Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks (6-6, 3-5 SEC) left Columbia, Missouri, still winless after a 28-21 loss to the 24th-ranked Tigers on Friday night at Memorial Stadium Battle Line Rivalry on an icy and snowy afternoon.

The Hogs took a 21-20 lead on Ja’Quinden Jackson’s third touchdown of the game with 4:19 left in the fourth quarter, but that didn’t last long. Missouri regained the lead on a 30-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback Brady Cook, which was followed by a Cook pass to Luther Burden III on the two-point conversion, giving the Tigers a 28-21 lead.

Even after all that, the Razorbacks still had 1:47 on the game clock with the football and a timeout in their pocket.

It’s important to note that Pittman, who will have surgery for a broken hip on Tuesday, was not on the sideline on Saturday. Instead, he sat in the dugout while offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, defensive coordinator Travis Williams and special teams coordinator Scott Fountain stood on the sidelines, in charge of timeouts for their respective groups.

“The surgery went really well in my opinion,” Pittman said of his stay in the dugout. “I thought about it on Monday or Tuesday because I knew I was going off some of my medications that I couldn’t take for the surgery, but the decision was exactly what I felt was best for the team.”

“So the bottom line is Bobby had the timeouts when he was on offense, and T-Will had them when he was on defense, and Scott had them when we were on special teams, and I got it easy on them said. It seemed to work.” Fine.”

VIDEO: Postgame press conferences – Missouri 28, Arkansas 21

Given this information, it was Petrino’s decision to take time off on the final trip if necessary.

Arkansas got to 4th-and-12 fairly quickly after an intentional grounding by quarterback Taylen Green — resulting in a runoff with 10 seconds left on the game clock — but Green then completed an 18-yarder to receiver Isaac TeSlaa to end the drive with 50 seconds left to keep alive to play.

Two plays later, Green found Andrew Armstrong for a 25-yard completion to the Missouri 32-yard line with 25 seconds left. After taking 19 seconds on the next two plays – two incompletions against Isaiah Sategna – the Hogs only had six seconds and 32 yards remaining.

When asked after the game if there was an appropriate time to take this final timeout, Pittman responded that there was not. The first two timeouts were burned on Missouri’s previous possession to ensure the Hogs had time on offense.

“I called a timeout when Missouri had the football and tried to use the two minutes (timeout) to do that,” Pittman said. “I didn’t want them to score a touchdown up the middle. I was hoping they might miss a field goal.”

“But no, when I look at that last drive, it just happened and there really wasn’t any time because it was a first down and there really wasn’t any time for it to go downhill and I even told Bobby there .” I said, “There’s six seconds left, I can call a timeout if you want.” He said, “No, no, no, I got the play I want.” Yeah, you hate it , to go home with one, but I didn’t really have that Feeling like there’s another time I could use one.”

The reality is that Arkansas had two turnovers and Missouri scored 14 points off of them. According to the SEC Network broadcast, the Hogs lead the nation with 28 fumbles this year. The Razorbacks also had 10 total penalties, which combined for a loss of 72 yards on Saturday.

“It’s very frustrating,” Pittman said of turnovers. “We work on ball security every week and attach great importance to it. That’s part of our way, the key… Our way of winning. Especially today, because of the weather, we knew whoever spins the ball less will win, and that’s exactly what happened.

Arkansas now awaits its bowl destination, which will be announced on Sunday, December 8th.