Ole Miss has no time to reflect on Saturday night’s loss to LSU.
The Rebels fell from third to seventh and ninth in the national rankings after being upset 10-7 on national television Saturday night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For Ole Miss, it was the season’s first loss after seven straight wins.
Still, Ole Miss controls its own destiny and remains alive for the Southeastern Conference Western Division championship and a spot in the first College Football Playoff.
Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1 conference) will face Auburn (6-1, 3-1) Saturday night. The 6 p.m. kickoff will be televised nationally by ESPN from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.
“It was obviously disappointing to not get it done on the road with LSU,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “Anytime the game is that close and competitive, when you watch the film, everything is magnified. We did not play our best game. I certainly don’t mean that to take anything away from LSU.
“They played with great passion and played a really, really physical brand of football. Coach (Les) Miles had his guys ready. They deserve credit. From watching the film, we did not play our best game. That’s always disappointing. However, that’s life in the SEC.”
Ole Miss enters the week a half-game behind Mississippi State for the Western Division leader. However, the Rebels play three of their final four game at homes, including No. 4 Auburn and No. 1 MSU.
“The great thing is we have an opportunity to bounce back this week at home and get our kids ready for another very difficult task with Auburn coming,” Freeze said. “They’re a special team. They’re as good or better interior defensively as anyone we’ve seen. No one has rushed the ball on them, other than one team, for 150 yards. They’re very athletic on the backend.
“Offensively, their receiving core is one of the top in the nation. The quarterback and running backs do an excellent job of reading their zone game. They’re dangerous when they pull it at quarterback. They’re physical, and they get it at running back. Their offensive line is solid. They’re a solid team all the way around.”
Auburn presents quite the offensive challenge. The Tigers rushed for 395 yards in a 42-35 home win over South Carolina. Auburn has scored 41 or more points in five games this season.
“The quarterback runs, which are difficult, and they have big receivers that are making plays on the offensive side,” Freeze said. “Defensively, they believe strongly in their man coverage. They’re athletic enough to get up and challenge you and make it very difficult. They’re so big and physical in their front, interior guys that they’re able to stop most people’s runs. They’ve created quite a few turnovers on the defensive side, sort of like how we have down there. They’re a good team with good players.”
In Saturday’s loss to LSU, Ole Miss held the lead for a majority of the contest. The Rebels stopped the Tigers twice in the red zone in the first quarter and were able to use that early defensive prowess to take a 7-3 halftime lead.
Still, LSU rallied to the victory with a 13-play, 95-yard drive midway through the fourth quarter. The drive included 12 straight runs before Anthony Jennings hit Logan Stokes on a 3-yard touchdown pass with 5:07 remaining.
Ole Miss had one more chance. However, the Rebels had a critical delay of game penalty on third-and-2 from the LSU 25 yard-line with nine seconds remaining. Ole Miss bypassed the field goal try and Bo Wallace threw an interception on the edge of the end zone.
Freeze admitted the play did not go as designed and the Rebels were instead looking for a short gainer and hopefully a shorter distance on the field goal.
“I’ve got to communicate better to him (Wallace),” Freeze said. “We didn’t get done what we hoped to get done on that play, obviously. That’s something in critical moments you have to get done. I’ve got to coach and communicate with him better and make sure there’s no doubt in his mind what we’re trying to get accomplished.”
While Saturday’s defeat was gut-wrenching and took Ole Miss out of the national spotlight for now, a series of wins can help the bounce return to the step in Oxford.
“Gus (Malzahn) and his staff have done a wonderful job,” Freeze said. “We have our hands full. We have to hopefully get healthy and get ready to go at home. We’ll need our crowd here. We’ll need them to give us a little extra energy. The stretch that we have is a difficult stretch without a break. We can’t control that. We can control being ready to play Saturday. That’s our job. We’ll have them ready.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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