The Rebels suffered a 34-27 loss to the Texas Longhorns on Saturday, Oct. 24. Ole Miss was down 24-3 headed into halftime but came back to take the game down to the final second. Despite the Rebels’ comeback push, they played nowhere near a complete game.
Here are a few grades of Rebel performances against the Longhorns.
Kam Franklin — A
Franklin was a bright spot in what was a rough night for the Rebels. In the third quarter, he scored on a fumble recovery by jumping on a loose ball in the end zone, after Blake Purchase had strip-sacked Manning.
Later in the third quarter, Franklin sacked Manning in brutal fashion. He also led the Ole Miss defense with two tackles-for-loss.
Jalyn Crawford — A
Crawford had a great outing against Texas and recorded two interceptions. The first interception came in the first quarter on a third-and-7 at the Texas 28-yard line. Crawford picked off Manning’s pass and took it a yard.
Crawford’s interception gave the Rebel offense prime field position; however, Trinidad Chambliss threw an interception of his own on the next throw. His second interception came in the fourth quarter with fourteen minutes remaining in the game.
Makhi Frazier — B
Frazier stepped up significantly in the backfield. He totaled six carries for 47 yards, with his longest being a 34-yard run late in the second quarter.
Frazier officially became the focal running back of the offense for the game after Kewan Lacy went down with a shoulder injury in the middle of the third quarter.
Frazier ran with physicality, and it seemed like he easily found gaps and attacked them. His biggest flaw was dropping a direct snap in the red zone during the third quarter. He recovered it, but it resulted in a loss of four yards for the Rebels.
Wide Receivers — C
Many of the Rebel wide receivers performed terribly against Texas. Horatio Fields was the exception, totaling 50 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Fields’ first touchdown was a 6-yard catch, which cut the score to 24-17. His second touchdown was a 27-yard reception in the fourth quarter, which tied the game at 24-24.
The other Rebel receivers performed poorly. They dropped several passes, and on some of the passes, it appeared as if they made minimal effort to catch the ball. The Ole Miss pass game averaged 290.7 yards per game prior to this matchup. In Week 8, it totaled 250 receiving yards.
Deuce Alexander, Chambliss’ favorite target, had eight receptions on 15 targets. Traylon Ray caught one of three passes that went his way, and Johntay Cook had zero catches on two targets.
It was an extremely uncharacteristic outing for a group that usually can make big plays when called upon.
Trinidad Chambliss — D
Chambliss had a dismal performance against the Longhorns. He completed just six of 18 passes in the first half, and the Rebels only scored a field goal before halftime, leading them into a major 24-3 hole they had to dig out of.
Chambliss completed 25-of-52 passes and threw three interceptions. The Texas defense kept him in the pocket and forced him to make throws — some which did not always seem well-directed. He also tacked on an intentional grounding penalty.
One interception came just after the defense had picked off Manning, giving the Ole Miss offense peak field position; however, it turned into a complete waste of a possession.
His third interception was on his last throw of the game in a must-score situation. A Longhorn ended up catching the pass in the end zone. Chambliss tossed up an uncompetitive pass instead of looking for the wide-open Alexander who could have made a play and scored — a theme of Chambliss’ Week 8 performance.
He also did not utilize his legs as much as he usually does, which is his superpower in making plays and changing the trajectory of a game. He only had five rushes for seven yards.
