The Auburn Tigers were handed their first loss Saturday at the place where winning streaks go to die.
It's always tough to win a game after a game as physically and emotionally draining as the one against Tennessee.
It's even harder when playing against three different opponents.
The first opponent was the Razorbacks.
The Razorbacks put up 495 yards of total offense behind their 6-foot-7 sophomore quarterback Ryan Mallett.
Red-Shirt senior running back Michael Smith didn't have a rush go for negative yardage and averaged 8.1 yards per carry.
Their defense was suffocating in the first half and played well enough in the second half to keep the Tigers normally potent offense at bay.
Three Auburn fumbles added to the Razorbacks' defensive success.
Second, the Tigers were playing against themselves.
Auburn head coach Gene Chizik always talks about playing against impostors on the field.
Those impostors were in full attendance in Fayetteville.
The passing game wasn't clicking and the offensive line had trouble keeping senior quarterback Chris Todd out of trouble.
Auburn allowed three sacks, one more than it allowed in the previous five games combined, bringing the season total to five.
Todd was out of character too.
Saturday was the first game this season Todd hasn't thrown for a touchdown.
It was evident from early on that he was in a funk when he overthrew a wide open Terrell Zachary down the left sideline.
No receivers had more than three receptions and the leading receiver only had 32 yards.
On the whole, the offense only had 108 yards of total offense in the first half, but turned up the production in the third quarter.
Senior running back Ben Tate was the only player who seemed awake for the 11 a.m. CDT start.
Tate had a career day on the ground, rushing 22 times for a career high 184 yards. His 60-yard touchdown carry in the third quarter was the longest of his career.
Finally, the Tigers were playing against the referees.
Losses should not be blamed on the officiating, but the officiating should not have had as big an influence on the outcome as it did Saturday.
Auburn was penalized eight times for 56 yards.
In particular, two defensive pass interference penalties were called against Auburn and gave Arkansas first downs inside the red zone.
The calls were blatantly wrong.
One was called on junior linebacker Josh Bynes, but the ball was touched before he made contact with the receiver.
The second one was called against junior linebacker Craig Stevens.
The referee saw Stevens' hand clenched in a fist on the Razorback receiver's back. He threw the flag and there was nothing there.
Arkansas was able to take full advantage of these penalties and put 13 points on the board.
The loss, however, came early enough to humble the Tigers before they begin the daunting second half of the season.
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