As Arkansas prepares to enter into its first bye week of the season, the Razorbacks had an upset in mind for the majority of Saturday’s game against Texas A&M. However, heartbreak befell the Hogs after giving up 21 unanswered points to lose in overtime.

Despite the loss, Arkansas gained the respect of the media for pushing Texas A&M to the brink. Still, Bret Bielema and his team still have a number of areas where they need to improve upon before facing Alabama on Oct. 11 and we’re here to break it down.

  1.  Depth at wide receiver – Coming into the season, true freshman Jared Cornelius was thought of an instant impact kind of player with his size and athleticism who would be a good candidate for the No. 2 wide out position. Unfortunately for the Hogs, neither Cornelius or anybody else really has performed at a high-level other than Keon Hatcher.. The junior receiver leads the team with 13 receptions and 231 receiving yards. No other receiver has double digit receptions. While Hatcher’s numbers aren’t incredible, either, the Razorbacks desperately need someone to emerge out of the wide receivers to take some pressure off Hatcher. The passing attack takes a backseat to the running game, but more weapons for quarterback Brandon Allen could never hurt.
  2. Kicking – Starting field goal kicker John Henson hasn’t had many opportunities in the Hogs’ first five games, converting just two of his four field goal attempts on the season. The issue with Henson is lack of consistency from longer distances, which was brought to the forefront during Arkansas’ game against Texas A&M. A 44-yard field goal attempt from Henson in the final minutes to put the Razorbacks up 10 points was hooked horribly left and it never had a chance of going in. Arkansas hasn’t needed Henson much this season, but eventually more situations like the one they faced Saturday will arise during the season and they’ll need a reliable kicker in those crucial moments.
  3. Consistent pass rush – There’s no question that Arkansas has the talent at the defensive line to give any opposing offensive line fits. Senior Trey Flowers is a beast and when you combine him with the likes of Darius Philon and Taiwan Johnson, you would expect Arkansas to be applying constant pressure on quarterbacks. However, that hasn’t been the case so far this season. The Razorbacks are tied for ninth in the SEC with eight sacks, but they average the second lowest amount of sacks per game in the conference (1.60 sacks per game). Not to mention, six of the team’s eight sacks came against Nicholls State. A more consistent pass rush would also be a huge boost to a secondary that has been somewhat left out to dry by nonexistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
  4. Discipline – Until last weekend’s matchup against Texas A&M, Arkansas was normally very disciplined, averaging just over four penalties per game. But the Razorbacks were uncharacteristically sloppy against the Aggies, committing eight penalties for 76 yards. And those penalties cost the Hogs as two of them took away two touchdowns for Arkansas, which could have easily been the difference. It’s tough to pull off upsets against good football teams while committing nearly 10 penalties in one game and they’ll need to limit those kinds of mistakes in the future to avoid situations like the one they faced against Texas A&M.
  5. Closing out good teams – Arkansas has played two SEC games so far this season – Auburn and Texas A&M. Those are two of the best teams in the SEC this season and at halftime the Razorbacks were tied with Auburn on the road and were leading Texas A&M by 14 points until midway in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Hogs, they haven’t been able to close out the better competition on their schedule. In the second half alone against these two SEC teams, Arkansas has been outscored 45-7. This is an issue that must be resolved immediately, thanks to the tough second-half of the schedule awaiting the Razorbacks after the bye week. They have six currently ranked teams left on their schedule – Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU, Ole Miss and Missouri. If the Razorbacks have plans on being in a bowl game this season, they’ll need to learn to play well for a full 60 minutes.