The charge now seems to extend beyond a couple of Razorbacks who recently forgot to tend to minor traffic tickets.

Last Saturday the entire Arkansas defense could have been charged with failure to appear.

A plagiarized gallows humor joke overheard, but applicable nonetheless.

To a man, Arkansas' defenders know they must play today against the nationally third-ranked, defending SEC West champion Alabama Crimson Tide with the presence they obviously lacked in last Saturday's 52-41 SEC opening loss to Georgia in Fayetteville.

Defensively, that's the all-week Arkansas agenda as the Razorbacks (1-1, 0-1 SEC West) and Alabama (3-0, 0-0) kick off their 2:30 p.m. CBS nationally televised game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

"They saw themselves playing on the film," Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said, "and didn't like what they saw. They have been responding all week long."

They'll need to take their response to the game. Otherwise all the problems and then some besetting them last week will beset them again.

Coach Nick Saban's Tide appears about as offensively explosive and definitely more bruising than the Georgia Bulldogs.

"Their offensive line is more physical than Georgia's," Arkansas senior defensive end Adrian Davis said. "They try to get after it a little more and be a little more nasty than Georgia. You have to be physical against Alabama. They pound you with the run and play action the whole game."

And the Tide plays vastly better defense which feeds its offense.

Georgia scored all 52 points without any turnover help from the Arkansas offense.

Hard to imagine the Razorbacks playing turnover free against an Alabama defense led by three Preseason All-Americans, linebacker Rolando McClain, cornerback-kick returner Javier Arenas and 6-5, 354-pound nose tackle Terrence Cody.

All that Alabama offense-defense-special teams prowess rolled the Tide to a 49-14 slaughter of the Hogs last season in Fayetteville.

Offensively, even on the road, second-year coach Bobby Petrino's Razorbacks this time appear much better equipped to make a game of it or even spring an upset.

The Razorbacks have netted 85 points in two games, a 44-10 rout of Missouri State in Little Rock, and 41 in the Georgia shootout. Sophomore transfer quarterback Ryan Mallett has completed a spectacular 38 of 61 for 717 yards and 6 touchdowns without an interception including school records 408 yards and 5 touchdowns against Georgia.

"He understands their system," Saban said, "and he's throwing the ball on time to the right place. It seems like the players believe in him."

Especially since the Hogs know their offense has jelled even off balance.

Though averaging an impressive 8.5 yards per carry, Arkansas senior Preseason First-Team All-SEC tailback Michael Smith has been peripheral to the passing game. He only has 12 carries for two games.

"Michael's a big part of the offense and we really haven't been able to establish him yet," Petrino said.

In part he's been a victim of Arkansas' success.

Arkansas routed Missouri State so fast that Petrino wisely limited him to four carries.

Then between missing most of the first quarter with a first-play shoulder injury, and Mallett passes twice completing first-play touchdown drives, Smith only carried eight times against Georgia.

"That limits our total number of plays," Petrino said. "We didn't have that many plays in the game."

One-play touchdown drives are a happy problem and one the Hogs would gladly take against Alabama, but they do put the defense right back on the field.

So the Hogs not only need to run the ball for balance but for clock to rest a defense apt to have its hands run-pass full.

Four Alabama running backs average between 5.6 and 9.7 per carry. They allow quarterback Greg McElroy, 46 of 69 for 647 yards with 4 TD's against a lone interception, to be all the more dangerous on the play-action pass. He's ultra-dangerous now that wideout Julio Jones, the Alabama equivalent of Georgia great receiver A.J. Green, is healthy again after being withheld because of injury from the Tide's 53-7 rolling of North Texas.

Alabama's talent and home field installs the Tide an 18-point favorite.

Arkansas has the offense and Dennis Johnson kick return explosiveness to spring an upset but must have the defense and discipline (11 penalties versus Georgia and a player ejection) that last week failed to appear.