Any thoughts that Arkansas might get into a bowl game following a 10-loss season were significantly dampened Saturday night.
The Razorbacks lost 31-17 to Ole Miss, a team picked to finish just ahead of Arkansas at the bottom of the SEC West. Most paths to six wins included an early-season victory over Ole Miss. Without it, Arkansas will need to pull multiple upsets to extend the season beyond 12 games.
Speaking of 12 games, that is where the Razorbacks' conference losing streak sits following Saturday's loss. Arkansas' last SEC win came in Oxford, Miss., two years ago. It is the second-longest conference losing streak in program history, five shy of the 17 consecutive losses by the Razorbacks from 2012-14.
Ole Miss didn't win as easily as the final score might indicate, but Arkansas never really threatened, either. The Razorbacks committed several errors - turnovers, penalties, a missed field goal, etc. - that contributed to the Rebels being able to build a 21-point second half lead and pull away.
Like during last week's victory over Portland State, Arkansas was sluggish offensively in the first half and held out of the end zone before halftime of its fourth consecutive SEC game. The Razorbacks trailed 10-3 at the break thanks to a Connor Limpert field goal, but couldn't close the gap when Limpert missed a second attempt late in the second quarter.
Arkansas had a chance to score just before the miss, but quarterback Ben Hicks misfired on a pass to running back Devwah Whaley, who was open down the middle of the field near the goal line.
The first half yielded just 137 yards of offense for the Razorbacks, led for the two quarters by Hicks, who completed less than 50 percent of his passes (7 of 16) for the second consecutive week and finished with 98 passing yards. Hicks did not play in the second half.
A change to Nick Starkel produced more success after halftime. Starkel led the Arkansas offense down the field much better. He passed for 201 yards and completed 17 of 24 pass attempts, and seemingly put himself in line to start next week's game against Colorado State.
Starkel played in only two series in the season opener, but has had the biggest pass plays in both of Arkansas' games.
There will be some who wonder whether the Razorbacks could have won on the road tonight had Starkel played a full game. Despite his stats, Starkel led only one scoring drive, capped with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Koilan Jackson in the final two minutes after the game was already in hand.
The Razorbacks will regret a number of mistakes and setbacks on offense that contributed to their scoring just one touchdown. (Arkansas' other touchdown was on a long fumble return by safety Kamren Curl).
The biggest mistake was a penalty for an ineligible receiver downfield that wiped out a 38-yard touchdown pass from Starkel to Trey Knox in the third quarter. The score would have pulled the Razorbacks within an extra point of tying the game.
Two plays later Arkansas ran right into the teeth of the Ole Miss defense on fourth-and-2 to commit a turnover on downs. The Rebels scored 21 of the next 28 points.
It was one of three times that the Razorbacks moved inside the Rebels 30 but failed to come away with points. Whaley also lost a fumble in Ole Miss territory after halftime.
Defensively, Arkansas played OK for most of three quarters and kept the team in the game. Ole Miss led 17-3 through going to the fourth quarter.
The Razorbacks appeared to wear down late in the game, especially against the Rich Rodriguez uptempo, run-based offense. The Rebels finished with 237 rushing yards on 53 carries.
Scottie Phillips, who had the game-winning touchdown last season against Arkansas, had a big night with 143 yards on 26 carries, including a 26-yard touchdown that sealed the game with 6:03 remaining.
That rushing success set up some big plays in the passing game for Ole Miss, such as a 26-yard pass to Dontario Drummond in the first quarter that led to the Rebels' first score, and a 46-yard touchdown pass from Matt Corral to Elijah Moore in the fourth quarter. The Arkansas defense also committed two key 15-yard penalties that aided Ole Miss touchdown drives.
The Rebels had 483 yards of offense - 310 more than they had in a season-opening loss at Memphis last week.
Arkansas has two weeks to work out the wrinkles before its next SEC game, Sept. 28 vs. Texas A&M. The Razorbacks' next two opponents, Colorado State and San Jose State, won a total of four games last season, one of which was the Rams' victory over Arkansas.