Even though college football appears to be moving in a more pass happy and gunslinging direction, to be successful and win games a team has to be able to run the ball. Ole Miss, has struggled to do that in their past three Southeastern Conference matchups and has ended up on the wrong side of two.
It proved to be a huge factor in the most recent loss to Mississippi State where the Rebels only totaled 117 yards on the ground in the 17-10 loss. In the game before that against Missouri, Ole Miss was only able to tally 126 rushing yards, another loss. The lone victory came against Arkansas when the Rebels had their second worst output of the season going for just 103 yards. The Rebels are dealing with injuries up front, but ultimately, to win games, they are going to have to run the ball successfully.
“We’ve struggled to run it against really good fronts,” Freeze said after the Mississippi State game. “Losing Laremy (Tunsil) and Aaron Morris, thats part of it; that hurt us. Losing Evan Engram hurt us some, but they didn’t do anything special. They stayed in a two high shell where we couldn’t throw it down the field and were able to stop our run with a six man box most of the game. They beat us.”
Without a presence of a running game the pressure then falls on the shoulders of junior quarterback Bo Wallace. Wallace, who finished last season with 17 interceptions, had been making major strides in protecting the ball. However, since the lack of a running game, Wallace has been forced to possibly bite off a little more than he can chew. In the past three SEC games, Wallace has thrown six interceptions and only three touchdowns. He has also been forced to pass 42, 34, and 40 times in those games, respectively.
“It’s tough,” Wallace said of having a lack of a running game. “But at the same time, I’m involved with that. I have to get myself going in the run game, and I didn’t really do that much tonight.”
The Rebels will be going bowling for the second straight season, finishing up the regular season at 7-5, but for them to be able to get another post season win, they are going to have to do some damage on the ground.
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