Arkansas puts itself in title race by rolling Tigers

	Marcus Monk and Chris Houston celebrate after Monk scored on a 50-yard pass in the first quarter. John Reed/US PRESSWIRE
	MAILBAG Austin Murphy will answer questions from SI.com users. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

AUBURN, Ala. -- Thus are the lives of hundreds of rolls of toilet tissue spared, for the time being.

Fans of the Auburn Tigers will not be "rolling" Toomer's Corner this evening.

Playing as if they missed a wakeup call before this morning's 11 a.m. kickoff, the No. 2 Tigers were dominated on both sides of the ball by an Arkansas team that beat them 27-10, and which is much, much better than it looked in its season opener, a 50-14 loss to USC.

Suddenly, the Razorbacks (4-1, 3-0 in conference) find themselves in an unfamiliar, dominant position in the SEC West. With LSU imploding in Gainesville, the Hogs would have to lose two of their remaining league games to allow either Auburn or LSU back in the hunt. Pessimists will say that's a distinct possibility: Arkansas still has to play South Carolina, Tennessee and the Bayou Bengals. Optimists will point out that Tennessee has to come to Fayetteville, and the LSU game is in Little Rock, where the Hogs have won 19 of their last 20 games.

As one Razorbacks beat writer told me, "They may not be in the driver's seat, but usually by this time of year, they're in the ditch."

Auburn came into the game with the SEC's leading rusher, Kenny Irons, who'd averaged 108 yards in the Tigers' three league wins. On Saturday, he was the third-best back in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Darren McFadden, playing with a kind of clown shoe on his left foot -- there's a little bubble over his big toe, which was dislocated and surgically repaired in the preseason -- and against a defense that had yet to give up a rushing touchdown this season, picked the Tigers apart. He had 145 yards on the ground, including a back-breaking, 63-yard scoring burst that made it 17-7 five minutes before halftime. His jaw-dropping inside power was nicely complemented by the outside speed of Felix Jones, who rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. Together, they took considerable pressure off true freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain, who completed seven of 10 passes for seven yards and a touchdown.

"On the road, in a hostile environment, to take care of the ball, no interceptions, that's huge," said Razorbacks head coach Houston Nutt, who promoted Mustain to the first team after the 'SC debacle.

Mustain, the 6-3, 205-pound freshman from Springdale, Ark., is now 4-0 as a starter. He barely squeezed off his most memorable throw of the day. With four minutes left in the first quarter, and blitzing free safety Aairon Savage getting very large in his facemask, Mustain sidearmed a desperation pass in the direction of 6-6 wideout Marcus Monk, who disentangled himself from linebacker Jonathan Wilhite, snagged the ball and had an easy glide into the endzone. The Tigers wanted Monk called for pushing off Wilhite, who fell on the play, but the 50-yard touchdown stood, and the overwhelmingly orange crowd of 78,451 fell very quiet.