School is officially in session. The Arkansas Razorbacks took their first test yesterday, going on the road to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face the Auburn Tigers.

The Hogs fell 45-21, but how did each position group perform in last night’s season-opening loss? We hand out grades for every defensive position group.

DEFENSIVE LINE – C-

The usual suspects showed up on Saturday for the Hogs defensive line. Senior Trey Flowers tallied nine total tackles, followed by JaMichael Winston with four tackles and Taiwan Johnson with three.

All in all, the line failed to really make much of an impact all game. There were flashes throughout the game as the line contributed with one sack, 3.5 tackles for loss, one QB hurry and a forced fumbled. However, the Auburn offense had their way up front, especially in the second half.

The Tigers went into the final 30 minutes with only 68 yards rushing, but finished with 302 yards and averaged 6.2 yards per carry. Auburn quarterbacks Nick Marshall and Jeremy Johnson simply had too much time to throw, which led to a disastrous performance in pass defense for the Hogs. With players like Flowers, Deatrich Wise Jr. and others, one would think the Hogs could get more pressure in the backfield and force some mistakes, but it turns out the Auburn offensive line was too much to handle.

LINEBACKERS – C+

Brooks Ellis stood out most of the game, making plays on both defense and special teams, but it wasn’t too great of a game for the Arkansas linebacking corps. Ellis led the group with eight tackles and was followed closely by Martrell Spaight, who had seven.

Much like the defensive line, the linebackers were not very effective in the second half, especially in stopping Auburn running back Cameron Artis-Payne. Another thing I noticed was the missed tackles. It usually took at least a couple hits to bring down Artis-Payne and the other backs, which is not a good sign for a position group that was desperately searching for playmakers last season.

CORNERBACKS – F

This might be too tough of a grade, but the cornerbacks were abysmal yesterday.

Too many times, Auburn had incredible amounts of open space in the secondary for their receivers. Auburn wide receiver Duke Williams had quite the debut, catching nine passes for 154 yards and one touchdown. Auburn receivers averaged 18 yards per reception.

From the beginning, the Arkansas cornerbacks seemed overwhelmed by Williams, Sammie Coates and Melvin Ray. Some of this can be attributed to the lack of pressure by the Hogs front seven, but the cornerbacks did not help themselves by any means yesterday. They also tried to play some press coverage against the wideouts, but the height and physicality of Auburn’s receivers proved to be too much for Carroll Washington and the other cornerbacks.

They’ll look to rebound next week against Nicholls State, but this is clearly Arkansas’ weakest position.

SAFETIES – C+

It wasn’t just the cornerbacks that struggled in pass defense, senior Alan Turner and junior Rohan Gaines seemed lost out there as well. I’m not sure if it was communication issues or just flatly that the safeties couldn’t keep up with the Auburn wide receivers, but there was just too much space in the middle of the field. I doubt the receivers felt uncomfortable at any point during the game.

Turner and Gaines did make some nice plays throughout the 60 minutes and the two combined for 18 total tackles, but if you’re an Arkansas fan, it’d be a little more comforting to see the starting safeties having a more positive impact in the pass defense.

Overall, they delivered some big hits, but the secondary just looked slow and overmatched by Auburn’s receivers.