Jimmy Carter.

Arkansas is awful.

That’s the observation of anyone that watches the first half of football games.

The Razorbacks take longer to get started than the NBA.

The Hogs have been outscored 83-52 in the first half of their last five games. That includes double-digit deficits in the first half at Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, teams with a combined 1-9 record in the Southeastern Conference.

Arkansas turns it around, though.

With the exception of the Alabama game, the Razorbacks have done their best St. Louis Cardinals impression and rallied from each deficit to win.

The Hogs are No. 7 in the BCS, primed for a showdown with No. 9 South Carolina. Arkansas is 7-1 for just the third time since joining the SEC in 1992.

The way the Razorbacks have been winning is frustrating the fans, coaches and players, though.

“It’s very frustrating,” senior defensive end Jake Bequette said. “We’re definitely not satisfied where we are right now, we’re not happy at all. We’re happy to be 7-1, that’s a great position. It looks good on paper. We know we’re capable of much better on defense and offense. When we put a complete game together, it’s going to be something to see.”

When will the Hogs put a complete game together?

How long can Arkansas keep living on the edge?

Conventional wisdom says the inability to start will catch up to them sooner or later.

The scary part for Razorbacks fans should be that the coaching staff hasn’t figured out a way to fix the issues.

In fact, old problems resurfaced worse than ever in the Vanderbilt game.

It starts with slow starts.

The Hogs have gone three-and-out on their first possession in five consecutive games. Arkansas hasn’t scored first since the Troy game Sept. 17.

Razorbacks junior quarterback Tyler Wilson was rushed all game and endured his worst beating since the 38-14 loss to the Crimson Tide. The Hogs’ offensive line was porous and Wilson was often a sitting duck.

Another disconcerting development is his lack of ability to throw the deep ball in recent weeks. He underthrew multiple open receivers downfield against the Rebels and Commodores.

Wilson has a strong arm, no doubt. He can make any throw on the field.

Could it be that the lack of pass blocking is keeping him from setting his feet and stepping into the throw?

To be clear, he doesn’t have happy feet. He’s getting killed for staying in the pocket.

The running game was back to looking average and junior Dennis Johnson, Arkansas’ best running back, fumbled the ball in opponents’ territory for the second consecutive week, leading to his benching.

Sophomore kicker Zach Hocker made all three of his field goals, including the eventual game-winner. He was the only bright spot on special teams.

The Razorbacks were flagged for three personal foul penalties on special teams, including Marquel Wade’s controversial flagrant personal foul penalty that resulted in his ejection and was a national topic of discussion.

The defense has been the most underwhelming of the three phases.

The Hogs returned eight defensive starters for what was supposed to be defensive coordinator Willy Robinson’s best unit in his four years.

Arkansas’ first-half defense might be more porous than its offensive line.

Key returning starters have regularly missed arm tackles, made assignment errors and been out of position early in the first half of games. The Razorbacks look caught-off-guard on a weekly basis.

“We’ve just got to keep looking at what we’re doing wrong,” Robinson said after the game. “It’s on me. I put ourselves in a couple of bad situations … It’s easy for us in a cool air-conditioned room when we look at things as coaches, you can recognize formations, we can try to transfer that over to the players. We can give them 2 or 3 shots at it in a practice, but when the bullets are flying out here, we can still recognize it from the sideline, but our players have a little bit of an inconsistency of recognizing it from their viewpoint. So, again, maybe we’re doing too much, OK?

“It’s a matter of recognition and talking and getting things done. A lot of those things shouldn’t have happened today. We repped too many of them for it to occur.”

The same things keep occurring, though, game after game. The defense looks better after making halftime adjustments.

Why is the gameplan or effort or execution, whatever it is, never right at kickoff?

The Hogs have a talented team. Watch the second half of games and it’s evident.

Sooner or later, Arkansas will have to play a complete game, though.

The Razorbacks better fix the slow-start woes before it’s too late.

Flipping the on-switch after falling behind 17-0 or 21-7 against LSU won’t be so easy.

Jimmy Carter is the sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter @jicartersports.