TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — One of the keys for Ole Miss coming into Saturday’s contest against Alabama was to effectively run the ball. The Rebels would have to in order to come away with a win against the two-time defending national champions.
The Rebels rushed for just 46 yards and lost 25-0. While other factors were at play, such as the Alabama defense playing the best game it has all season and missed opportunities for the Rebel offense, it was the lack of an effective run game that really allowed Alabama to key in on the Rebel passing game and not let that beat them.
“They definitely had a plan to stop (runs to the outside); they were going to make us run it up the middle, and we couldn’t get it done,” offensive coordinator Dan Werner said following the game on Saturday night.
Defensively the Rebels looked good for the better part of three and a half quarters, holding the Crimson Tide to just 16 points in that stretch.
The Rebels did well to create havoc for the Tide offense, as they forced three fumbles on the day. However, each time Alabama fumbled, they recovered it. Ole Miss was able to force a turnover late when junior safety Cody Prewitt picked off his third pass of the season, in Alabama territory.
“They’re a really good team. It’s hard to bend and not break against a good offense like that,” Prewitt said. “We did fight, and I’m proud of the way we did play. They’re just a really good team.”
After a lackluster performance, is confidence lost?
“We haven’t lost any confidence whatsoever,” Prewitt said. “We know that this was the No. 1 team in the nation. They’re number one for a reason. We knew we would have to play almost a perfect game, and we made some mistakes. We’re going to go fix some mistakes and have our head held high going into Auburn.”
While the Rebels struggled in many areas on the offensive side of the ball Saturday night, junior wide receiver Donte Moncrief is positive that all mishaps from Saturday night are correctable.
“Oh yeah, it’s correctable stuff. It’s some small things we didn’t do that we always do” Moncrief said. “We weren’t having fun, we weren’t in our tempo. That’s what we do to get our offense going. Our offense used to be fun. We got to fix that and get better.”
Did Moncrief ever think that this Rebel offense would be shut out?
“I promise you it won’t ever happen again,” he said.
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