FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- There wasn't much of a celebration.

For the most part, No. 1 Alabama's players and coaches took Saturday's 49-30 win over No. 16 Arkansas in stride. While the offense slashed, gashed and dominated the Razorbacks, Alabama's defense left Frank Broyles Field licking some pretty hefty wounds.

Thirty points and 400 passing yards will do that to a team that's supposed to be the best in the country.

"Definitely disappointed by our secondary," cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. "We have to play a lot better. We got the win, but it's never good to see that many yards passing.

"A lot of things to work on, a lot of things to learn from."

As fellow corner Minkah Fitzpatrick, who tied an Alabama record with three interceptions and took one back 100-plus yards for a touchdown Saturday, put it: "That's not Alabama defense. That's not Alabama secondary."

The Bama secondary was gashed on Saturday by Arkansas, giving up 400 passing yards and three touchdowns. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

Some of what happened to Alabama's secondary, which entered the game having allowed just 188 passing yards per game and four total touchdowns all season, was head-scratching. Guys were out of position. There was an uncharacteristic lack of discipline. The secondary got into poor man-to-man situations, had bad eye discipline and took poor breaks on passes. Players at times didn't know formations or whether they had help. There were busted coverages galore.

Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen, who took a beating from Alabama's front seven, had a heck of a performance. He averaged 8.3 yards per attempt and 16 yards per completion. Allen deserves a lot of credit, but the Crimson Tide secondary didn't come close to playing to its capability. As this Alabama team runs through the middle of its SEC gauntlet searching to recapture its past championship form, the secondary is temporarily playing catchup. As an offense sprints off the charts behind a true freshman quarterback, the secondary remains the final piece of what could be yet another championship puzzle for the Crimson Tide.

"Nobody's really better than us out there," Fitzpatrick said of Alabama's secondary. "When we mess up, they make big plays and it makes us look bad.

"I know we're going to face better teams in the future so we need to get back to where we need to be."

Alabama's secondary likely won't need wholesale changes, but it has to get back to mastering the basics before playing Tennessee and Texas A&M, whose quarterbacks -- Joshua Dobbs and Trevor Knight -- combined to throw for 637 yards on Saturday. Dobbs, who faces the Bama secondary next week, has averaged 315.7 yards with eight touchdowns in SEC play. Knight has averaged 229.3 with five touchdowns.

Humphrey, who was beat on a couple of skinny posts on Saturday with one going for a touchdown, talked about this team needing to "pay attention to detail" in practice this week more than it did before Arkansas.

Coach Nick Saban said it's as simple as preaching and pounding fundamentals. Without even looking at the film, Saban talked about the myriad bad tendencies he saw all night from his secondary. While there were big plays -- Fitzpatrick's three interceptions and the team's five pass breakups -- they allowed at least six passes of 20 or more yards. There was the drive right before the half that lasted 56 seconds and featured 73 passing yards off two Allen completions. Allen's three touchdowns came on passes of 24,16 and 10 yards.

If not for a hellacious pass rush that notched six sacks, who knows what Allen would have done to this defense.

Saban blamed most of the secondary's mistakes on indecision, equating them to a batter being indecisive at the plate and getting burned on a few pitches.

"Good hitters usually hit good pitches. Well, most of our guys are pretty instinctive but we broke on a ball tonight that maybe we could have intercepted," Saban said. "It's like you've got to make the decision, 'Do I intercept the ball? Do I swap-flip the guy or do I have to break on a tackle?' We ran right by him and that guy ran for 80 yards. Those kinds of fundamental things, our guys are better than that."

To be fair, Arkansas didn't hit an 80-yard pass on Alabama, but Jared Cornelius did record a 57-yard reception when Fitzpatrick stopped on the throw and safety Eddie Jackson fell trying to make the tackle. Still, the hesitation was a problem all night. Good coverage doesn't always get it done; players have to make the right play on the ball. Bama can't afford for those flat-out ugly mistakes to become a trend. And coming into the game, they weren't, so maybe Saturday was simply an anomaly. Arkansas has turned into more of a high-volume passing team and with the Hogs trailing the entire game, they had to throw to try and dig their way out.

But that's not an excuse this secondary is using. The players are embarrassed and upset. This next week will be a harsh one, but they accept that. What they won't accept is a repeat performance of Saturday's shortcomings.

"This game's a big motivator for us," Fitzpatrick said. "We have to turn our whole focus around because these two teams [Tennessee and Texas A&M] are probably the best two receiving teams we're going to go against all year. We have to be more disciplined, you can't bust coverages, you can't lose one-on-one matchups.

"It's unacceptable."