AUSTIN, Texas — Handfuls of missed tackles, big chunks of yardage, and a couple of short fields were a recipe that left Arkansas’ defense with a bitter taste in its mouth following a 52-10 dismantling by Texas on Saturday.

“They simply outplayed us in every phase of the game today defensively,” Arkansas linebacker Jerry Franklin said.

Texas revved up its offense early and was practically unstoppable until the starters began to be pulled in the third quarter. The Longhorns scored on seven of their first eight possessions while building a 45-3 lead.

As was the case in last week’s 49-14 loss to Alabama, Arkansas ’ coaches and players blamed the defensive ineptness on a combination of missed assignments, shoddy tackling and poor execution.

“We still didn’t tackle very well, we didn’t execute well... so it all boils down to that,” defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said. “We’re not good enough to overcome [poor ] execution and missed tackles.” “Basically, the game plan we had all week, we didn’t come out and execute the way we were supposed to,” strong safety Jerico Nelson said, “and that’s why we were on the field so long.” Nelson said Arkansas’ game plan was to stop the run first, contain Texas quarterback Colt McCoy second, then keep the Longhorns’ passing game in check. Instead, the Longhorns moved almost at will for much of the game, making 14 plays of more than 10 yards en route to the 45-3 lead.

Texas had scoring drives of 23, 73, 68, 65, 20, 71 and 60 yards during that same span.

“You can’t really describe it,” Franklin said of the frustration the defense felt during the game. “You have to be out there on the field.” The Razorbacks spent extra time on the field because they allowed the Longhorns to convert 7 of 12 third downs, a statistic Coach Bobby Petrino noted in his opening comments after the game.

“Defensively, we had a heck of a time getting off the field,” he said.

The result was Texas racking up 421 yards, the second consecutive week Arkansas has given up 400 or more yards.

But defensive end Antwain Robinson said the Razorbacks are still trying to “get on the same page” while learning new defensive schemes.

“We’re still confident,” said Robinson, who had an 80-yard fumble return for a touchdown. “We’ve just got to execute.” Willy Robinson said Arkansas’ defense might have less to learn in the coming weeks as he plans to “whittle back” the Razorbacks’ game plan. Robinson refused, however, to blame any of his unit’s shortcomings on its youth or the apparent physical mismatches it has encountered in its two losses.

“The thing about it is that everybody has issues, and we have ours, but that can’t be an excuse,” Robinson said. “We just have to execute and [have ] me learn their learning curve a little bit better — probably a lot better — so that we don’t go into a game with a whole lot of things.” Nelson said the defense is ready to get back to work and that it can’t dwell on the bitterness it tasted against Texas.

“We’ve got to come out this week in practice and grind it out, get prepared for Florida,” Nelson said. “We can’t hang our heads over this game, even though it was a big loss.”