Heading into the season, the Oct. 12 matchup between Kentucky and Arkansas in Lexington didn’t mean much to most aside from it being a non-traditional cross-divisional game between SEC teams.

Following the events of the first six weeks of the season, the matchup became a critical game that both sides desperately needed to win. Thankfully for Kentucky, they are the ones that have Lynn Bowden.

The Kentucky receiver took complete control of this game — and he didn’t even catch a pass or make a big special teams play on the way to leading Kentucky to a 24-20 win Saturday night.

With quarterback Sawyer Smith still banged up, Bowden got the start at quarterback for Kentucky and led his team to a second-half comeback win over Arkansas. Bowden finished the game completing seven of 11 passes for 78 yards and one touchdown while adding 196 yards on the ground and two additional scores.

Bowden’s legs were the difference in this matchup as the Wildcat went wild in the fourth quarter. The Razorbacks simply had no answer for him late in the game.

On the flip side of this matchup, if Chad Morris didn’t know by now, the decision is clear, it’s time to give the keys to his offense back to Ben Hicks.

The senior quarterback nearly led the Razorbacks to a win over Texas A&M two weeks ago but Morris went back Nick Starkel following the team’s bye week. With Arkansas in a hole after Starkel really struggled against the Wildcats, Hicks came in and gave his team a major spark.

Starkel finished the game completing seven of 19 passes for 41 yards. Hicks finished five of eight for 81 yards.

One Razorback that did show up was Rakeem Boyd, who opened the game with a 74-yard touchdown run. He finished the game with 134 yards on 15 carries. He had two scores in the contest.

Kentucky improves to 3-3 on the season while Arkansas falls to 2-4. The Wildcats travel to Georgia next week.