AUBURN, Ala. — Ole Miss’ offensive woes continued to slow down their up-tempo offense, and the No. 24-ranked Rebels (3-2, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) could never get into rhythm on their way to a 30-22 loss to Auburn (4-1, 2-1 SEC) at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night.
The Rebels moved the ball with ease on the Tigers’ defense, racking up 464 yards of total offense, but missed opportunities throughout the night gave Auburn the win and sent Ole Miss back to Oxford searching for answers.
“Obviously, it was a disappointing loss,” head coach Hugh Freeze said. “I thought they were well-prepared and a good football team, but we had our chances. We can’t give them points off turnovers like we did, and we have to score touchdowns when we get the opportunity.”
The offense had several issues on Saturday night, including problems on the offensive line in both pass protection and rushing the ball. Junior quarterback Bo Wallace threw his first two interceptions, one of which was returned 78 yards for a touchdown. The Rebels also had six drops, according to Freeze.
It was an overall rough night for the Ole Miss offense that – aside from a couple of big completions to junior wide receiver Donte Moncrief – seemed very out of sync.
“There are little things that they did better than us tonight,” Freeze said.
But it wasn’t just the offense. The defense had several missed tackles and struggled mightily on a couple of Auburn drives.
“It was really aggravating knowing that we didn’t execute,” junior safety Cody Prewitt said. “It was a physical mistake that caused us to have less execution than I thought we should have.”
In fact, Ole Miss put itself in an early hole, allowing Auburn to go 80 yards in six plays in just 1:33 of game time to take a 6-0 lead. The pick six and the legs of junior quarterback Nick Marshall were all the Tigers needed to build themselves a 20-6 halftime lead.
The Rebels regrouped at the half and came out strong. They held Auburn and drove the ball down the field, but they once again stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal.
Auburn then turned back to Marshall, who scored his second touchdown of the night with his legs. Marshall had a career-high 145 rushing yards on 14 carries to go along with the two touchdowns.
“He had a phenomenal first half,” Freeze said of Marshall. “He is an athletic guy, and we struggled to contain him at times. I thought we did a better job in the second half on him. He is a good player, and they make you defend the entire field, and they have a good player back there like him that is hard to defend.”
The Ole Miss defense was certainly having trouble containing the athletic, dual-threat quarterback, but the defense did give the offense chances.
Wallace connected with Moncrief on 49- and 12-yard touchdown passes to cut the Rebels’ deficit to 27-22. Wallace had 336 yards and two touchdowns on 25 of 38 passing, while Moncrief had six receptions for 122 yards and the two scores.
Prewitt stepped up and forced a fumble that gave the Ole Miss offense life. It gave them a chance to — despite all the struggles earlier in the game — take the lead.
Instead, the struggles continued. On third down, Wallace threw his second interception of the night.
“It was very frustrating,” Wallace said. “The defense gave us a lot of opportunities to win, and we didn’t capitalize on them.”
The Rebels got other chances, but one of those drives started on their own 1-yard line. The other — Ole Miss’ last of the game — saw the offensive line fail and Wallace get sacked on third and fourth downs.
Ballgame.
Now, all Ole Miss can do is move forward. The schedule certainly doesn’t do them any favors with Texas A&M and LSU coming to town the next two weekends, but the Rebels will be back at home for a six-game homestand.
“We look forward to going home,” Freeze said. “The road does not get much easier, but at least we will have our people behind us and pulling for us like we have experienced on the road.
“We will keep fighting. There is hurt in the locker room right now.”
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