Mississippi quarterback Bo Wallace (14) looks at the scoreboard after NCAA football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014. DM Photo | Payton Teffner
BATON ROUGE, La. – The sun set at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, and the stage was set for a colossal matchup between then 24th-ranked LSU and then 3rd-ranked Ole Miss.
ESPN’s College GameDay started the morning with extra hype, and the night ended with an upset victory for LSU as they ran over the Rebel defense and pulled away 10-7.
Winning in Death Valley at night is one of the hardest things to accomplish in college football, and the Rebels found out first-hand what it was like.
With the victory, LSU now holds a 46-3 record during Saturday night home games. The three losses have came against teams that were at some point ranked number one in the country during that season.
With the offense struggling, defense and special teams kept the Rebels alive. The defense was on the field more than the offense, and it proved costly as the defense was drained by the time the fourth quarter came around.
The Rebels fought hard, but it just wasn’t enough.
“It’s difficult. We’ve been on the good side of these for seven weeks in a row, now. This league is brutal. It’s difficult each Saturday to win football games. Particularly when you may not play your best, and you suffer some injuries you’re not used to having, and you’ve got to play some other kids,” head coach Hugh Freeze said. “Our kids fought. I thought our defense gave us a chance to win the game. We just could not manage any points.”
Injuries piled up on the Rebels. Ole Miss ended the game without two of their defensive all-Americans in sophomore defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche and senior safety Cody Prewitt. Junior linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche hurt his ankle in the second quarter and could miss the rest of the season.
The biggest loss was losing star sophomore offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil with an injury to his right bicep in the third quarter.
With starting center Ben Still out for the game, sophomore Robert Conyers slid over to center and struggled. Conyers struggled with protection and handling snaps.
The LSU defensive front blitzed up the middle constantly and proved to affect the Rebels.
LSU played to their strength on offense, which was a power running game that wore the Rebels down. The Tigers rushed for 264 yards and dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 36 minutes.
LSU improved to a 45-3 record under head coach Les Miles when a running back rushed for over 100 yards.
The running game drained Ole Miss, and the defense couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“They just wore us down and kept the ball from us. We didn’t have but maybe two possessions in the second quarter,” Freeze said. “They just ate the clock, and they’re really good up front. The offensive line is really solid, and their backs are really good. That’s the first time we’ve faced an offense quite like that.”
Hugh Freeze had a crucial decision to make late in the game, whether to kick the potential game-tying 48-yard field goal or let the offense take a shot in the end zone or get in range for a closer field goal attempt. Freeze elected to keep his offense on the field and let Wallace take a shot. Wallace was pressured and threw an interception with two seconds left to end the game.
The decision by Freeze to keep his offense on the field proved costly.
“With nine seconds on the clock, I thought we could sprint out and either take the flat throw right now or throw it out of bounds,” Freeze said about the decision. “Still worse case, we would be at the same point. We were trying to get it to the left hash for him (Gary Wunderlich) or left middle. We just didn’t get it done there.”
Freeze mentioned that he didn’t feel comfortable in freshman kicker Gary Wunderlich making the 48-yarder from the right hash mark, which is not the best position for the kicker.
The Rebel offense only put up seven points with 313 total yards for the game.
Senior quarterback Bo Wallace struggled, going 14-33 passing for 176 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The one touchdown came late in the first quarter when he found junior wide receiver Cody Core for the 15-yard score. Wallace was also the leading rusher for the game, going for 40 yards on the ground on 12 carries.
Ole Miss needed Wallace to play efficient football to come away with the victory, and he was anything but that.
Wallace expressed frustration in himself on the final throw.
“I’m not going to talk about it,” Wallace said. “One-on-one, threw it up. It’s done.”
As the game moved on, the Rebels seemed to have been swallowed up by the hostile atmosphere that Tiger Stadium imposed.
“It’s a crazy atmosphere. This is the craziest place I’ve played in,” Wallace said. “It absolutely was a factor. Every SEC stadium is going to be a factor.”
The second half is where the offense hit a major impasse. Ole Miss players took the blame for the second half struggles.
“I think it was more so us. Just us as a group, it just has to click,” junior offensive lineman Justin Bell said. “It wasn’t the crowd noise. We had a good run in the first half, so that wasn’t it, but it’s all on us.”
“They were just making more plays than us defensively,” junior running back Jaylen Walton said. “Offensively, we had some great blocks and great opportunities to make these plays and first downs. They just pretty much played their hands right.”
Even with the loss, Ole Miss controls there own destiny to win the SEC West. The Rebels must win every game the rest of the season in order to make the trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.
It may be a lot to ask for, but it’s something that must be done.
“We’re ready,” Wallace said. “We’re thinking everybody is going to have one loss now. We have Auburn coming to our place next week. That’s what my mind is on now.”
“We still could control everything we want with the schedule that lies ahead,” Freeze said. “We’re going to have to play really good football. They’re sore, down, and they’re disappointed. Hopefully, we’ll respond in the correct way.”
