By Michael Bradley
Special to The Dispatch
OXFORD — Legendary Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes is credited with saying, “Three things happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad!”
While this saying may not be a completely accurate depiction of Ole Miss’s 48-28 win over Memphis Saturday night, Ole Miss certainly had more success rushing the ball than it has all season as the 16th-ranked Rebels rushed for 263 yards on 44 attempts. Two running backs, junior Eugene Brazley and senior Akeem Judd, rushed for more than 100 yards. The result; the Rebels were very balanced on offense and even won the time of possession (32:13 – 27:47) statistic to completely dominate Memphis’ defense while rolling up 624 yards of offense.
“Really, really happy to get this one over with,” said Ole Miss Head Coach Hugh Freeze. “They (Memphis) are a dangerous football team and they’re going to win a lot of football games.”
When asked about the emergence of the running game, Freeze said, “We worked really hard on a plan to rush the ball against these (Memphis) guys. We had a couple of possessions where we didn’t finish,…but we were balanced, and that makes us (the offense) pretty good.”
Judd, who is the bigger of the two backs, got most of the work early. He finished the night with 108 yards on 15 carries. Early in the 3rd quarter, Judd broke loose for a seemingly easy 56 yard touchdown scamper that would have widened the Rebel lead to 31-7. However, he carelessly stepped out of bounds at the 3 yard line. Ole Miss would not score a touchdown and ended up settling for a 27 yard field goal by Gary Wunderlich to push their advantage to 27-7.
As the game wore on, Brazley seemed to be the running back Ole Miss was looking to get the touches. When asked why Ole Miss decided to go with Brazley, Freeze said, “They (Memphis) do a lot of different stuff (on defense),…what we ended up getting (from their defense), Eugene (Brazley) is a little better at.”
Brazley, who rushed for 124 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns, was quick to point to others for his success against the Tigers.
“It was a Blessing…I can’t take all the credit…it was the linemen…it takes all 11 players,” Brazley said.
When asked about how it felt to finally get a chance to shine after being a backup for two years, Brazley said, “There was some doubt (in his mind),…but it is always important to have Faith in God and I always prayed and stayed humble and waited for my turn and God delivered for me.”
A final piece of the Rebels success with the rushing attack has been the emergence of redshirt sophomore quarterback Jason Pellerin in the short yardage offense. Pellerin, who is 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, scored twice for the Rebels out of the short yardage offense when the Rebels got close to the goal line. Punching the ball into the end zone and converting on short yardage situations has been a problem for the Rebels in the past. When asked about the added dimension Pellerin brings to an already dynamic offense, offensive coordinator Dan Werner said, “He (Pellerin) is big and strong and smart, so he is going to get us some positive yards (in the red zone).”
As has been the case all year long, the toughest obstacle the Ole Miss offense has had to overcome has been themselves. Ole Miss committed a turnover (pass interception) in the red zone and had a couple of mental breakdowns in the red zone on another opportunity. The positive of this statistic is that the red zone interception was the lone Ole Miss turnover in the game, while the Tigers turned the ball over to the Rebels four times, including a pick-six interception by sophomore safety Zedrick Woods in the closing minutes of the 1st quarter that put Ole Miss ahead 14-0.
“We haven’t won the turnover battle a lot this year so I am happy to see us win it,” said Freeze. “We’ve been on the wrong end of it (turnovers) too many times this year.
Ole Miss (3-2, 1-1) will have next week off before returning to action on October 15th with a road trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas to face the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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