It might not get any better because it sure isn’t going to get easier.

Arkansas has exhaled the only two breathers on its schedule by a combined five points, and even Saturday’s 28-27 victory wasn’t settled until Louisiana-Monroe missed a 45-yard field goal with 36. 5 seconds to play.

It is going to be a long football season if the cardiac kids in cardinal don’t start focusing and playing hard every time they step on the field and not just in the fourth quarter.

All indications were there for months that this could be a very difficult season — only seven senior starters — but Bobby Petrino’s success at Louisville gave pause, and people waited to see if they wanted to at least taste the Kool-Aid.

Saturday night, for the second week in a row, the Razorbacks had to pull it out in the final quarter, and the cold, hard truth is that if they had played as hard the second and third quarters as they did the first and last, they could have named their score against Louisiana-Monroe.

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Louisiana-Monroe was a solid, well-coached football team, but the Warhawks are not picked to win the Sun Belt and lost their season opener to Auburn 34-0.

Yet, they put a big scare on the Razorbacks.

With bigger and better opponents coming up, Petrino needs to find some magic to make these youngsters get serious and stay that way for 60 minutes, even if it means playing every freshman.

Last-minute heroics by D. J. Williams — three catches for 95 yards in the fourth quarter — is not the way the game or day started.

Tens of thousands of loyal fans came to tailgate and celebrate their favorite team, only to find themselves on their feet hoping and praying the final 15 minutes.

As for the Hogs, for more than 20 of the opening minutes, it appeared they were putting themselves in position to put an old-fashioned whipping on Louisiana-Monroe.

The Hogs had 199 yards of offense, had held Louisiana-Monroe to 13 and led 6-0. Then the life was sucked out of the Razorbacks.

Alex Tejada missed a pair of field-goal attempts, one of them so badly he was met coming off the field by Petrino, who was a very, very unhappy head coach at the moment, and very verbal.

Then after Michael Smith capped a 55-yard drive with a 13-yard run for a touchdown, Tejada missed the extra point.

What happened was not Tejada’s fault, and this coaching staff needs to find a way to rebuild his confidence because they are going to need him before this season is over.

Yet, after the missed extra point, it looked like the wheels were coming off the Hogs caravan.

Before a kickoff, Tejada got a delay of game. He then kicked out of bounds, and the Warhawks started at their 45. Aided by pass interference on third-and-goal from the 7, they went on to take a 7-6 lead and wouldn’t trail again until Williams pulled in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Casey Dick with 1: 22 to play.

Louisiana-Monroe held the Hogs on the ensuing possession, Jeremy Davis’ punt from his 20 was blocked, and suddenly it was 10-6.

It would stretch to 24-6 because the offensive line struggled to give Dick time to find a second or third receiver, and he struggled trying to throw deep. On one play, Jarius Wright beat his man by almost 10 yards, but the ball hit the defender in the back.

This is not about coaching, personalities or popularity.

It is not about preparation or systems.

While the Razorbacks are 2-0, they were supposed to be undefeated at this point, but even the biggest skeptic expected it to be by more than a total of five points.

Maybe it is the youth and inexperience; maybe it is players learning an all-new system in a few short weeks. Whatever it is, this season is going to get very long if the Razorbacks don’t learn to attack on both sides of the ball every time they step on the field.

Arkansas had 184 yards of offense and two touchdowns in the last quarter. That will be a tall order the next 10 games.