No. 9 Ole Miss defeated No. 13 Missouri 31-3 in a crucial Week 7 matchup for the first time since 1974. The Rebel run defense had its best performance of the season with 39 yards allowed on 26 attempts. Head coach Pete Golding’s squad held the Tigers’ offense scoreless after its first drive.
Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss did not have the sharpest performance of his career but still scored four touchdowns. Sophomore wide receiver Caleb Cunningham led the Rebels with 61 yards on three receptions and a touchdown.
The win came on Keith Carter’s, the Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Sports, 50th birthday.
First half
Ole Miss started the first drive with an uncharacteristic drop from star wide receiver Deuce Alexander. Kewan Lacy followed this up with a 5-yard run in his first mostly healthy game all season. Lacy had been dealing with various injuries to start the year, but finally looked like he had recovered.
On the third down, Chambliss threw behind a wide-open Alexander to bring up fourth down. Ole Miss kept its offense on the field and caught Missouri lacking when the Tigers tried subbing in their punt team. Mizzou had to use a timeout amid the confusion to prevent a free conversion.
The Rebel offense looked very out of sync, lacking creativity before settling into a rhythm.
Ole Miss punted the ball to the Tigers and Missouri struck quickly. Two Austin Simmons completions for 33 yards and a pass interference penalty on Rebel defensive back Jalyn Crawford put the Tigers past midfield.
A solid 22-yard gain put Mizzou into the red zone, but an overthrown pass in the end zone led to the Tigers kicking a field goal, 3-0 Missouri.
The second drive featured two vintage explosive runs by Lacy, both for 17 yards. Clearly, he was back to full strength. Even when Lacy took a break, Makhi Frazier performed well, subbing in on a crucial third-and-6 and running for 22 yards on a toss play.
However, Chambliss’ inaccuracies continued when he uncharacteristically overthrew a would-be touchdown pass to wide open tight end Michael Smith. He eventually recovered with a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Caleb Odom, 7-3 Rebels.
Simmons pushed down the field with a 15-yard gain to Donovan Olugbode with Antonio Kite in coverage. A slight overthrow to Olugbode on third down stalled the Tigers’ drive.
Over the first two drives, the Ole Miss defense demonstrated the repeated mantra all season — bend do not break.
Chambliss fired a quick shot for 19 yards to Cunningham, but then tossed up a very sketchy 50-50 ball intended for Cunningham. Luckily, Lacy picked up a first down using the same toss play as Frazier’s 22-yard gain. He continued his highlight reel by hurdling over a defender to get the first down.
Lacy already had 59 yards on the ground by the end of the first quarter, while Chambliss was not sustaining a Heisman-worthy performance, only completing 50% of his passes, going 6-for-12 for 49 yards.
Lacy went into the injury tent at the end of the first quarter and patrolled the sideline running sprints back and forth while talking to athletic trainers. He did not play for the rest of the half.
On fourth-and-1, tackle Tommy Kinsler IV false started, which lined up a 62-yard field goal. However, Golding continued his special teams trickery by lining up Chambliss as holder, a spot normally held by punter Oscar Bird.
The Rebels then shifted the formation to Chambliss at quarterback to go for it, but kicker Lucas Carneiro lined up offsides as a wide receiver, prompting an Ole Miss timeout.
Chambliss and the offense took the field again to go for it, but when a Missouri defender jumped offsides the referees made a very questionable call when they penalized Odom for a false start instead. After all those theatrics, Bird punted the ball back to Mizzou.
It was a short-lived victory for the Tigers after defensive tackle Will Echoles batted down a Simmons’ throw to force a three-and-out.
Frazier continued to shine in Lacy’s absence, bouncing off defenders with agility and toughness.
Center Brycen Sanders went to the locker room with an injury, which shifted players across the offensive line. Right guard Patrick Kutas shifted to center, while backup Troy Everett took control of Kutas’ spot. Sanders returned to the game at the start of the second half.
Chambliss had a solid 19-yard completion, before the stadium held its breath when his pass was batted high in the air. It seemed to hang in the sky before Chambliss eventually batted it to the ground himself.
The drive was capped off with a 21-yard touchdown dart to Horatio Fields, threading a gap between two Missouri defenders in the endzone.
Peter McStravick kicked off but implemented an interesting special teams strategy that Golding and his staff have developed. Essentially, the kick lands at about the 5-yard line, which enables the opposing returner a lot of space to work with. Missouri took advantage with a 40-yard return.
Linebacker Luke Ferrelli made up for the return with his first sack of the season, but Simmons recovered with a 43-yard completion to former Rebel wide receiver Cayden Lee into the red zone. Running back Xai’Shaun Edwards was stuffed at the line of scrimmage but bounced a run outside for a 10-yard run.
The defensive ferocity shined with two straight tackles for loss and a pass breakup in the end zone to force another Missouri field goal attempt. The defense worked together well to again bend but not break.
Special teams continued to play a large role when Missouri missed the 23-yard chip shot to keep Ole Miss’ lead 14-3.
Frazier continued to fill in for Lacy while he dealt with an injury. Chambliss looked like he had Alexander deep down the field, but he bobbled the catch, yet again another unprompted mistake by the Ole Miss offense.
With about three minutes left in the half, Chambliss found Cunningham for a 25-yard gain and followed it up with a deep fade touchdown for Cunningham’s first touchdown of the season.
Up 21-3 with two minutes remaining in the half, the Landshark defense needed to limit the Tigers’ offense. Despite being up 21-3, Missouri started the second half with the ball, so a quick touchdown to end the half would create momentum heading into halftime upon which Missouri could build.
Simmons almost threw an interception to defensive back Joenel Aguero on a deep shot. On third down with just over a minute left in the half, the Rebel defensive line heavily pressured Simmons, forcing an errant throw.
After a Missouri punt, the offense looked content to play it conservatively with only about a minute left, but Frazier burst through the line for a 20-yard run. This prompted the offense to hurry,, but when Odom was called for holding on the next play, the offense elected to bleed the clock.
Both the offensive and defensive units played well, highlighted by the ground game with Lacy and Frazier combining for 129 yards. The defense played about as cohesively as they have all season with playmakers at every level.
Second half
The Rebel defense started the half poorly when nobody covered Jamal Roberts leaking out of the backfield. He took advantage with a 21-yard gain. Simmons threw two consecutive incompletions and a pass for no gain, forcing the Tigers to punt early in the quarter.
Chambliss’ first pass of the half was behind Alexander again. Lacy returned to the game to start the third quarter with a 3-yard run but fumbled on his next carry when the ball was ripped out and recovered by Santana Banner.
An illegal chop block penalty pushed Missouri back to second-and-21, but a 15-yard catch by Jude James set up a more manageable third-and-9. Simmons missed James on third down, setting up a crucial fourth down attempt for the Tigers down by 18 points.
The Ole Miss defense held strong again with another swat by Echoles at the line of scrimmage. The defensive line had played extremely well up to this point with a sack, three tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries.
Chambliss continued his lackluster connection with Alexander by overthrowing him on a crossing route again, which forced a three-and-out after a golden opportunity the defense gifted them.
Simmons found James down the seam for 22 yards, but Aguero made an excellent open field tackle to stop him in his tracks. Two Roberts’ rushes up the middle for no gain left Missouri in a third-and-10 situation, but Simmons was again pressured by the defensive line to force a throwaway.
Remarkably, the defense seemed to be outplaying the offense in the game so far — a rare turnaround for a unit that did not seem very dominant.
After a few hairy plays, including a dropped pass by Odom, a one-handed grab attempt by Lacy and Chambliss getting tracked down by a defensive lineman and fumbling out of bounds, Bird had an excellent punt that pinned the Tigers back to the 8-yard line.
Another Missouri punt enabled an opportunity for the Rebel offense to recover towards the end of the third quarter. Lacy burst through a hole for a 23-yard carry. An 18-yard catch from Odom brought Ole Miss closer into scoring territory.
A 9-yard catch from Alexander notched his first catch since the first quarter. While Chambliss and Alexander’s connection was not the strongest this game, other players made up for the difference.
Chambliss capped off the drive with a rushing touchdown, bringing his touchdown total for the day up to four.
Ferrelli continued his dominant performance with another quarterback hit on Simmons to force a bad throw that Echoles followed up with another sack. Missouri punted for the seventh time on the day.
Lacy continued his day with another good rush, this time for 16 yards. This was Lacy’s first 100-yard game this injury-riddled season.
Golding commented about Lacy’s dominance in his postgame press conference, especially about keeping him healthy.
“Kewan wants to play, he’s super competitive. I look up in I think the fourth when I looked up and said ‘let me get Kewan’s ass out of the game, what are we doing?’”
Fields had a highlight back shoulder fade that he reeled in for a 17-yard gain. Frazier continued his own dominant performance on the ground with a 6-yard and 2-yard run, bringing his total for the day over 100 rushing yards.
The Ole Miss offense bled the clock to under four minutes and with an incompletion from Chambliss again, Carneiro came out to nail a 38-yard attempt to put the Rebels up 31-3.
Despite the deficit, Missouri continued to fight with several long pass plays. On fourth down near the goal line, Simmons’ last-ditch attempt was intercepted by freshman Landon Barnes.
The offense was definitely aided by Lacy’s return, but Frazier continues to serve as a serviceable change-of-pace back while the defense played out of its mind with abundant pass breakups, tackles for loss, sacks and quarterback hurries.
Despite the blowout win, Golding still discussed the ups and downs of his team’s performance after the game.
“It wasn’t perfect, it really wasn’t and I think that’s the most exciting thing that we can still play our football,” Golding said. “It was good to see some things you emphasize in all three phases show up and your guys play well. I wish we had a couple other throws back and a couple too many drops.”
What’s next?
Ole Miss takes on Texas in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. The Longhorns are coming off a defeat to Florida, who blew the Rebels out earlier in the season.
