Arkansas suffered a lopsided loss to Alabama on Saturday, 52-3, as the Razorbacks gave up 8 sacks, and they key play was a DeVonta Smith punt return for a touchdown to break the game open.

After the game, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman discussed the game with the media.

“Early in the game I felt like we had enough time to throw the football,” Pittman said. “Evidently we weren’t seeing the receivers, or they weren’t getting open. On the punt return, we kicked it to the middle of the field, and gave him both directions to run to. We were trying to pin him on the sideline, and the ball went to the middle of the field and nobody touched him.”

Pittman also said the Arkansas fumble near the goal line when it was 3-3 was especially costly.

“It was a momentum change for us, our defense I thought played pretty well,” Pittman said, “… Some of the things that happened today were uncharacteristic of our team and they capitalized on it.”

Pittman agreed that the Alabama defensive line was “overwhelming” and he admitted that he had trouble picking them up with “arguably the best line in football.”

“I thought we stayed in third and manageable pretty good in the first half, but we couldn’t convert,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to figure out how to move the pocket, because nobody can just sit back there and against Alabama, we thought we could hit some quicker throws, but evidently they weren’t open. I’ve got to watch the film to figure out why we were holding the ball.”

Pittman said when he made the switch at quarterback, Feleipe Franks had received a big hit and the coaching staff tried to give him time to get his bearings.

Asked about a bowl game, Pittman said he’s not sure why the players wouldn’t want to play in a bowl game, and that this game shouldn’t define the season.

“We got our butt kicked bad today, but that’s the only game we did,” Pittman said.

Here’s the entire press conference: