Given the stakes and the circumstances, Ole Miss’ vaunted defense saved what very well could be its best performance for its biggest stage.
No. 11 Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2 SEC) is coming off a win over then-No. 3 Georgia, the Rebels’ first win over a top-five team since 2015. The victory also snapped an 11-game losing streak in such matchups for Ole Miss.
While senior quarterback Jaxson Dart earned his share of praise for a gutsy performance – and rightfully so – after initially leaving the game with a leg injury after the game’s first drive, last weekend at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium belonged to the Rebels’ defense, which held Georgia to 245 total yards and a season-low 10 points. The Bulldogs entered the game averaging 33.1 points per game.
“That’s a credit to Coach (Pete) Golding’s staff. That’s why we brought him here, for games like this,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said after the game. “He showed up and they showed up. To be at the end of the game and they are throwing screens, staying away from our rush, it was pretty cool. He is doing things right and showing up.”
Ole Miss’ relentless pass rush was at its best against the Bulldogs, sacking quarterback Carson Beck five times. According to Pro Football Focus, it was the Rebels’ top-graded pass rush performance of the season with a 90.8 grade (previous high was 90.2 against Middle Tennessee State). Seniors Princely Umanmielen and Jared Ivey each had two sacks while sophomore Suntarine Perkins notched his SEC-best 10th sack. The Rebels are on pace to have the most team sacks in a season since at least 2005 and Perkins (10), Umanmielen (9.5) and Ivey (7) could be the first trio from a single team to notch 10 or more sacks in a season since at least 2003.
It’s not just the pass rush that was dominant against the Bulldogs, though. Ole Miss notched its second-highest overall defensive grade of the season last weekend — behind only the season opener against FCS foe Furman. Ole Miss had its second-best tackling grade of the season as well, missing just six tackles, and had its second-best game in coverage with a grade of 86.8. The Rebels allowed just one pass play of more than 25 yards in the game and held Beck to just six yards per attempt and his second-lowest passer rating (108.5) of the season. Beck averages 7.8 yards per attempt on the season.
On a night when Dart and the offense at times had to gut things out against a talented Georgia team, being able to rely on his own star-studded defense makes life a lot easier.
“It’s huge, it’s a security blanket to have,” Dart said. “Pooh Paul, Jared Ivey, T.J. Dottery and Trey Amos all came up to me this week, and they just kept telling me, ‘We got you, bro, we’re locked in, we got you,’ and hearing that just gave us so much confidence that we can rely on those guys and they can close out games. This week really showed it, we have all learned from our mistakes in previous weeks. Besides the pick that I threw, they really dominated them. I put them in a bad situation, but from then on they dominated.”
Ole Miss next plays at Florida on Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
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