Catherine JeffersNot even an almost two hour weather delay could halt the Ole Miss Rebels from running away with a victory over Tulane on Saturday, beating the Green Wave 61-21 in the second home contest of the season.
Matt Corral and the Rebel offense started off strong, scoring on their first two drives of the game. Corral showed off his arm strength with the drive highlighted by a 17 yard pass to Jonathan Mingo and culminating in a 19 yard rushing touchdown from Henry Parrish Jr.
In the second offensive drive of the game, Corral showcased his running ability, rushing for a nine-yard touchdown to put the Rebels up 13-0.
The Rebel defense backed up the strong offensive start, forcing two straight three and outs with big plays from Sam Williams, Tysheem Johnson, Chance Campbell and Keidron Smith.
After a dominant Rebel start, momentum seemed to change in the third drive when Tulane forced a fumble from Parrish Jr., leading them to a Green Wave touchdown. With the Rebels up 13-7, a Rebel touchdown on the next drive, a huge defensive stop and missed Tulane field goal sent the Rebels up 19-7, with the momentum back for the Red and Blue.
Ole Miss’ second quarter performance featured three scoring drives, including a one play, 50 yard touchdown pass to Mingo to put the Rebels up 33-14.
“No. I know what this offense is capable of every week. We go out there trying to score; like the goal is to score a certain amount of points every drive. I’m not surprised,” Mingo said when asked if he was surprised with how well the offense played.
After Tulane’s third touchdown in the first half, the Rebel defense stepped up and held them scoreless through the second half. After putting up 230 total offensive yards in the first half, Tualne was held to 75 total yards and 3.3 yards per play.
The second half finished off a record setting performance for Corral, finishing the night with 403 total yards and accounting for seven Rebel touchdowns. Despite rumblings that Ole Miss is a pass-only kind of team, they showed their versatility on offense with 335 passing yards and 372 yards rushing.
The Rebels set a new school record and tied the SEC record with 41 total first downs in a game. Corral’s four rushing and three passing touchdowns tied the previous 1951 school record held by Showboat Boykin.
Despite their strength in the second half, Ole Miss free safety AJ Finley still sees ways in which the defense could have played better.
“I always say there is room for improvement. I think we have been doing good so far, but I always see room for improvement,” Finley said.
Campbell led the Rebels on defense with eight total tackles on the night, recording one sack and a tackle for loss.
The Rebels head into their bye week before heading to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to face the Crimson Tide in their first game of SEC play.
While the timing of the bye week might seem unfortunate to some, Corral sees it as an opportunity.
“This was the best week of practice we’ve had since we’ve been together for this group. Just building off of that. Now we know what it looks like to have a good week of practice. That’s the standard right there. We know what we’re capable of. We know it has to go up from here. There’s no other choice,” Corral said.
