The Rebels were able to conquer their lone regular season loss and beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 in Caesars Superdome. This article breaks down the performances of players and position groups using an A-F grading scale.
The backfield — A
Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy both played very well and helped carry the Rebels to victory.
One of the only knocks on Lacy was his first lost fumble all year. It was a series of unfortunate events that led to the great defensive play by Georgia’s Daylen Everette. Lacy fumbled the ball and Everette scooped and scored to put Georgia up 21-12 late in the second quarter.
During the postgame press conference, Golding spoke about how much he values Lacy and trusts him, despite making this mistake.
“They’re never scared and they don’t panic, and that’s what I love about this group,” Golding said. “They want to get coached hard, and they want another opportunity. And no different than (Kewan) Lacy. He fumbled it, he came right to me, and he said, ‘Coach, I got you, don’t worry’ and I said, ‘I’m not.’”
Lacy still had an amazing game, like he has been doing all year. He was only two yards shy of 100 yards rushing and added two more touchdowns onto his record-breaking season total of 23 rushing touchdowns.
Chambliss’s performance was a continuation of his stretch of elite play and his storybook career. He threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns and made several highlight plays, such as multiple scrambles that left Georgia’s defenders looking silly along with several tightrope throws for big gains.
However, Chambliss still made errant throws into very tight passing lanes, several of which almost got picked off. Notably, with about 20 seconds left in the game, Chambliss threw a pass to wide receiver Harrison Wallace III that Georgia’s Everette had both hands on but still dropped. If Everette had intercepted that ball, the game likely would have gone into overtime.
Harrison Wallace III — A+
During media day on Tuesday, Dec. 30, Wallace talked about how elite the receiving corp is and how many players they have that can make big plays.
“We really try to keep it balanced and we let everybody out there eat,” Wallace said. “Just making plays when they come and feeding the hot hand.”
It turns out Wallace was the hot hand this game. He finished with nine catches for 156 yards and a touchdown, along with a two-point conversion which put the Rebels ahead 27-24. He was torching the
Georgia defense, especially towards the end of the game.
On a crucial fourth-and-three midway through the third quarter, Wallace caught a 15-yard pass, spun away from his defender, broke away from another Bulldog and finally got tackled at Georgia’s eight-yard line. In the fourth quarter, he also found a soft spot between two defenders to haul in a 44-yard catch.
However, while he had a great day, he still made a few mistakes, namely dropping a bubble screen pass on the three-yard line that probably would have been a touchdown. Luckily, tight end Luke Hasz was able to find the end zone on the ensuing play, but a drop like that could have proven the difference between a touchdown and field goal.
Dae’Quan Wright — D-
Unfortunately for Dae’Quan Wright, this was not his game. Wright has been one of the best tight ends in the nation this season, but his output was paltry compared to his previous performances. He only had two catches for 18 yards, only one of which, a 10-yarder, was beneficial.
Wright’s other catch came at the end of the first half. Instead of running out of bounds to stop the clock, he cut upfield and was tackled inbounds. Ole Miss had no remaining timeouts, and the clock ran out before the Rebels could attempt a field goal. Hopefully, he will be able to bounce back in the Fiesta Bowl.
Offensive line — B+
The offensive line has improved all season. In the Sugar Bowl, they created many running lanes for Lacy and helped protect Chambliss from getting sacked. However, they did get overpowered at times, especially on the inside. There were five rush attempts that were stuffed at the line of scrimmage, almost 20% of the total rushes in the game.
They did not allow even a single sack, although this was also partly due to Chambliss’ wizardry inside and outside the pocket. On a particularly eye-catching play, Chambliss scrambled almost 60 yards behind the line of scrimmage before eventually finding Lacy for a first down.
Center Brycen Sanders had a heads-up play on that scramble and legally blocked a Georgia defender in pursuit of Chambliss, which gave his quarterback a little more time to make the pass.
Pass Defense — A
Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton threw for 203 yards and one touchdown but only completed 58% of his throws. The Rebels had six pass breakups.
The secondary played clean in the first half, but got into trouble toward the end of the game. Cornerbacks Antonio Kite and Jaylen Braxton and safety Kapena Gushiken were all flagged for defensive holding or pass interference late in the fourth quarter. Gushiken’s penalties came on the last full Bulldog drive of the game and gave the stalling Bulldog a fresh set of downs multiple times.
Despite this, the secondary refused to back down. On a crucial third-and-goal with a minute left, safety Wydett Williams Jr. broke up a pass intended for tight end Oscar Delp at the back of the end zone.
This forced Georgia to settle for three points, which tied the game at 34 and gave the Rebels a spark to help set up the game-winning field goal. If Georgia had scored on that drive, Ole Miss would have needed a touchdown to win.
Run Defense — B+
In the first game against Georgia, the Rebel defense gave up over 220 rushing yards, mainly to running backs Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens. They also let up 59 yards to Stockton on the ground.
This time around, Bowens was a non-factor with five rushes for only 10 yards. Stockton only had 20 rushing yards, but still found the end zone twice with his feet. One came on a 1-yard sneak, and the other a 12-yard score off an interesting fake running back screen.
Frazier was the driving force behind the Georgia rushing attack and the reason why Ole Miss’ run defense gets docked a couple of extra points here. While he only had 86 rushing yards, he averaged almost six yards per carry.
The defenders also struggled to tackle him individually; it looked like multiple Rebel defenders were needed to finally tackle him. Additionally, many runs seemed like only marginal gains until the Georgia rusher fell forward for a few extra yards.
Will Echoles and Zxavian Harris – A
While the run defense as a whole was not perfect, defensive tackles Will Echoles and Zxavian Harris played their hearts out. They combined for three tackles for loss and 15 tackles overall.
Though edge rusher Suntarine Perkins and defensive end Kam Franklin were the only defenders who registered sacks, Echoles and Harris were able to impact the game in other ways. They combined for three pass breakups from batted balls at the line of scrimmage, one of which came on a crucial third-and-five that forced a fourth down. Harris led the team in tackles with 10; the pair combined for 15 tackles and three tackles for loss.
Lucas Carneiro — A+
What more could anyone want out of a kicker? Carneiro set the Sugar Bowl record with a 55-yard kick and followed that up with a 56-yard kick to break his own record. His previous career long was 54 yards, which he has hit on three separate occasions. He also made every extra point attempt and finished with 11 points.
Three of those points came off the game-winning 47-yard field goal. Carneiro trotted out with six seconds left in the game and coolly booted the game winner through the uprights.
Carneiro has not missed a single extra point all season and only missed three field goals in the regular season. He is a perfect five-for-five in the postseason so far.
