AUBURN, Ala.- Junior wide receiver Laquon Treadwell made sure everyone knew this game was personal. Treadwell said he wanted Auburn to “feel his pain.”
In the Rebels’ 27-19 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium against the Auburn Tigers, he made good on that promise.
The win for the Rebels Saturday was the first win for them at Auburn since 2003 and the first time in program history that the Rebels have beaten Alabama and Auburn on the road in the same season.
In his fourth straight 100-yard receiving effort, Treadwell finished the game with seven catches for 114 yards and one touchdown.
Junior quarterback Chad Kelly threw a fade route to the left corner of the end zone, and Treadwell reeled it in for the 21-yard score to seal the victory for Ole Miss 27-19 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.
After the catch, Treadwell took a knee in the end zone, pointed to the sky, then ran to the Ole Miss section at Jordan-Hare and gave a salute to the traveling Rebel fans.
“I think I just made a play when it came to me. I stayed in the moment,” Treadwell said. “The coaches ran the ball and ran the ball and they went one high and took a chance. I made the play.”
“This game is about getting us closer to winning the SEC West,” Hugh Freeze, head coach, said when asked about the game relating to Treadwell’s injury against Auburn last season. “He told me before the game, ‘Coach, I’m not worried about that. I just want to play.’ That’s that.”
The end of the game stats don’t show a dominating Ole Miss victory, but a win against an SEC West foe is all that mattered to the team that still controls its own destiny to win the SEC West.
“It was a big SEC fist-fight,” Freeze said. “I don’t really care about stats. Just winning the game, it makes the ride home a lot sweeter.”
The Rebels may have only put 27 points on the scoreboard, but the offense reached 558 yards of total offense, which marks the fourth game this season where Ole Miss reached over 500 total yards of offense.
Chad Kelly had an up-and-down game to say the least. Kelly put up big numbers, going 33-of-51 for 381 yards passing with two touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions that gave Auburn momentum to possibly take the lead.
Kelly now has 20 touchdowns on the season and 12 interceptions. Former Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace had 14 interceptions all of last season.
Kelly’s interceptions aren’t always on him, but the turnovers in general are starting to concern Freeze.
“It is definitely something to worry about,” Freeze said. “We are going to help him get better. Dan (Werner) and myself will coach him better.”
“We shot ourselves in the foot at times this game, and some of that was my fault,” Kelly said of his performance. “We did a great job of executing our game plan in the second half and the rest is history.”
Junior wide receiver Derrick Jones reeled in his second touchdown catch of his Ole Miss career and his first this season when he caught a 45-yard pass from Kelly to make it 20-13 Rebels with 1:52 left in the third quarter. Jones was excited after the game, and said it is a moment he wanted to have all season.
(Akeem Judd breaks through defensive line in the game Saturday against Auburn | Cameron Brooks)
“I knew I had a double-move, so I got to bait him in. Once I baited him, it was pretty much easy,” Jones said. “It feels good to feel like I’m finally getting my rhythm back.”
The running game continued its recent stretch of success with 156 yards and one score for the game. Leading the way was senior running back Jaylen Walton, who finished with 20 carries for 78 yards. Junior running back Akeem Judd had the lone rushing score of the game when he raced 25 yards to find the end zone and tied the game at 10 with 2:07 left in the first half.
“It definitely opened some things up for us,” Freeze said of the running game. “I thought we held our own and had some nice runs.”
The Rebel defense had a few blemishes in the contest, giving up 427 yards of total offense to Auburn along with some explosive plays, but the unit was spectacular in the red zone. The Auburn offense reached the red zone three times Saturday, and three times the Rebels’ defense forced Auburn to settle for field goals.
“In practice every week, we make sure we’ve got our goal line stuff in order, and when it’s down there, it’s crunch time,” Robert Nkemdiche, junior defensive tackle, said.
Everything is still in front of this team for making a run to Atlanta and play for SEC title. Freeze said the win against Auburn was all about focusing solely on the game.
“It’s something I tell these guys every day,” Freeze said. “If we just take it day by day, we’ll end up reaching our ultimate goal.”
