Might be time Razorback fans get reality check regarding Petrino's offense

While college football has drastically transformed since his days as head coach at Arkansas and Louisville, its worth questioning if the game has finally passed him by.

His offense's second half woes have consistently worsened over the course of the past two weeks, scoring seven points against Ole Miss, three at Memphis and a fat goose egg against Notre Dame in the friendly confines of Razorback Stadium.

"We (offensively) played terrible and we couldn't get off the field defensively," Pittman said following Saturday's loss. "And it's the same thing. It's the tackling, it's the coverage at times, it's the off-coverage that we're nowhere close to the guy, and then it's the man coverage, where at times we leave him wide open.

"It's the easy scores, it's the power play here at the end, where we had nobody even close to the guy. That's on everybody. It's not just, obviously, on the players, that's on all of us. But that's been a trend now for five weeks."

Following the loss to Ole Miss, Arkansas remained one of the best teams in the country when it comes to producing chunk yardage with 66 plays of 10+ yards.

After two weeks of more frustration, the Razorbacks are logging chunk plays (97) but adding losses in the column.

Amid defensive struggles, Arkansas had been a dynamite first half team in its first 2.5 games to keep itself in games with an opportunity to win in the fourth quarter.

Petrino doesn't seem to have an answer for his offense's lack of production in pivotal moments of the second half, and turnovers have beeen an issue for most of it.

Something must change soon over the bye week of things could get bad on the hallowed grounds of Razorback Stadium.

"What has bailed us out a little bit before was offense, was scoring, and we didn't finish drives today, and for whatever, there were several different reasons behind that," Pittman said. "Defensively, we're still not tackling well. And I thought we had a really good week of practice, and the back-end swarming to the front end, but it didn't show today at all."

The Razorbacks still have time to regroup, but the preseason darkhorse Heisman Trophy campaign for quarterback Taylen Green is effectively over.

After completing just 17-of-32 passes for 207 yards and one interception Saturday against Notre Dame's No. 132 pass defense, Green must wear the "C" on his shoulder with pride, rally his troops and attempt to turn the season around after three straight losses.

"Do I still think we have a good football team? It's hard to say after, you know, that embarrassment today, but I still think we have the capabilities of winning a lot of games," Pittman said. "But certainly, we have a lot, we've got a lot to fix."

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