Unless his Razorbacks had won, Houston Nutt couldn’t have obliged more fans than he did last Saturday night.

“ I told the team, blame it on me, ” Nutt said,

Since a segment of fans seemed ready to blame the Arkansas coach for everything from the common cold to global warming even as the Hogs went 10-4 and won the SEC West last year, it’s a cinch now the blame chorus booms after Arkansas’ 42-29 SEC loss to Kentucky last Saturday night at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Most of the attending 74, 015 seemed in full blame game during their departure with the 1-2 Hogs now 0-2 in the SEC West.

How do you get 306 combined rushing yards from superstar tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, even with both ailing from stomach flu, plus Jones’ 82-yard kick return touchdown and still lose ?

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Rightly or wrongly, blame ultimately befalls the head coach but also flows on assistants and players when a team self-destructs like Arkansas did last Saturday.

It was different a week ago at Alabama, even though Arkansas couldn’t finish that one, either, leading in the fourth quarter but losing 41-38.

That was on the road. Arkansas had made an amazing comeback from down 31-10 in the third quarter to lead 38-31 before Alabama, with help from some questionable officiating, rallied to win.

This time it was at home. The Razorbacks had dominated yet managed to lose and had nobody to blame but themselves. They lost via penalties (especially roughing the kicker on a missed Kentucky field goal ) and fumbles (especially Michael Smith’s fumble returned for a 67-yard Kentucky touchdown with the Hogs up 20-7 and driving just before half ) and on third down offensive failures.

Smith’s fumble now seems the least of the running back’s worries. He was arrested Sunday afternoon by Fayetteville police on a forgery charge and has since been suspended indefinitely from the team, Nutt announced Sunday evening.

Back to last Saturday, in the second half the Hogs got whipped at the line of scrimmage by a passing team’s running.

So, yeah, Nutt acknowledged at his press conference even before learning of Smith’s arrest, the mirror reflects more negatively this week than last week.

“ No question about it, especially that first half as good as we played, ” Nutt said. “ I felt like we had them on the verge of them letting go of the rope. I felt that good about it. Especially when we were driving the ball there at the end when they picked up that fumble and ran it in. That let a lot of air out. ”

But they got the air back to go from down 21-20 in the third quarter to up 29-21 on Fred Bledsoe tackling Kentucky quarterback Andre ’ Woodson for a safety, and Felix Jones returning the free kick for an 82-yard touchdown.

They couldn’t win because they couldn’t complete the key pass, the roughing the kicker penalty and the inability to keep Kentucky’s running game from opening up its nationally acclaimed passing game.

In the grand scheme of things was the most preventable and the inability to contain the Kentucky run the most surprising. Kickblock rushers Ryan Powers, who wasn’t supposed to be there, and Michael Grant, who was, collided knocking Powers into the kicker.

Passing problems have long abounded, especially with injured bellcow receiver Marcus Monk still sidelined and now freshman wide receiver Crosby Tuck lost for the season with a broken arm.

But stopping the run, an Arkansas defense generally does pretty well.

Not the second half against Kentucky, though.

“ That’s tough to swallow, ” Nutt said. “ We’re better than that. We’ve never had that happen to us before. You expect them to have that passing game because of Woodson and the receivers. But we had worked on the run. You always work on stopping the run first. ”

They mostly did until the last quarter.

“ You’re misaligned, ” Nutt said. “ You’re in wrong gaps, you’re in wrong techniques. You can’t have misalignment. ”

But Nutt, resilient as crabgrass, often has proven you can still have a good season after an 0-2 SEC start.

His 1999, 2001 and 2002 teams all went to bowls despite 0-2 in the SEC. The 2002 bunch, with Alabama on probation, won the West.

Even with McFadden and Jones, that’s a tall comeback order for 2007.

Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.