Mississippi Mauling
OXFORD, Miss. – Domination, pure and simple.
Ole Miss' 45-14 win over No. 12 Georgia Saturday at Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium certainly qualified as that.
“I expected this team to compete, fight, play well … you never believe you’re going to play like that. I think we didn’t respond real well when they had success,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “But yet every other game so far we have responded. We didn’t get away with some things defensively that we got away with in the past and they made the plays down the field when they had to.”
A crowd of 65,843 – the second-largest home attendance in school history - watched the No. 23 Rebels (2-2, 1-1) pile up 509 yards of offense, most courtesy of quarterback Chad Kelly who completed 18 of 24 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns. The senior also rushed three times for 42 yards, 41 coming on a touchdown run in the third quarter.
All total, five different players scored for the Rebels, including tight end Evan Engram who led all receivers with six catches for 95 yards and one score, much to the delight of head coach Hugh Freeze whose team was coming off a 48-43 loss to Alabama and dropped a 45-34 contest to Florida State in its season-opener.
“It’s hard for me to remember all of them, but this one will stand out because of the types of losses that we had to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country when we played them,” Freeze said. “When you lose a game like that and felt like you could have won, and when you have to hear about it in this world with all the Social Media world, it hurts. It stings. This one is pretty special.”
Georgia, meanwhile, struggled with everything it tried.
That included heralded freshman quarterback Jacob Eason, who completed just 16 of 36 passes for 137 yards against the Rebels, whose win marked the team’s largest margin of victory in an SEC contest since a 41-3 win over Vanderbilt in 2014.
“I thought the kids competed but once we got behind we didn’t do a good job trying to get back in it and that’s the most important thing,” Smart said. “We didn’t respond the right way, but we will move forward, this team will come back and fight and I promise you they’ll grow up and give an A-effort this week. It was frustrating. This was the opportunity we were looking for. This is obviously the best team we’ve played; we didn’t perform really well.”
This one was over quickly.
After stopping Georgia (3-1, 1-1) on the Bulldogs’ opening drive, the Rebels quickly got on the board with a 24-yard field goal by Gary Wunderlich.
That was just the beginning.
On the Bulldogs’ ensuing possession, a 52-yard pick-six by Ole Miss cornerback Derrick Jones gave Ole Miss even more momentum.
The Rebels’ offense took it from there, scoring first on 1-yard run by D’Vaughn Pennamon which pushed the lead to 17-0 before passes of 55 and 19 yards to DaMarkus Lodge and Evan Engram, respectively, pushed the halftime lead to 31-0.
It would get much worse.
The Rebels tacked on two more touchdowns in the third, one on a 5-yard pass from Jason Pellerian to Eugene Brazley, followed by Kelly’s 41-yard run.
Georgia finally got on the board with five minutes left in the third quarter on a 10-yard run by freshman Brian Herrien, who also scored the Bulldogs second and final touchdown on a 1-yard run with 7:38 to go in the game.
"You need to learn to let things go,” Bulldog running back Sony Michel said. “Win or lose, you have to move on like this game never happened.”
NOTES: Georgia’s 31-0 halftime deficit was the largest for Bulldogs since trailing Alabama 31-0 in 2008. The Crimson Tide went to win that game 41-30. … With 323 total yards, Kelly became Ole Miss’ all-time leader in career offensive yardage, breaking the record of 5,621 held by Archie Manning. … Nick Chubb rushed 12 times for 57 yards before leaving the game in the second quarter. He did not return.