TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Much of the talk leading up to Ole Miss versus Alabama was about the Rebels and their chances to upset the Tide (4-0, 2-0). In fact, Ole Miss (3-1, 1-1) became somewhat of a media darling this week.
However, that was not so when the lights came on in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night. The Rebels fell to the Crimson Tide by a score of 25-0. It was the first time Ole Miss has been shut out since 1998, when Arkansas and their first-year head coach Houston Nutt held the Rebels scoreless.
“Obviously disappointing, felt real good about our preparation,” head coach Hugh Freeze said following the game.
The preparation appeared to be fine. It was the execution that haunted the Rebels Saturday night. They were unable to get into a rhythm running the football, which prevented them from finding any rhythm at all on offense.
“They had the right call every single time, it seemed like. Never could get in tempo in the first half,” Freeze said.
The Rebels were not successful on first downs on Saturday night, a big reason why the tempo was lacking.
“Just seemed like to those runs were two yards, which is difficult to move the chains a lot on that” Freeze said. “They definitely had a good plan and executed it very well.”
To add to that, fourth downs were also not so kind to the Rebel offense on Saturday night. They faced four fourth downs and were only able to convert on one late in the game, only to fail on one four plays later. Three of the fourth-down tries were from field goal range, but Freeze elected to go for a bigger prize.
“Playing the number-one team at their place, just feeling like we’re going to need touchdowns to win it,” Freeze said. “In hindsight, who knows.”
Defensively the Rebels were very impressive until a late fourth-quarter collapse. Ole Miss was very stout against the run for most of the day, and the deep ball didn’t beat them either. They had only given up 16 points, until a late safety and 50-yard touchdown run when the game was in hand.
“Real proud of (the defense’s) effort,” Freeze said. “It had to be frustrating to be on that side of the ball and just know that we never could get any life in us because we never could produce any points.”
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