Anna Grace Bowling
The Rebels hit the road to Fayetteville to face the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday. The Razorbacks throughout the game, scoring 35 points in the first half. The Rebels came out after halftime and were able to put 21 more points on the board, but Arkansas persisted, with the final score of the game being 42-27.
Ole Miss fans, along with head coach Lane Kiffin, had a lot of critiquing to offer afterwards.
There were penalties in key moments.
Ole Miss gave up two touchdowns early in the game because of holding calls on the offense. Although Ole Miss is a good, organized team, there were a lot of aspects in the game that were messy and could have been avoided just by playing cleaner.
In the postgame press conference, Kiffin said, “I don’t like the penalties. They were very critical penalties, especially on a fourth-and-nine touchdown.”
What is usually a very fluid offensive line seemed to be out of sync. Not only this, but Ole Miss did not make the plays in the red zone that could have led them to have the upper hand over Arkansas.
Ole Miss reverted on defense.
As much as Ole Miss has been praised for their incredible running game, Arkansas gave the Rebels a run for their money on Saturday when they ran the ball well.
Ole Miss didn’t make tackles and gave away first downs, which was one of the reasons that they struggled to put points on the board.
“This late in the year, it’s very disappointing to have discipline issues like that,” Kiffin said after the game.
He also added, “I just don’t think we played well on defense.”
Arkansas is a top 10 rushing team, right behind Ole Miss in the SEC, and defensively the Rebels did not make the necessary plays to stop the ball.
The Rebels are still a good team.
After a tough and somewhat unexpected loss against Arkansas, it is still true that Ole Miss is a good football team and Quinshon Judkins is still that guy. In Fayetteville, Ole Miss tallied a season-high 703 yards of total offense, the fifth-most yards in a single game in program history.
Kiffin is responsible for three of those five games. The Rebels also ran for a season-high 463 yards on the ground, the third-most in program history.
Fans were excited to see Zach Evans dressed out after he suffered a game-ending head injury against Alabama last week.
Judkins and Evans are the first duo in Ole Miss history to ever cross 200 rushing yards within the same game. Judkins’ 214 yards ranks No. 10 in Ole Miss single-game history, while Evans’ 207 ranks No. 12.
Ole Miss will face Mississippi State at home on Thanksgiving Day for the Egg Bowl at 6 p.m. CST on ESPN.
