No. 9 Ole Miss Football squares off against No. 13 Missouri on Saturday. Both teams have one loss in SEC play and can only afford one more if they want a good chance at making the College Football Playoff. This Week 7 matchup has quietly become a do-or-die, season-defining game.
After Week 3, the Rebels had two wins over Top-25 teams: then-No. 24 Louisville and then-No. 7 LSU. Both of those teams’ seasons have gone sideways, with the Cardinals at 3-3 and Tigers at 4-2 through Week 6. Louisville is no longer ranked, and LSU is in danger of falling out of the Top 25.
Worse yet, Florida is not the juggernaut everyone thought they were after the Gators pummelled the Rebels 52-28 in Week 4. The Gators have lost back-to-back games, sporting a 45-17 road loss to Missouri and a 38-19 home loss to a South Carolina team with no prior wins in SEC play this season.
Missouri ran into a hot Mississippi State team in Starkville, Miss., to begin SEC play and lost 31-24. Since then, the Tigers have defeated Florida and toppled a struggling Texas A&M team 27-6.
All of that sets the stage for a vital Week 7 matchup. If the Rebels win, they can afford one more loss. Ole Miss still has No. 7 Texas on the road and No. 1 Georgia at home. A loss means the Rebels have to win out.
Yet, this game is receiving little to no hype. The whole country knew about the Rebels’ game against LSU, and Florida also felt like a big deal, but this game against Missouri is flying under the radar.
Head coach Pete Golding needs a solid, quality win. If the Rebels defeat the Tigers, there is no guarantee that Missouri will go on to have a great season the rest of the way, but, as of right now, it would go down as a quality win, and that will have to be good enough for the time being.
Ole Miss has chances for other exceptional wins, with the No. 7 and No. 1 teams in the country still on the schedule. Plus, Oklahoma, despite being a massive disappointment, defeated Texas, and the Sooners are hoping to salvage the season and finish strong.
Mississippi State looked like a real threat early in the season. The Bulldogs suffered a big loss to the second-best SEC team in Alabama. Only time will tell if that will last. If the Bulldogs can refire after their bye week, this year’s Egg Bowl could be more than a free win for the Rebels, like it has been for a few years.
Beating Missouri may be the difference between being a CFP team and going to the Pop-Tarts Bowl. It could be the difference between going 10-2 and 8-4. A mature, well-led team like Ole Miss will almost certainly not punt on this season just because they have two losses, but it is not out of the question that this could be a season-defining game. Getting a second loss at this point in the season would be detrimental to playoff odds.
Week 7 can be the point when the Rebels take off and never look back — or the point when Ole Miss fans start looking forward to baseball season early.
