FAYETTEVILLE -- The Miracle on Markham, the name given to Arkansas’ last-play victory over defending SEC champion LSU on Nov. 29, 2002, still ranks as one of the most thrilling finishes in college football history.

The Razorbacks moved 81 yards in three plays to score that dramatic touchdown — a 31-yard pass from Matt Jones to a falling DeCori Birmingham — on their way to the SEC Championship Game.

However, since the Miracle on Markham, last-minute Razorbacks rallies have been practically nonexistent. In fact, since Jones directed a 71-yard drive that ended with his 3-yard touchdown pass to Richard Smith with 27 seconds left to tie the 2003 game at Alabama — a game the Razorbacks eventually won in double overtime — Arkansas has been an offensive bust late on fourth-quarter possessions when the pressure was on.

In 13 games since then in which the Razorbacks took possession of the ball while trailing or tied with a chance to tie or take the lead, they have spun their wheels.

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This season, Arkansas’ twominute drill has looked more like a Chinese fire drill than a confident, chain-moving operation. On the drives in which the Razorbacks have held a fourthquarter lead and needed to burn up the clock, they also have come up lacking.

Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt points to lack of experience and the absence of the team’s best receiver, senior Marcus Monk, as the top reasons for the Razorbacks’ late-game struggles.

“Just experience,” Nutt said. “We’ll get better at it next time.

“ You don’t have the main goto guy, the guy [Monk ] that’s been there. If you added it all up, how many times have they been in a 2-minute situation ? Not too many except for [center ] Jonathan Luigs and some of those linemen. We’ll get better at it.”

Arkansas’ ball-moving strength is tough to question.

The Arkansas passing attack ranks 109 th of 119 Division I-A teams with 154. 3 passing yards per game.

“The stats look bad,” offensive coordinator David Lee said of Arkansas’ passing figures. “You feel bad about your passing game.”

Play-action passes have been productive through three games, but the drop-back, sprint-out and bootleg passing schemes have not been as kind.

“It’s been rough sometimes and it’s been good sometimes, ’’ said Arkansas junior quarterback Casey Dick, whose 49. 3 percent completion rate ranks 11 th among current SEC starters. “ We have to get everybody’s confidence up that we can throw and catch the football.”

So far, that’s been easier to say than to do.

Mitigating factors in the misfiring passing game are significant, and they include:

The absence of Monk, the school’s all-time touchdown receptions leader, whose return for next week’s game against Chattanooga in Little Rock is still in question. The loss of sophomore tight end Ben Cleveland, a viable passcatching weapon, with nerve damage in his neck. A series of dropped passes that have impacted drives in all three games, including Lucas Miller’s drop of a would-be firstdown catch at midfield late in the third quarter in Saturday’s 42-29 loss to Kentucky.

There were several drops against Kentucky, and Dick threw high or behind his intended receivers on other key throws, like a crossing route to Hillis and a deep curl to Miller that was snagged off his hands for an interception.

“We had a lot of dropped balls on Saturday,” Hillis said. “A lot of people think it’s Casey Dick’s fault. A little bit was his fault, but a lot wasn’t.

“ I think right now... our team is at a little bit of a disadvantage. Teams know that we’re going to run the ball. Right now we haven’t established a real good, effective passing game.”

The pass protection has been solid, with just two sacks allowed through three games. Dick’s timing with the receivers and the offense’s passing in third-down situations when opponents know the ball will be in the air have not been smooth.

“That’s the hardest thing and the last thing to come, when it’s third down, it’s long yardage and you’ve got to throw and they know you’ve got to throw,” Lee said. “That’s the last thing to come and that’s the hurdle we are trying to get over right now.”

The Razorbacks devoted half their offensive snaps in Tuesday’s practice to the passing game, and had another 19 snaps in pass skeleton drills.

“We are addressing the issue as hard as we can and hopefully we will get better,” Lee said.

The Razorbacks rank third in the nation in rushing (329. 7 yards per game ) and 19 th nationally in total offense (484 yards per game ).

“It’s not that we’re lacking at putting yards up on the board, or points, it’s more finishing,” senior fullback Peyton Hillis said. “It’s just that we’re not getting it done in crucial parts of the game.”

Arkansas had possessions in its past two games — losses to Alabama and Kentucky — in which it had a fourth-quarter lead and could have salted the games way. It failed in both games.

“It’s frustrating for our guys because they know and the coaches know we’ve moved the ball,” offensive line coach Mike Markuson said. “It’s just at certain periods of time, when you really need to finish it to get the thing done, we haven’t got it done.”