The Arkansas entered the fourth-quarter in about as good of a position as they could have hoped for agains Texas A&M. With possession of the ball and a 14-point lead, it appeared that Arkansas would need just one more score to put the A&M away and pull off a monumental upset over the No. 6 ranked Aggies.

A Dan Skipper tripping penalty negated a huge Jonathan Williams 57-yard run down to the Aggies’ 1-yard line to open up the fourth quarter, which would have given Arkansas a 21-point lead and probably the victory. What followed for the Razorbacks on offense can only be described as questionable play-calling, which helped lead to the fourth-quarter collapse.

RELATED: Rapid Reaction: Arkansas loses OT heartbreaker to Texas A&M, 35-28

Simply put, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney strayed too far away from Arkansas’ biggest strength – the run game. For example, following Carroll Washington’s huge interception to keep Texas A&M at bay, the Razorbacks run on first down and pick up four yards behind Jonathan Williams -a good call.

At that point, one would think you’d begin to see shades of the Texas Tech game when Arkansas finished out the game with 29 straight running plays to close out the Red Raiders. While 29 straight run plays doesn’t always necessarily work, it certainly smart to play to the strengths of your team when attempting to close out an upset.

However, Chaney followed up that first down run with two straight pass plays by Brandon Allen, gaining just three yards on second down and nothing on third down off of an incomplete pass. The Hogs took just 1:50 seconds off the clock.

Fortunately for Arkansas, the defense made a big stop on Texas A&M’s ensuing drive, forcing a three-and-out. On the Hogs’ next drive, Chaney gets back to the big time running game, calling three straight runs that accumulated a combined 46 yards and the Razorbacks find them at A&M’s 31-yard line with just under four minutes left in the game.

Brandon Allen has another bad snap, but recovers his own fumble. It’s now 2nd and 12 when Williams gains five yards to set up a crucial 3rd and seven situation on A&M’s 28-yard line. With a shaky situation at kicker, the Razorbacks fail to do John Henson any favors by not running toward the middle of the field to set up a more ideal placement for a 44-yard field goal attempt. Instead the ball is kept on the left hash and Henson hooks it wide left.

Chaney deserves some slack because the offense blew a couple of big plays because of penalties, but with a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and an offense that is one of the best at running the football, it’s completely unacceptable to have no drives last longer than three minutes in the fourth quarter.  They also strayed away from any deep play action passes, which were highly successful in the first half and simply didn’t play to win in the fourth quarter. They played to lose and failed to rise to the occasion in the game’s biggest moments.

“When you’ve got a foot on someone’s throat, you’ve got to keep it on it,” head coach Bret Bielema said after the game.

Moving forward from this game, there’s no question that Arkansas deserved to win, but with multiple failed attempts to seal the victory, one has to wonder just how big a role the offensive play calling had in blowing what looked like an impending upset.