LEXINGTON, Ky. -- When he was in the game, Michael Smith never slowed down Saturday night.

Over and over, Smith took handoffs from quarterback Casey Dick and pounded into the Kentucky line.

And through the first three and a half quarters, Smith single-handedly carried Arkansas’ offense on his 5-foot-7, 173-pound back with a career-high performance.

Late in the game, however, it was a different story.

Smith was helped off the field in the fourth quarter by Arkansas’ trainers after being dropped for a 3-yard loss on the Kentucky 3 when the Hogs were trying to nail down their second straight win. He never returned.

And while he sat on Arkansas’ bench for the last nine minutes of the game with a towel on his head, he watched the Razorbacks squander a 13-point lead in a 21-20 loss against the Wildcats.

Smith, who suffered an apparent concussion, finished with 192 rushing yards and a touchdown; he also caught three passes for 33 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown pass from Dick in the second quarter to give Arkansas a 14-0 lead.

“It was tough (not having Smith late in the game),” Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs said. “We’re not pointing fingers by any means, but it would have been nice to have Michael out there.”

Over the last nine minutes, a seemingly different Arkansas offense failed to convert on two possessions, while Kentucky scored two late touchdowns.

“It’s a shame because (Smith) was playing his heart out, doing a great job of running the ball, catching the ball,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “We’ve got to have other guys step up and make plays. That hurt us a lot. Certainly, we had opportunities, we just didn’t get it done.”

In two weeks, Smith — the Southeastern Conference’s leading rusher — has carried the ball 70 times. Last week against Auburn, he had 35 carries for 176 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown run that helped give Arkansas its first conference victory.

This season, Smith has totaled 791 yards and five touchdowns on 144 carries.

“It wasn’t just because Michael wasn’t out there, it was just we didn’t continue to play and do the things as an entire offense that we were doing earlier,” Petrino said.

Paul Petrino, Arkansas’s offensive coordinator, said having Smith late in the game would have helped, but it wasn’t the reason Arkansas lost.

“That was a team loss, all of us made our mistakes,” Paul Petrino said. “It wasn’t because of one guy, all of us have to take the blame for that one.”