Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze is looking at his team’s first loss of the year as a bump in the road and not a season-changing moment.

Following a 25-0 loss Saturday at No. 1 Alabama, Ole Miss (3-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference), which slipped three spots to No. 24 in The Associated Press rankings, has re-focused and started to prepare for Auburn (3-1, 1-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU) at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.

“We’re 5-1 in the last six games we’ve played, which we think has provided a very good foundation in where we are headed with the program,” Freeze said Monday at his weekly media gathering. “Sitting at 3-1 with the schedule we’ve had is something that’s a good start to year two of our building here.

“You never like losing. You never like looking at the what-ifs or wishing you had done something different. It’s part of the game. Sixty teams do that every Saturday. What kind of team you become is defined after difficult moments.”

Ole Miss won its first three games for the first time since 1989. The Rebels knew they would have to take their game to different level against the defending national champion Crimson Tide. Instead, the Alabama defense rose to the challenge on the national television stage and posted a shutout.

“They are the No. 1 team in the nation for a reason,” Freeze said. “We had a chance defensively to put us in the game, but we didn’t make enough plays to keep us in it late in the game.”

Ole Miss had 205 yards of total offense. Quarterback Bo Wallace was 17 of 30 for 159 yards. The Rebels were held to a season-low total offense output and shut out for the first time since 1998.

Still, Alabama led only 9-0 at halftime.

“We just didn’t make plays,” Wallace said. “When you look at the tape of the game, you get sick because you see all of the plays that were there to be made. The defense played its tail off. All we had to do was put something together and were unable to do that.”

Auburn had a bye week to prepare for Ole Miss. The Tigers won their first three games under new coach Gus Malzahn before dropping a 35-21 decision at LSU.

“(Auburn) reminds me a lot of us last year,” Freeze said. “They’re a very, very hungry team that plays with great emotion, energy and passion. It doesn’t surprise me at all with Gus’ (Malzahn) leadership. I know they’re off to a great start. They have been very, very good at home. It’s another road trip in a hostile environment on a Saturday night. It’s a big game for both schools, sitting at 3-1. He will have them ready.

“They’re extremely athletic at quarterback, running back, receivers, and DBs. Their O-line and D-line are physical, like an SEC team should be. He’s got them playing extremely hard. When you face an offense that’s very balanced in rushing and passing, they give you a lot of looks, a lot of motions, a lot of smoke and mirrors. They’re very efficient in what they do. Defensively, (defensive coordinator) Ellis (Johnson) is one of the best in the business. It’s very, very multiple. You have to prepare for almost anything.”

Ole Miss entered the game against Alabama averaging 38 points and 490 yards per game. Leading rusher Jeff Scott was held to 28 yards on eight rushes. Still, players and coaches said this is no time to panic of change things.

“You just have to look at as a bad game,” Scott said. “We have a lot of confidence in what we are doing. We have won games before so what we are doing is successful. We still have some really high goals as a team. We are excited to play again, so that we can prove people that we are still a good football team.”

Said Freeze, “We can look just alike offensively, if we wanted to. We’ll be able to simulate their looks very efficiently for our defense. Having said that, both of us can change a lot during the course of the week. (Malzahn’s) got two weeks to do whatever he’s going to do. I know he’ll dress things up and have some wrinkles we haven’t seen.

“We are very, very similar in the things we do offensively. We can help prepare, but you never know exactly what to prepare for. We’ll show them everything our defense wants to see. There will be something we don’t cover that we’ll see Saturday night.”

The game is critical if the Rebels want to stay in the Southeastern Conference Western Division race. The good news is it will mark the end of road play for a while. After winning at Vanderbilt and Texas, the game ends a stretch of four of five games on the road to start the season.

Ole Miss will play six of its final seven games at home. It needs three more wins to clinch bowl eligibility for a second-straight season.

“No game is easy in this league, and we are looking forward to another challenge,” Wallace said. “We dealt through adversity regularly last season. Now it’s time to prove what this team is made of.”

Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.

Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.