OXFORD, Miss. -- The University of Arkansas defense was deservedly earning praise far and wide during the Razorbacks' 4-0 start, which included a 40-21 domination of Texas and a 20-10 throttling of Texas A&M.
Both of those efforts took on new meaning this weekend, with the Aggies pushing the right offensive buttons to take down No. 1 Alabama 41-38 and the Longhorns going bonkers early on No. 6 Oklahoma before falling 55-48.
However, the last two weeks have seen Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom's 3-2-6 scheme shredded on the ground by the powerful run games displayed by new No. 1 Georgia and new No. 13 Ole Miss, which outlasted the Razorbacks 52-51 on Saturday.
The Bulldogs kept it on the ground and racked up 273 rushing yards to pound the Razorbacks with what Coach Sam Pittman called "bullyball."
Ole Miss clearly tapped into schemes it liked and gobbled up 324 rushing yards, producing a pair of 100-yard rushers in Henry Parrish (18 carries, 111 yards) and Snoop Conner (12-110), with quarterback Matt Corral chipping in a damaging 94 yards.
The trio averaged 7 yards per carry on their 45 runs for 315 yards.
"We didn't tackle," Pittman said. "Any open-field tackle, we couldn't get the guy on the ground, and that includes Corral. That was by far our poorest day tackling."
Senior linebacker Hayden Henry seemed confounded by the tackling woes.
"We're just not wrapping up," he said. "We're letting too many 2-3 yard runs turn into 6-yard runs, and I can't necessarily put my finger directly on what the problem is, but I would assume we're not wrapping up and not getting guys on the ground.
"We make contact with ball carriers, but we're not pushing people back. People are dragging us for 2-3 yards and putting us in a bad position behind the chains and things like that."
Pittman hinted the Razorbacks were "beat up" with bumps and bruises more than people know, which could factor in to the defensive issues.
Like Georgia did, Ole Miss made it a point to keep hammering with its run game based on last year's 33-21 loss to Arkansas.
"When you get embarrassed like we did a year ago, at least me offensively, we're going to try everything we can to figure out how to beat ya," Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin said.
While much was made of Corral's six interceptions against Arkansas last year and how the Rebels would attack in the pass game, it was the ground game that opened up the pass.
"I think that's why you saw so much excitement between myself and [Corral] during the game because things were hitting that were schematical, things we had worked on," Kiffin said. "And some of it was stuff that had never been run before against them that we took an offseason to say, 'All right, what if we did these things?'
"And we studied what hurt Iowa State in the Big 12 because it's a similar defense. And that's for some of those runs that you saw hitting. That's not in the pass game. It was Snoop, with different blocking schemes."
Another problem for the Razorbacks: Takeaways have dried up.
The Hogs did not record a takeaway in the loss to Ole Miss a year after snagging six interceptions and one fumble recovery in a homecoming win over the Rebels.
The Razorbacks have not posted a takeaway in three of the last four games. Montaric Brown's diving interception in a 20-10 win over No. 7 Texas A&M is the team's only takeaway since Greg Brooks Jr. recovered a fumble forced by Zach Williams against Texas.
Since Arkansas opened the season with three interceptions against Rice, it has two takeaways in the last five games.
"It is a concern," Pittman said. "I mean, it's been a concern since the first game we didn't have a bunch of them.
"We work on it. We work on trying to strip it and get it out of there and rally to the ball. We pull on it, tug on it, try to hit it and knock it out. They just did a nice job of not throwing picks and hanging on to it. But yeah, certainly it's a concern."
Henry said it's "really important" for the Hogs to up their takeaway game.
"We've got to get back to taking the ball away," he said. "It's something that we were really good at last year. This year we were good at it a little bit, and now we're on quite a dry streak.
"We've got to start creating some big plays and getting the ball back to our offense. Whether it's stripping the ball or picking the ball off, we've got to get back to that and start taking the ball back from the offenses that we play."
Pittman said his message to the team included the sloppy tackling and allowing pass catchers to get behind defenders, but it also featured a unifying message as the No. 17 Razorbacks prepare to host Auburn.
"There's a lot of reasons why you win or lose games, but I just told them we're going to stay together," he said. "We've got Auburn coming into town. We haven't lost a game at home. That would be a really nice goal for us. We still have a lot to play for this year. I just said we have to stay together."