An unbelievable loss because it wasn’t that close

FAYETTEVILLE — Unbelievable.

No, not particularly that Arkansas lost to TCU on Saturday.

What made it hard to believe is that 28-7 final score was that close. If the Horned Frogs hadn’t shot themselves in the foot repeatedly it could have been — and honestly probably should have been — much worse.

Seriously. The Razorbacks played that badly.

“As coaches, we’ve really got to self-assess what we’re asking our guys to do, especially in the second half offensively,” Bret Bielema said later, “and get a lot better at the details, especially in the critical moments.”

On the surface some will just call it an extension of the meltdown in the final two games of last season, but the reality is TCU made this game close, not the Hogs.

They fumbled away one possession at the Arkansas 6 and an interception on a pass that was badly underthrown killed another deep threat.

In a game where the Razorbacks achieved absolutely none of what Bielema wants to achieve, maybe the biggest surprise was the Hogs were actually only a touchdown behind until the final two minutes of the game.

Bielema has said he wants his offense to have 200 yards passing and 200 yards rushing. In this game, the Hogs had just 267 yards for the entire game.

They didn’t win the kicking game (two missed chip-shot field goals) and they didn’t win the time of possession (only 26:08 to TCU’s 33:52).

The last one was critical because the Frogs simply wore down the Hogs’ defense, particularly the front, early with a high-tempo offense that was running the ball more than throwing it.

TCU had 195 yards on the ground and 166 through the air. They ran 73 offensive plays to just 54 for the Hogs.

That didn’t go according to play. Bielema was expecting to be able to run the ball on the Frogs’ smaller defensive size, although they do have some size in the middle up front.

“Absolutely, yeah,” he said. “We really felt we should be able to lean on them, especially as perimeter guys.

“Our thought was to try to get on the edges on the defensive ends and try to wear them down a little bit, but we were never able to really consistently get that done.”

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For some reason, the offense looked as confused as it ever has under Bielema at times. The coaches had talked glowingly about Chase Hayden after last week’s game against Florida A&M, but he had two carries for 2 yards early, then disappeared.

And Bielema sounded confused afterwards.

“I know at halftime they talked about … at least the coaches wanted to go with one guy and try to keep him in there and try to keep the rhythm goin,” he said. “Some of the guys got a hot hand.”

That was mostly David Williams, who finished with 65 yards on 10 carries. Devwah Whaley had 34 yards on 11 carries.

“We wanted Chase to be on the first, second down,” Bielema said. “We knew third down wasn’t his down today, but first and second down I can’t talk to you about the rotation.”

In the end, that was the way this one played out. Confusion for the Hogs.

With a week off there will be time to self-assess a lot of things. The kicking game is one.

“We may either just go for it all the time, or I’ll put in a guy …,” Bielema said. “What you see in practice is what you believe is going to happen.”

Instead, Cole Hedlund will likely not be kicking again anytime soon.

For TCU coach Gary Patterson, it was more what he wanted after a disastrous (for him) 6-7 season last year.

“I told you guys in the offseason we had to get back to being physical,” he said. “I thought we started going that direction on offense when we have to be able to run the ball.”

And he wasn’t getting drawn into the Big 12 not as physical as the SEC.

“You guys keep wanting to say Big 12-SEC, but it’s just Arkansas-TCU,” he said. “You guys are surprised by this, that’s why you’re asking me those questions.

“I’m not surprised by it. I’ve been telling you, but you haven’t been listening.”

For the Horned Frogs, the season is looking up.

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For Bielema and the Hogs it’s going to be a long, long two weeks.

Everybody might as well get ready for it.