OXFORD — Things were looking really good for the then-No. 19 Ole Miss football team on Saturday in its SEC West showdown against No. 1 Alabama.
Junior defensive end Marquise Haynes had just sacked freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts near midfield and forced a fumble. Rebel senior defensive end John Youngblood scooped up the loose ball and scampered 44 yards for a seemingly comfortable 24-3 lead with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first half.
Everything seemed to be going the Rebels’ way, and most of the record crowd of 66,176 at the renovated Vaught-Hemingway Stadium were relishing the dreams of defeating the Crimson Tide for a third-straight season.
But that play was the beginning of what turned out to be a nightmare for Ole Miss.
Ole Miss was called for a personal foul 30 yards behind the play, which meant it had to kick off from the 20-yard line. When the kick went out of bounds, Alabama took over by rule at the 50-yard line. Thirty-seven seconds later, sophomore wide receiver Calvin Ridley took a direct snap and scored on a 6-yard run. A minute later, Alabama’s defense forced a three-and-out. Senior defensive back Eddie Jackson then took the Ole Miss punt back 85 yards to cut the deficit to 24-17.
Alabama extended the nightmare in the second half, outscoring the Rebels 31-6 to build a 48-30 lead before holding on for a 48-43 victory.
Alabama’s rally from 21 points down tied the largest in school history. Alabama’s other 21-point comeback also came against Ole Miss, when it recovered for a 62-27 win in 1989.
On the flip side, Ole Miss (1-2) became the first team from a Power 5 Conference to lose two 21-point leads in the same season in the last 10 years.
“We as coaches have got to do a better job of helping our players understand the value of every single play within the course of a game has the same weight and will measure in the outcome of the game,” Ole Miss coach High Freeze said when asked how the penalty affected Ole Miss’ momentum. “The game turned on the 15-yard penalty, then the kick out of bounds gave them the ball on the 50, then the punt return.”
The loss marked the second time in 12 days Ole Miss has surrendered a three-touchdown against a top-four team and lost.
The result left everyone questioning how it happened. There are numerous reasons and explanations for how a team can look like national champions one half and look like an average team in another. In Ole Miss’s case, the cause can be traced to a couple of commonalities, inexperience, and injuries. Ole Miss was playing without several key contributors, especially defensive ends Fadol Brown and Victor Evans and defensive back Ken Webster. As a result, Alabama rushed for 334 yards. When asked about the inability of the defense to stop the run, Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack said, “Our (defense) job is to not give up 334 yards rushing…our kids wore down because of depth (injuries) issues and not being able to get off the field on third down. We have had a couple of first halves (FSU and Alabama) that were pretty good then we give up a score right before the half in both games. Then in the second half, we have had some issues with depth, no question about it.”
When asked about the problem of keeping a lead against a top team, senior defensive end John Youngblood said, “The teams (FSU and Alabama) are both really good, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 (at the time) in the nation. … We are playing with a lot of young guys. … We need to get a little more experience and get some guys back. … We do have a lot of guys hurt.”
In terms of inexperience, Ole Miss starts a redshirt freshman, a true sophomore, and a freshman in the secondary. Several other true and redshirt freshmen are on the team’s two-deep depth chart.
“I am really proud of the effort by our football team,” Freeze said. “We are so short handed on defense. … The effort our young kids gave was very pleased with the effort.”
The Florida State loss on Labor Day and the loss to Alabama on Saturday looked similar to fans, but each game had a different set of circumstances that led to the same result. The easy answer would be to say Ole Miss’ defense is the problem, as FSU scored 45 points and Alabama scored 48. The reality is, Alabama scored 21 points not allowed by the defense, while FSU scored 14 points on two Ole Miss turnovers in the red zone. If one wants to point to a common problem, turnovers would be the place to start. You can’t turn the ball over against top teams and expect to win. Both games saw the Rebels start strong and build big leads, only to see their opponents regroup before halftime, receive some help from Ole Miss via turnover(s), and dominate the second half.
“Both teams (Alabama and FSU) got momentum at the right time … and it just carries over,” Ole Miss senior tight end Evan Engram said. “We hurt ourselves and shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Ole Miss, which slipped to No. 23 in The Associated Press poll, will play host to No. 12 Georgia at 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN).
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