FAYETTEVILLE - In Arkansas' two best performances of the season against Tennessee and Vanderbilt, the Razorbacks did what head coach Ryan Silverfield has preached since he got to Fayetteville: they won the turnover battle.
The Hogs will likely have to do so again on Saturday against No. 23 Missouri, who Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield praised Monday as being "sound" in all facets of the game.
While owning the football is a part of winning the turnover battle, creating turnovers is equally as important. Missouri QB Austin Simmons has been particularly adept at taking care of the football this season, though he's thrown an interception apiece in each of Mizzou's last two games.
Still, he's thrown 14 TDs and only two picks in seven games and is a major part of why the Tigers are 5-2 and still in contention for a CFP berth.
"Austin Simmons is extremely efficient," Silverfield said. "He's very accurate. He can make every throw on the field. He can move around. They do a lot of different things. He's a lefty, so you see some similarities with our quarterback in different things they try to do, but he's been really, really efficient.
"When I talk about the efficiency at the quarterback position, everybody will say, 'Ryan, what do you want to see [with] that efficiency?' And that's part of the decision making. And when you go a whole season like he has and has thrown 14 touchdowns and two interceptions, it just speaks volumes about his decision making and him putting the ball in the right place and what he's been able to do with it. And so, again, going back to that, I think you tie that in with their effective run game. You sit there and say, 'OK, there's a reason why they're a top 25 team in the country.'"
Simmons' two worst games of the season were his last two. In a 27-6 win over Texas A&M, he went only 14-28 passing for 147 yards, a touchdown and an interception. In Mizzou's 31-3 loss to Ole MIss, he didn't throw a touchdown for the first time all season and threw another pick.
Simmons has been solid all season, but the Hogs are catching him at a time where his confidence likely isn't as high as it was earlier in the season. If they can force him into a few mistakes on Saturday, Arkansas will have an excellent chance to win.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as To Beat Mizzou, Arkansas Will Have To Force Efficient Austin Simmons Into Mistakes .
