FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas has lost five games in a row with four of them being by very small margins.
The Razorbacks lost to Ole Miss 41-35, Memphis 32-31, Tennessee 34-31 and Texas A&M 45-42. Bobby Petrino was asked on Monday what does the team have to do to get over the hump and win some games?
"Yeah, you know, I try not to think all the way back to some of those games where you feel like you should have walked off the field with the win and just concentrating on what we're doing now," Petrino said. "But what we need to do now is be a little bit more consistent driving the ball and scoring touchdowns when we get in the red zone. When we have to settle for a field goal and take three points, I think it really hurts our opportunity to win the game. We've got to come up with some of the third down and fourth down stops that could flip the game right there and give us that chance to go score and get another possession and find a way to win the game. We've got to get some turnovers. We haven't had a turnover in, as the young kids say, we haven't had a turnover in a minute, whatever the heck that means. My grandkids say it's been a minute. I'm like, a minute? Feels like a year. We've got to get some turnovers. Get some turnovers, and we'll be a lot better."
Petrino took one last look back at the loss to A&M on Saturday following reviewing the game film.
"I'm not sure about a lot what I didn't see, but you know, offensively I thought we executed at a pretty high level," Petrino said. "The offensive line did a really nice job, particularly run blocking, picking up the different things that they do defensively. Our receivers blocked really well downfield. That's why we got some huge, explosive runs, is they did a good job. Mike (Washington) and Braylen (Russell) both ran extremely well. Obviously, Taylen (Green) made plays with his legs. Passing game wise, we were pretty efficient as far as where we were supposed to be on our routes and the timing of the ball coming out of our hand. They got us a little bit late in the game with some of their pass rush, you know, which hurt us on the on the drive that we had to punt the ball away. But for the most part, offensively, we played pretty good.
"Defensively, we played with a lot of effort. Guys were running to the ball. We still have some assignment issues that opens up big plays, explosive plays for them, we missed too many tackles. Although we were getting to the football, we missed more tackles than we did the previous week at Tennessee, which was a thing we tried to build on, and actually went in the wrong direction. But some of that is the guys we were trying to tackle, too. That's a good football team. A&M is a good football team. Experienced O-line, their quarterback played really well for him. And we couldn't get off the field. If we could get one of those fourth down stops, or we hold them to a field goal instead of a touchdown in the red zone, then we’ve got a chance to win the game. But we're right there."
Russell, a former Benton High School standout, had four carries for 36 yards on Saturday. Is Petrino hoping to get him more carries?
"We need to," Petrino said. "We've got to. And it becomes hard at times, if the score transpires where we're behind, then that becomes hard to get two backs in there and work them together and going. But we need to, I think he's one of our best football players on the offense, and he needs to touch the ball more. And that's on me. That's my job. I got to get him the football more."
While Russell deserves more carries, Washington did have a great game. He rushed 16 times for 147 yards. In addition. Washington pulled in three passes for 16 more yards.
"He’s seeing things really well," Petrino said. "He’s become a better player before he gets the ball, that’s one of the things that really helps running backs improve. Kolby Smith’s done a great job with his tracks, his first step, where his shoulders are. Whenever you become really good before you get the ball then your vision opens up and your landmarks are better, and you see the blocks and make quick cuts. His improvement on that in the last three weeks has been tremendous and has helped him tremendously. And then just his explosion and speed is something he’s always had, but because he’s doing things a little more detailed it shows up more."
Arkansas (2-5, 0-3) will be home again on Saturday when they play host to Auburn (3-4, 0-4) at 11:45 a.m. on the SEC Network. Auburn fell to Missouri 23-17 Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
