Memphis, Tenn. — A somber Hugh Freeze walked into the press room at the Liberty Bowl after his team lost to cross-town foe Memphis 37-24 Saturday afternoon.
Everyone seemed to be pointing fingers for the reasoning behind Ole Miss’ fall to a team it was favored to beat for the second time in three weeks.
Freeze owned up to the team’s loss Saturday, however, and took the blame for the overall struggles and disappointing performance.
“On our end, very disappointing. I’ve been on the other side of those wins, and I know what that feels like. It’s crushing to be on the other side,” Freeze said. “I was very disappointed in how we played, and that starts with me. I have to take responsibility for us.”
With the loss, the Rebels dropped to 5-2 on the season and fell 11 spots to 24 in the AP Top 25 Poll. With the victory, Memphis climbed to 18.
The disappointing ending did not seem possible early in the game. The Rebels jumped out to take a 14-0 lead with just under 10 minutes in the first quarter.
After the first two scoring drives for Ole Miss, the momentum quickly shifted in favor of the hometown Tigers as they scored 31 unanswered points to make it 31-14 Memphis in the middle of the third quarter.
Freeze and the Rebels felt the momentum slipping from their fingers in the second quarter. Freeze gambled twice on fourth-and-1 conversions to get back the momentum his team once had in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, the Rebels could not gain a yard on third-and-1 from the Memphis 10-yard line with junior defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche running the ball. Nkemdiche was injured on the play and left the game with a concussion. Instead of kicking a 27-yard field goal, Freeze elected to give the ball to sophomore running back Jordan Wilkins and was stacked up in the backfield.
Freeze decided to gamble again before the half and he didn’t win anything. Freeze called a quarterback sneak for Chad Kelly on fourth-and-inches from his own 34-yard line and did not gain any yards. Memphis proceeded to score a touchdown with 34 seconds left in the second quarter to take the 24-14 lead at the half.
“That wasn’t a good decision,” Freeze said on going for it on fourth down. “You’ve got half a foot, thinking we really need to change this momentum and get some points is what you’re thinking, but obviously, it was not a good decision.”
It was an explosive start for the Rebel offense to take the early 14-0 lead in the first quarter. On the second play of the game, Kelly lateraled it to junior wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, who flung it downfield to junior wide receiver Quincy Adeboyejo to make 7-0. The next drive, Kelly led an eight play, 90-yard scoring drive capped off by a 23-yard pass from Kelly to sophomore wide receiver Damore’ea Stringfellow to make it 14-0.
It went downhill from there. Memphis scored on seven of their next 11 drives, including four touchdowns.
The biggest impact of the game seemed to be the Ole Miss defense’s inability to get off the field on third down. Memphis converted 12 of 20 third down attempts, with the majority of the attempts coming on longer than 6 yards.
“We were as bad as you could get on third down getting off the field and, at times, converting those third downs,” Freeze said. “I wish I had all the adjectives. It was as bad as I’ve ever seen.”
“Anybody who watched the game could see how bad they beat us on third down,” Dave Wommack, defensive coordinator, said. “We missed so many tackles on third down. It was ridiculous.”
Both quarterbacks shined on Saturday as Chad Kelly finished the game, completing 33 of 47 pass attempts for 372 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The offense struggled at many points throughout the game, not converting on third down and failing to score points at times. Kelly felt the same way.
“We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot all the time,” Kelly said. “Turning the ball over and not converting first downs is how you get beat, and we didn’t do that.”
The star of the game was Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch. Projected as a first round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, Lynch torched the Rebel defense and made all the throws necessary to win football games. Lynch finished 39 of 53 passing for 384 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
Freeze had high praise for the Memphis quarterback after the game.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Paxton Lynch,” Freeze said. “He’s one of the best quarterbacks I’ve seen in my time here to make every throw and was very poised.”
Freeze admitted the team was ‘not locked in totally,’ but he and other players made sure to give the proper credit to Memphis and how they outplayed the Rebels.
“Memphis came out to play,” Trae Elston, senior safety, said. “They out-physicaled us. They played harder than us. They wanted to win more than us. We just got to check ourselves. A lot of people on our team, we don’t have our heart into it.”
Freeze understood and responded to disappointment from Ole Miss fans and faithfuls as he shared his frustration with the team from the fans’ perspective.
“I’m disappointed and hurt for the Ole Miss people more than words can really say,” Freeze said. “I know how they feel about their program, and they deserve better.”
