FAYETTEVILLE — It creaked and cracked, but the Arkansas playbook finally opened.

By then it was too late.

The Razorbacks used some creativity and misdirection for their only scoring drive of the night after nearly 56 minutes of missed opportunities and conservative play-calling, and it was almost enough.

But Auburn ultimately won the game 9-7 without scoring a touchdown, in large part because the Tigers held Arkansas’ struggling offense in check.

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The Razorbacks’ only touchdown came with 1: 36 left in the game after a six-play drive that started with two trick plays.

“We had some bullets. We weren’t using them,” Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee said. “I’m glad we saved them for the last drive. We had something going.”

The Razorbacks had nothing going offensively before that drive, a fact that led to a follow-up question for Lee: If the bullets are there, why save them until there is 4: 19 left in the game ?

“We were trying to get our run game going,” he said. “A lot of these bullets are predicated on running the ball and making something happen. The game just unfolded that way. That’s all I can say.”

Arkansas was held to 67 rushing yards, by far its lowest total of the season. Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, who ran for 43 and 42 yards, respectively, also were held to season-lows.

Take away the 71 yards on six plays on the final drive and the Razorbacks totaled 122 yards, and averaged 2. 6 yards per play.

“When we rush for less than 100 yards it’s going to be hard for us to win with the nature of our offense,” Lee said. “They took us out of our run game. But we didn’t have missed assignments. We didn’t get beat because we missed blocks. You just have to credit their defense.”

Arkansas started its next-to-last drive at its 29, trailing 6-0 with 4: 19 left. Out of the WildHog formation McFadden threw a deep pass to London Crawford, who drew a pass-interference penalty.

The 15-yard penalty gave Arkansas its second-longest gain on a pass play all night.

The next play was what Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt called a double-throwback pass, when quarterback Casey Dick threw a long lateral to receiver Robert Johnson. Johnson then hit Peyton Hillis for another 15-yard gain.

Later, Jones’ fifth and sixth carries of the night covered 27 yards, then Dick found Lucas Miller in the corner of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown.

Arkansas made the drive look easy after more than three quarters of failed execution.

“We had those plays there,” Dick said. “We were just waiting for the right time to use them, and the right time presented itself.”

Dick said he didn’t regret not opening up the offense earlier.

“No, we had to establish the run,” he said. “We have to be able to execute better, that’s the bottom line. We have to throw and catch and get some guys open.”

Johnson was a bit more wishful for a less-conservative playbook.

“Sometimes, maybe,” Johnson said. “But we should have executed our plays earlier.”

Dick finished 12 for 26 for 111 yards and 1 interception, and Lee said he thought Dick struggled in the second half.

Lee had backup quarterback Nathan Emert warm up on the sideline, and would have put Emert in except for the fact that the Razorbacks needed Dick’s arm strength an the end of the game.

Lee said the problems started with the run game, however.

“If we’re struggling running the ball we’re going to struggle,” he said. “It’s not what we do best, which is drop back and throw the football. That’s what we got into some in the second half. We tried to run as long as we possibly could until the end when we had to throw it.”

Lee said waiting was the right thing to do.

“I’m not going to second-guess myself,” Lee said.