Diagnosing Arkansas’ problems in midst of 3-game losing streak
Through the first five weeks of the season, the Arkansas Razorbacks own a losing record.
Sitting at 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference play, this sure is not the start that anyone envisioned for a team that went into the season with high hopes. KJ Jefferson was seen as a top-2 quarterback in the SEC, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball had the fanbase hoping for significant improvement over a rather disappointing 7-6 campaign in 2022.
Instead, it looks like the Hogs will spend much of this season simply fighting for bowl eligibility after they've dropped three straight games to BYU, LSU and Texas A&M. That begs the question — what has gone wrong for Arkansas?
Physicality
There’s no better place to start than in the trenches. The defensive line has been much improved, registering 14 sacks and 32 tackles for loss through five games (top-15 in the nation in both categories). First year defensive coordinator Travis Williams deserves a lot of credit for that transformation.
The issue lies with the offensive line, which has struggled to generate any push — even against the likes of Western Carolina and Kent State. The run game hasn't found consistency, with the team averaging 3.76 yards per carry through the first five games. A knee injury to Rocket Sanders hasn’t helped, but regardless, the blocking has not been up to par.
"For whatever reason, whether we’re not straining hard enough, not getting to the second level, whatever, we’re not having those (explosive) plays," Pittman said Monday. "AJ (Green) I think did it against BYU, but other than that we’re not doing it. It’s got to be the strain, the physicality or the position the kids are playing, so we’re going to move it around a little bit."
The pass protection has also been porous, and Jefferson hasn’t been given much time to throw. A rotation of new offensive tackles have struggled with getting beat off the edge, plus the running backs and tight ends aren't chipping well enough. All of this is causing the pocket to quickly collapse and forcing Jefferson to step up or bail out and scramble.
These issues were exposed early and often against Texas A&M, with the Aggies sacking Jefferson three times on the opening drive. A&M finished with seven sacks and 15 tackles for loss, and it felt like the Razorbacks were playing behind the sticks the entire game.
“Certainly not what we wanted it to be…physically, they dominated us,” Sam Pittman said in Saturday’s postgame press conference.
For the offense to get anything going, the line play will have to improve.
Play Calling
First year offensive coordinator Dan Enos took the job in the offseason with the goal of improving the unit’s performance from what it did under his predecessor, Kendal Briles, who was often criticized for red zone struggles and head-scratching decisions in short-yardage situations.
“We’ve made a big effort offensively on short yardage, goal line offense,” Sam Pittman said in July. “Some of these games we lost, we’re not only losing down on the goal line, we’re losing on fourth down and one. You know, game-changing moments.”
These areas of focus, however, have continued to be a liability. They have gotten worse, not better. The Razorbacks have simply not been good enough in the red zone, as they've settled for field goals after reaching the red zone on four occasions in the past two weeks.
The Razorbacks have also failed to convert key third and fourth downs, especially in short yardage situations. They have repeatedly decided to run the ball out of the shotgun rather than getting under center, which seems to stem from the lack of confidence in the offensive line being able to get a push.
A prime example of this came with 2:49 left in the first half against Texas A&M. Max Fletcher booted a nice punt that landed at the A&M 19-yard line. A&M had jumped offside, and Pittman accepted the penalty and elected to go for it on 4th-and-1. They called a shotgun handoff to Rocket Sanders, who got stuffed at the line of scrimmage. The Aggies took over on downs and soon after punched in a touchdown to make it 17-6 at halftime.
Fans in the stadium and on social media were outraged, with many calling for a more traditional approach to short-yardage situations. A picture of a certain Philadelphia Eagles formation made the rounds online, with many wondering why the Hogs’ 247-pound quarterback was not being utilized in these moments.
"I mean, once he gets under center the front on the defense is certainly going to change," Pittman said. "Honestly, if we felt better about him sneaking, we would do that. But, no, not really. Just the fact they're going to have five guys within the A and B gap. This week I felt really good we were going to get the first down. It looked good in practice and this, that and the other. Just didn't happen."
Predictability was also an issue with the play calling. On 18 of the Razorbacks' 21 first down plays, the play went down as a run (two were sacks, both on the first offensive possession). The offense as a whole was one-dimensional.
From the end of the first quarter until the four minute mark in the 4th quarter, KJ Jefferson did not have a single passing yard. Yes, that is a real statistic. It sums up what was a miserable overall performance by the offense, which only registered 174 total yards on the day.
"Schematics, I think you can stay with your base run package, but you’ve got to have something that when you call it, that you think you can get a touchdown," Pittman said Monday. "You can get 20. You can get something off maybe a similar look that comes off of it. A little bit more LSUish. We tried to do some things there.
"Obviously, we’re still running stretch and we ran it well for you know, three years in a row. Sometimes we are, sometimes we’re not. I went back and looked at last year’s game and in that game, sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t. But when we did, we went 50. We went 30. We went."
Discipline
Arkansas’ lack of discipline has played a large factor in two of the three losses. Against BYU, the Hogs were penalized 14 times for 125 yards. Against LSU, they recorded 11 penalties for 69 yards. This hurt the Razorback offense and killed numerous drives. Many of these were simply mental errors, such as false starts, but the offensive line repeatedly struggled to block without holding.
“We’ve got a lot of things to clean up,” Pittman said after the loss to BYU. “Certainly, the penalties, we’ve got to get a handle on that.”
A good sign for the Razorbacks was that these issues were much improved in the Southwest Classic. The Hogs did not record a single penalty against Texas A&M.
"We found a positive in the penalties," Pittman said. "We cut that down, which I think hurt us with some results in winning and losing. So, that was one positive, but we all have to play better. And we have to get some explosive plays."
On the season, Arkansas has been flagged 36 times for 314 yards — numbers that rank outside the top-100 nationally in every metric regarding penalties. The fact that they had a clean slate against the Aggies and still rank that low is evidence of how bad the problem was in Weeks 3 and 4.
Coaching
In college sports, on-the-field performances are highly indicative of a coaching staff’s performance. Partial or full blame for all of the above-mentioned issues will always fall on the coaches, whether or not it was actually their fault.
“I like the team, I do,” Pittman said. “They are fighting. We have to coach better. In some areas, they have to play better.”
Pittman’s in-game decision making in crucial moments has faced criticism from fans. As previously mentioned, big third and fourth down situations have repeatedly gone against the Hogs. Spending two timeouts in the third quarter at LSU proved costly, as Pittman was unable to stop the clock in the final minutes of the game.
“Before someone asks, did we think about letting them score? Yes, but I don’t think they would’ve,” Pittman said in the postgame presser. “We talked about it, and I thought our chances would’ve been better off without it.
The Tigers ran the clock all the way down at the goal line and kicked a game-winning field goal. Between the choices he has made in key moments and the team’s overall lack of preparation, it has led many fans to question Pittman’s coaching this season.
Blown leads have also been a recurring issue for Arkansas, and that has continued this season, with the Razorbacks squandering 10 point leads against both BYU and LSU.
To conclude...
All of these issues listed above are some of the causes of a three-game losing streak for the Hogs. With road trips to Ole Miss and Alabama up next, things are only going to get tougher.
"We lost three in a row two years ago and bounced back pretty good. I think we will again, but I don't know that we can continue to do the same thing and say we're just going to get better at them. I think we've got to shuffle some things up to maybe ignite a spark into us a little bit because I do think we've got good players. We've just got to play better and coach better."
After the next two weeks, the Hogs will return home to face Mississippi State on Oct. 21. It is possible that Arkansas will enter that game against the Bulldogs with a 2-5 record. If the Razorbacks want to make a bowl game this season, all of the above-mentioned issues will have to improve moving forward.
Arkansas will travel to Oxford, Mississippi, this weekend for a clash with 16th-ranked Ole Miss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and the game will be nationally televised on the SEC Network.