FAYETTEVILLE — For the first time this season, the Arkansas Razorbacks created some luck.

Freshman Dennis Johnson scored the game-winning touchdown Saturday on a 96-yard kickoff return down the right sideline with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.

That made it 30-23.

Just 59 seconds later, Isaac Madison got an interception and returned it 43 yards to the Tulsa 35, and while the Razorbacks didn’t get much out of that, it did stop a Hurricane drive.

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Tulsa was a very dangerous and explosive team. Its first two scoring drives were 84 yards in 1: 35 and 67 yards in 1: 01.

Let’s get it out of the way: For all those who trust in Gus, his offense is everything expected and more.

Against a bigger, stronger and faster Arkansas Razorbacks team, Gus Malzahn and Tulsa racked up 528 yards of total offense.

They seemed capable of scoring any time, and if not for a shaky start, the game might have been different.

The Razorbacks jumped out to a 17-0 lead with 2: 22 to play in the first quarter.

In the three scoring drives, Casey Dick, who was named winner of the Crip Hall Award as the outstanding senior in the homecoming game, was a combined 8 of 11 for 141 yards and had a touchdown pass of 13 yards to Andrew Davie.

At that point, the Hogs led the Hurricane in total yardage 189-6, and it looked like they were about to drop a hundred on the undefeated team. But over the next 8: 31, Tulsa outgained the Razorbacks in yardage 208-8 and cut Arkansas’ lead to 17-13.

In the end, the visitors had 528 yards of offense to 435 by the home team.

For all those doubters, Malzahn called 47 run plays and 33 passing plays Saturday.

Yet, as hard as the Hurricane we re to g uard, when the Razorbacks’ defense had to make a play, it did.

Jerry Franklin got an interception when Tulsa tried a flea-flicker from the Arkansas 26, Tramain Thomas stopped a fourth-down pass completion a yard short, and the secondary and linebackers bent but didn’t break in their pass coverage.

Matt Harris tripped A. J. Whitmore on third-and-2 from the Tulsa 4 with a minute to play, and on fourth down the Hogs got pressure on quarterback David Johnson to force a hurried incompletion.

The defense also came together in the third quarter when Tulsa had a first-and-goal at its own 2 but ended up having to settle for a field goal that tied the game at 23.

Almost since Bobby Petrino stepped foot on campus he has talked about yards after the catch, and Saturday a crowd of 70, 021 saw what he wants.

A 21-yard pass from Dick to Joe Adams was aided by a spin move that allowed the freshman receiver to add 16 yards to what would have been a 5-yard gain on second-and-10.

D. J. Williams broke a tackle to turn a 14-yard pass completion into a 44-yard gain.

Lucas Miller turned a 2-yard pass into 34 yards.

With Tulsa almost shutting down Michael Smith, the receivers stepped up big, including another freshman, Jarius Wright, who caught five passes for 112 yards. Wright’s first reception was a diving, fingertip catch for 34 yards on a third-and-6 on the Hogs’ first possession.

Before Saturday, the speedster had only seven catches for 67 yards. He’s also become the punt returner.

The most obvious thing Saturday was that this was a team victory.

So many guys turned in big plays it would be impossible to name them all, but it didn’t take long in his postgame news conference for Petrino to point at the seniors and say they can always look at their final game in Razorback Stadium and be proud.

With three games left, the Hogs control their own destiny as far as getting bowl eligible.

The two road games are at South Carolina and Mississippi State, and the Hogs close out with LSU in the Rock, where no one wants to play the Razorbacks.

At Kentucky, they proved they are not intimidated by road games, and if they improve again like they have the past five games, and they make some luck, they could make November a month to remember.