FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney called 99 passes the past two games, including attempts and scrambles by quarterback Brandon Allen.
That's 61.2 percent of the offensive snaps in losses to Alabama 14-13 and Georgia 45-32.
"That's not who we want to be," Chaney said Sunday. "We talk about balance.
"I think we'll be a little bit better when we're able to run the ball efficiently, and quite honestly, what took place in that second quarter yesterday [Saturday] got us completely out of what we wanted to get done in that ballgame."
Georgia outscored Arkansas 31-0 in the second quarter Saturday to take a 38-6 halftime lead.
"So we had to throw the ball a little bit more in that back half than we wanted to," Chaney said. "But at the end of the day you have to be able to do both to be successful, and we weren't quite there yet."
Allen posted career-high totals in completions (28), attempts (49) and yards (296) against Georgia. The Razorbacks rushed 37 times for 126 yards.
"You do what you've got to do to win," Allen said. "When teams are taking certain things away, you have to change up your game plan.
"You have to do certain things that are going to benefit the team. However many passes it takes to throw -- 40 or 10 -- it doesn't matter. We're doing whatever it takes to win games."
Alabama and Georgia held Arkansas to a combined 215 rushing yards after the Razorbacks averaged 316.6 in their first five games, but nobody run effectively on the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs. Alabama ranks second nationally in rushing defense at 63.4 yards per game and Georgia is 16th at 105.1.
The Tide's front is more physical, but the Bulldogs have more speed and quickness, which prompted Chaney to refer to the their outside linebackers as "cheetah cats" before the game.
The Bulldogs sacked Allen three times in the first half before he went to quicker passes in the second half.
"I would still agree my assessment of them was accurate," Chaney said. "They were fast before we got there, and they were fast when we left the game."
Tailback Jonathan Williams remained productive for the Razorbacks against Alabama and Georgia, rushing 38 times for 191 yards, but Alex Collins had 17 carries for 44 yards and lost a fumble in each game that set up touchdowns for the Tide and Bulldogs.
Collins rushed for two touchdowns against Georgia, and on the season he has 103 carries for 665 yards and 8 touchdowns.
"He's a very good player that's in a little bit of a rut," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "We'll do everything we can to get him out of it or find the next man in."
The next man after Collins normally would be Korliss Marshall, but he was suspended for the Georgia game by Bielema for unspecified disciplinary reasons. Bielema said Marshall will be out for three or four more games.
"Korliss is a talented young man," Chaney said. "We'd love to have him with us, but he's not."
Kody Walker is now the third tailback behind Williams and Collins.
"Kody steps right in," Chaney said. "He's played a lot of football. He understands what our goals and objectives are, and he goes out and gets done what he needs to get done."
Chaney said running the ball is "who are are," but he doesn't necessarily view Saturday's game against Alabama-Birmingham as an opportunity for Arkansas to re-establish its identity of offense.
"What I'm saying is, it's not that we ran it poorly," Chaney said of the Georgia game. "I couldn't call that many runs, so to re-establish, I don't know.
"I want to go into a game and quit turning it over, play clean and get the balance that we're looking for to be successful."
Georgia had four takeaways, including two interceptions and a fumble by Allen.
"We found that ball is an incredibly important part of the game of football, and we didn't secure it the way we needed to on offense and it paid off for them," Chaney said. "Not for us. We need to work on that."
Sports on 10/20/2014