Bye gives Hogs time to regroup after 56-3 pounding

Auburn's Javaris Davis , right, breaks up a pass intended for Arkansas' Keon Hatcher in the third quarter of their loss Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.
Auburn's Javaris Davis , right, breaks up a pass intended for Arkansas' Keon Hatcher in the third quarter of their loss Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' football team doesn't need to worry about this week's open date slowing down its momentum.

Auburn erased the good vibes from Arkansas' victory over Ole Miss with a 56-3 pounding of the Razorbacks on Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

It was Arkansas' most-lopsided SEC loss since joining the conference in 1992, surpassing 52-0 beatdowns by Alabama in 2012 and 2013.

"I expected to come in here and get a victory," Arkansas senior wide receiver Keon Hatcher said. "I'm just at a loss for words at what happened.

"I don't know what to tell you. We had a great week of practice. Everyone seemed prepared."

Auburn was in a control after freshman Eli Stove's 78-yard touchdown run on the Tigers' first offensive play.

It was Auburn's fourth consecutive victory.

"I had the confidence that we'd win," Tigers quarterback Sean White said. "I didn't think we'd win 56-3, but that was awesome.

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"It was a great performance by the defense obviously. On the offense, everybody was making plays. It's a lot of fun when that happens."

There will be plenty for the Razorbacks (5-3, 1-3 SEC) to correct on offense and defense during their extra practices after they were outgained by Auburn 632-215 in total offense.

The Tigers' domination in the run game was stunning: 543 yards to 25.

It was the most rushing yards ever allowed by Arkansas and the most by Auburn against an SEC team in a regular-season game.

Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema, a former defensive coordinator at Kansas State and Wisconsin, was asked if he'll get more involved with the defense.

"I think during the bye week here, you get through eight weeks and your intention was to kind of take an assessment of where you're at," Bielema said. "But offensively we didn't score many points either today.

"So I think it's easy to say look at the defense, but we've got to kind of look at everything."

Bielema said not securing the edge was a problem for the defense against Auburn. It's been an issue in other games, too.

"So we've got to take a really serious look at some of the things we're doing," Bielema said. "How we're making guys play, what we're asking them to do.

"The bye week comes at a very critical time for us, obviously, to kind of collect ourselves."

Bielema said Sunday would be "a long day" for the coaches and players as they review the Auburn game and figure out how to improve.

"It'll be one that won't be a lot of fun, but it's one that's definitely got to happen," he said. "Starting with me as a head coach and my assistants, we've got to do a lot better job to put our guys in position to have success.

"If the positions we've been putting them in can't be executed or can't be called, we've got to make changes and we want to approach these last four weeks with an opportunity to get better.

"We're a 5-3 football team that I think can end on a high note, but we've got to make corrections moving forward."

The Razorbacks, who already have played five nationally-ranked teams, play No. 14 Florida (5-1, 3-1) Nov. 5 and No. 19 LSU (5-2, 3-1) Nov. 12 at home before finishing on the road at Mississippi State (2-5, 1-3) and Missouri (2-5, 0-3).

"It's not going to get any easier going forward," Bielema said. "We've got a bye week and we've got to be disciplined or we're going to be in trouble.

"I think our guys have got big boy pants on. As coaches we've got to be very, very critical of ourselves."

Hatcher said the open date is much needed to heal physically and recover mentally after playing eight consecutive games.

"Some guys are banged up," Hatcher said. "Get those guys back healthy and ready to play this next game and come out and get a win, man.

"We definitely need a win. I'm going to make sure we go to work this week. We've got to get that stuff corrected. That hurt me. It hurt bad.

"But ain't no time for pouting, heads down, none of that. Get the things that you did wrong corrected and let's go. We've got a game to win in two weeks."

Senior nose guard Taiwan Johnson said the Razorbacks need to stick together.

"Understand that we can't point fingers at anybody else on the team," Johnson said. "I'm going to see what I need do better to help this team, because when a team rushes for that many yards, there's something I've got to do to help."

Johnson said the Razorbacks have to stay positive.

"We played a good team and things didn't go our way," he said. "But if we let this loss affect the rest of the season then it won't turn out like we want it to or how it needs to be."

Sports on 10/24/2016

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