Saturday couldn’t have gone any worse.

Not only did the Razorbacks follow up a massive victory over Ole Miss with a loss at Auburn, they did so in embarrassing fashion.

There is plenty of blame to go around the Arkansas locker room as no unit played particularly well, though it was the defense that allowed the Tigers to run wild on their way to a lopsided 56-3 win on Saturday night.

After that performance, an open date was welcomed by the Razorbacks.

“It obviously comes at a good time for us,” Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said in Wednesday’s coaches teleconference. “We’ve played eight straight games, and down the stretch we have faced some very good competition.”

Prior to Saturday’s loss, the Hogs hosted a trio of nationally ranked SEC West rivals — Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss — in three of their previous four games. Arkansas only managed to beat Ole Miss during that stretch as defensive woes proved to be costly against the Aggies and Crimson Tide.

But Saturday’s loss at Auburn was different. The way the Razorbacks were dominated has left Bielema and his staff reevaluating the entire philosophy on defense.

“It’s kind of three-fold. Being me, as a defensive coordinator in the past, the first thing you’ve got to look at is structure,” Bielema said in regards to his defense’s struggles. “We’ve got to make sure the things we’re asking guys to do, they can carry out. If you see things repeatedly not happening well, you’ve got to look at if that’s a structure we can continue to coach or do we have to modify it. That’s first and foremost.”

But that isn’t all Arkansas needs to do to improve.

“The second thing is personnel obviously,” Bielema continued. “The guys that you have lined up at certain positions, are they going to execute the task? There were a couple times on Saturday where we expected the ball to be funneled in a direction that it wasn’t. Obviously, when you do it that way during the week, and then Saturday it doesn’t happen, that’s a surprise to everybody.”

While Arkansas’ structure and personnel were part of the reason Auburn manufactured more than 600 yards of total offense — including 543 yards and 7 touchdowns on the ground — the Hogs’ coach recognizes there are other factors that allow games to quickly get out of hand.

“The third, and I think most important thing, is the confidence level of your players and coaches,” Bielema added. “When (Auburn) had three scores as fast as they did in the opening minutes of the first quarter of a game like that, not only does it affect your defense, it affects your offense, special teams and the confidence of your entire sideline. So that part is probably the area that I concentrate on more than anything.”

Once the defense surrendered an early lead — the Tigers jumped out to a quick 7-0 advantage when freshman wide receiver Eli Stove raced for a 78-yard touchdown on Auburn’s first play from scrimmage — Arkansas looked deflated.

The end result was a sobering loss that has since made the Razorbacks rethink their strategy going forward.

“Believe me, we’ve had some heart-to-heart discussions about who we’re lining up, how we’re asking them to line up and what they’re supposed to be doing,” Bielema said. “I haven’t had many scenarios like that in my coaching career, where it was as lopsided as it was. Especially for them to be able to run on us and for us to ineffectively be able to run. We gained a little bit of a reality on Sunday with the film of Saturday night and had some lessons learned for our coaches and players, myself included.”

While Bielema admitted he understands his team will receive some well-deserved criticism for how it played on Saturday, the coach said he and his players will look to do everything in their power to bounce back when Arkansas hosts Florida at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS next Saturday.

“I know the world can get negative in a short fashion, as it should,” he said. “We didn’t play very well, and I understand how that is perceived in the outside world. We’ve got to get back on track, because obviously it doesn’t get any easier with Florida next week.”