 405 times for 2,303 yards, 5.69 an attempt, a team figure from a season Green started at quarterback; no account this week names the backs who produced it. Braylen Russell led Saturday with 49 yards on 17 carries. Cramsey: "We still had the holding penalties. We still had the sacks. We still had the turnovers."

Ron Roberts's defense went six possessions without allowing a first down

Ron Roberts was Florida's defensive coordinator the past two seasons, his hire reported Dec. 5 and announced by Arkansas on Dec. 16, 2025, after coordinator jobs at Auburn, Baylor and Louisiana. He refuses a label: "We're going to be odd (front), four down, we'll be multiple. You have to be multiple to adapt to your personnel on a year-to-year basis." What he promised beforehand was rotation, 22 players, "probably all in the first half." Deron Wilson has the secondary, Cannon Gibbs the linebackers, Eddie Hicks the corners, Landius Wilkerson and Kynjee' Cotton the line.

North Alabama's first eight drives produced seven punts, a fumble and no points, and the Democrat-Gazette has the Lions without a first down from scrimmage until their seventh possession, after four straight three-and-outs. How many of those snaps came from an odd front is not in the play-by-play. Charlie Collins, a JACK linebacker, sacked Wade for a 13-yard loss at 5:44 of the second and David Oke recovered. Ben Bogle, signed out of the West Virginia portal on Jan. 11, had a tackle for loss, a breakup and an 89.0 from Pro Football Focus, the best grade on the defense.

Wade scored both North Alabama touchdowns himself, from six yards at 2:10 of the third and four at 10:24 of the fourth, and threw for 113 yards on 23 attempts while going 1 of 6 on third down. The first score followed Smith's fumble, which gave the Lions the ball in Arkansas territory for the first time all day, and a personal foul that carried them inside the red zone. His best snap was the game's most valuable, 59 yards to Xavier Johnson at 11:43; Johnson caught six for 82. Breakups went to Joker Johnson, Kyeaure Magloire and Steven Soles Jr.

Silverfield sat a preseason All-SEC end over a Wednesday practice

Quincy Rhodes Jr., a senior defensive end and preseason All-SEC pick with 15.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks in 2025, did not start. Silverfield: "He was not able to be a full-go participant in practice on Tuesday or Wednesday, and so ultimately it was my decision for him not to get the start." Oregon transfer Xadavien Sims started instead. Both finished with one tackle, and no snap counts are published for either, so nothing in this game distinguishes them. Arkansas got one sack.

The rule is Silverfield's and it is documented: he flipped the game week to walk-throughs on Thursday and full pads on Friday, and said before kickoff that a player without significant reps by Wednesday "won't even make the flight." No other Arkansas starter is on the record as losing snaps to it. He hopes Rhodes is full go at No. 21 Utah, which opened with 633 yards in a 66-14 win over Idaho. Brent Dearmon, 9-27 in his fourth season, refused the consolation: "We're not celebrating this."