STARKVILLE — Mississippi State had no answer for Chad Kelly.
The Ole Miss quarterback capped a four-play, 62-yard drive with a 27-yard touchdown to give Ole Miss an early lead
That was just the beginning of Kelly’s night.
“The best thing about Chad is he learns from his mistakes real fast and he is a competitor,” Ole Miss sophomore wide receiver Damore’ea Stringfellow said. “When he makes a mistake, you know he is going to go out and fix it, and it shows in his play.”
Kelly didn’t make many mistakes and finished with 310 yards and three touchdowns in No. 19 Ole Miss’ 38-27 victory against No. 23 MSU on Saturday night at Davis Wade Stadium in the Battle for the Golden Egg.
The victory helped Ole Miss (9-3, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) win the Egg Bowl trophy for the second-straight season.
Along with MSU’s Dak Prescott and Arkansas’ Brandon Allen, Kelly has been one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. He entered the Egg Bowl with 3,504 yards and 25 touchdowns. He had rushed for 353 yards and nine touchdowns.
Against MSU (8-4, 4-4), the Buffalo, New York, native was 21 of 30 for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for 74 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown.
The Bulldogs couldn’t slow Allen (406 yards passing, and seven touchdowns) last week in a 51-50 win in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Kelly, the nephew of NFL great Jim Kelly, hit open receiver after open receiver.
“I thought we did good,” Kelly said. “I had missed on a couple of things, a couple of over routes, but it’s another SEC game.”
Kelly’s running ability was just as impressive. He avoided several sacks and tackles and found running room all over the field. His running ability made it hard for MSU to find a way to stop him.
“It’s real tough when you’re playing a quarterback like that and he’s making plays,” MSU senior cornerback Taveze Calhoun said. “It’s hard to cover. You’ve just got to give credit to him. He made a lot of big-time plays.”
Kelly threw for 135 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 59 yards and one touchdown to help the Rebels build a 28-3 halftime lead.
Kelly’s two passing touchdowns went to Stringfellow. The first was a 2-yard score with 5 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the first quarter that made it 14-0. Kelly found Stringfellow again for a 36-yard touchdown with 10:45 left in the opening half.
MSU played better defensively in the second half and limited Kelly to 101 passing yards and 15 rushing yards.
MSU junior linebacker Richie Brown, who led MSU with 12 tackles, said there wasn’t a big adjustment made at halftime.
“It was just like, ‘Guys, we know what’s going on. Nothing’s a surprise here in this game. We’re not playing our best game. Let’s come back and show the nation we’re not going to give up,’ ” Brown said.
Ole Miss scored on a 48-yard field goal by Gary Wunderlich and a 38-yard run by Jordan Wilkins in the second half.
MSU entered the game allowing 215 passing yards and 380.2 yards of per game. Kelly helped the Rebels gain 479 yards (236 passing, 243 rushing).
“I think we messed up some tackling, some simple things early in the game, and we kind of dug ourself a hole in the first half,” Brown said. “It was some simple things we knew were coming, we just didn’t execute very well. Some mental errors here and there.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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