Big plays produced plenty of points in Western Kentucky’s favor.

Finally.

“I was talking to (offensive coordinator Bryan Ellis) about it and said it felt like old times, to be honest with you,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said a few days after his team’s 45-19 win at Arkansas. “It was kind of the first time for us.”

The fireworks and quick points Helton promised to bring back to WKU football showed up with the team’s best day offensively in the Southeastern Conference road win. Now the Hilltoppers (6-4) have to carry that momentum through a bye week and the last two games against Southern Mississippi and Middle Tennessee to ensure a bowl bid.

WKU’s offense has been a work in progress that has shown flashes of those “old times” and other signs that reverting to an old way of playing requires a process.

Helton and Ellis were assistant coaches on the Jeff Brohm-led staffs that led national statistics on offense and rewrote school record books during 2014-16.

Against a struggling Arkansas team, WKU put up a season-high 35 points by halftime and had the game well in hand by that point. It finished with 265 yards rushing and another 213 passing yards from a motivated quarterback. Ty Storey made his return trip to his home state to compete against the team he played for before transferring. He completed 68 percent of his passes and had three total touchdowns.

The offense converted 9-of-18 third-down attempts and were a perfect 5-for-5 on fourth-down conversions.

“It was one of the days that everything seemed to work and we were really clicking,” Ellis said. “He looked at me on the bus ride to the airport and we sit right beside each other and he said that one felt like old times around here. It was a good day for us executing and hitting some big plays and being able to go and sustain some of the drives, too.”

WKU’s 478 yards were just 10 shy of the season-high set against Central Arkansas in the season opener, but it was the highest in the three-game stretch where the Hilltoppers have put up over 400 yards.

The team averaged 6.1 yards per play after entering the weekend averaging 5.2 yards per snap. The 265 yards on the ground marked a season-high and the offensive line didn’t allow a sack or one negative rushing play.

“I feel like that was the game we’ve been waiting on as far as the offense trying to get everything together,” senior offensive lineman Miles Pate said. “To have the o-line, running back, receivers and quarterback all on the same page. That was big for us as an offense. We just have to continue that for the next two regular-season games.”

The timing of when to call shot plays also paid off for the Hilltoppers. Turnovers when those plays were called were big deciding factors in past losses against Marshall and Florida Atlantic. But coaches said they felt good about the fourth-and-short situations in plus territory that played in their favor that allowed them to call the right plays.

Storey was able to complete three pass plays of 22, 26 and a 69-yard touchdown pass to Jahcour Pearson and three different players had rushes for over 15 yards.

Running back Gaej Walker had a 39-yard run to go with his 129 yards on the day, Storey had a 22-yard run and backup quarterback Davis Shanley had a 16-yard carry.

Wide receiver Jacquez Sloan scored on a 19-yard reverse play that was executed better than any other time the Hilltoppers have tried to run a similar play all year.

“I don’t mind talking about it and saying it; we hadn’t been able to find the formula,” Helton said. “The plays were there and the kids were doing things right, but for whatever reason, we weren’t able to stay in rhythm all the time and move the chains and create explosive plays or series would stall out. So, it was the first game where we were able to really get done what our offense is supposed to do.”

Sustaining drives were the other key differences. Aside from two of WKU’s scoring plays of 19 and 69 yards, the offense drove the ball with ease into short scores inside the 10-yard line. The Hilltoppers found the end zone on their first five possessions and didn’t punt the ball until the opening drive of the third quarter.

Three of their scoring drives went for 12 plays, 75 yards and 6:03 off the clock, then 16 plays, 59 yards for 7:09. WKU’s last score of the first half moved the ball 68 yards in 12 plays.

“We’ve got to be able to continue to do that,” Helton said. “But, to have the third-down conversions and the fourth-down conversions and be able to follow up right after those plays with explosive plays right behind them, that’s really what created the momentum for us in the game. So, it was great to see what we were able to do offensively.”{&end}