Ole Miss and Memphis fought a grueling, defense driven game on Saturday. It stayed tight until the fourth quarter, when the Ole Miss offense ran away with the game, making the final score 24-3.
The game started off with a couple of three and outs, as both defenses looked impressive early on. However, on Ole Miss’ second possession sophomore wideout Laquon Treadwell burned the Tigers’ defense on a 63-yard catch on a Bo Wallace pass. Treadwell, who saw more single coverage than he had in recent weeks, had one of his bigger games of the season.
On the ensuing kickoff a scuffle broke out, leading to the ejection of kicker Gary Wunderlich, who handles the kickoff and long field goal duties for the Rebels. Despite this, the Rebel defense was able to force a punt, and the Ole Miss offense, who were moving into the red-zone, had their drive prematurely ended after quarterback Bo Wallace threw an interception to cornerback Bobby McCain. Memphis capitalized on the turnover and got a field goal on their next drive.
The Rebels continued struggling on offense for much of the game, with their next drive ending in a 40-yard missed field goal by kicker Andrew Fletcher. Memphis continued having problems with it’s offense as well and had another three and out, punting the ball to the Rebels only to have it punted back to them three plays later. Memphis’ offense sputtered again, but this time their punt was muffed by freshman Markell Pack and the Tigers were able to recover. Memphis was unable to capitalize on this opportunity and punted.
The Rebels began their next drive impressively, getting all the way to the Memphis 22-yard line before Wallace threw another interception to McCain. Memphis held the ball for the remainder of the half but were unable to score.
Memphis received the ball to begin the second half, and after getting one of the only three first downs they would accumulate on the day, would end up punting back to the Rebels. Ole Miss had a few positive plays on offense before Wallace fumbled and gave the ball back to the Tigers.
The Tiger’s success was short-lived, however, as junior Trae Elston got his first interception of the season and returned it 47 yards to the Memphis 33-yard line. Ole Miss failed to get any points out of this, as Fletcher missed a 43-yard field goal, a kick that normally would’ve been kicked by Wunderlich.
After the Memphis offense stalled once again, the Rebels offensive attack was able to convert their first field goal of the day on a 19-yard kick by Andrew Fletcher. After this, neither offense had much success until the game had under 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The game swung Ole Miss’ way after freshman Marquis Haynes forced a fumble that the Rebels would recover, leading to running back Jaylen Walton scoring on a 23-yard rush the very next play.
After that, the game was pretty quiet until late in the game when Bo Wallace found wide receiver Laquon Treadwell for his second touchdown of the game, making the lead firmly out of reach with a final score of 24-3.
