Lynn Bowden has career performance in Kentucky’s miracle win over Missouri

Lynn Bowden had a breakout performance Saturday night in the Kentucky Wildcats’ 15-14 victory over the Missouri Tigers.

Bowden didn’t score the game-winning touchdown, but his fingerprints were all over the Wildcats victory.

The sophomore receiver had a key play on the Cats opening drive. Bowden turned something into nothing on 1st and 10 from the Tigers’ 39 yard line. He took a pass from Terry Wilson behind the line of scrimmage and followed his blockers 45 yards to the UK 16 yard line.

Four plays later the Cats put 3 points on the board.

After that series, to say the Wildcats struggled to move the ball against Mizzou would be an understatement.

Whether you want to credit the Tigers’ defense or criticize the Cats’ offense, one thing was for sure, UK was unable to get anything going offensively most of the evening.

As Kentucky trailed late in the fourth quarter, 14-3, the Tigers failed to convert a third down and punted the ball away to Bowden. Big mistake!

Bowden took the ball at the Cats 33 yard line and knifed through the Mizzou special teams on his way to pay dirt. The 67-yard TD was Bowden’s first special teams score of his career and it brought the Cats within 5 of the Tigers.

During Kentucky’s game-winning drive, while it was the Terry Wilson to David Bouvier show, Bowden had two key contributions to set up the Cats along the way. After taking a sack on the first play of the drive, Wilson delivered a strike to Bowden for 12 yards to help them dig out of an early hole.

After taking a sack and being forced to burn their final timeout with 9 seconds left, Eddie Gran called Bowden’s number again. Wilson dumped a screen pass out to Bowden in the flat, and the nimble receiver scampered up the sideline and stepped out of bounds to stop the clock with 4 seconds left after gaining 17 yards on the play.

Bowden finished the game with 13 receptions for 166 yards, both career highs. Bowden bailed Wilson out of trouble a few times and paid the price for it, as he fought and clawed to gain every yard he could.

After taking a lot of heat this past week due to the lack of a good passing game, Bowden and Terry Touchdown stepped up big to help lead UK to their come from behind victory in Columbia on Saturday. Bowden may have to up his game even more if the Cats wish to dethrone last year’s SEC Champions, the Georgia Bulldogs, next Saturday in Lexington.