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Style points weren’t a necessity for Ole Miss on Saturday at Arkansas, but those certainly lacking by day’s end.
Ole Miss kept its Playoff hopes alive with a decisive 63-31 victory in Fayetteville. There wasn’t any sort of letdown by Lane Kiffin’s squad.
The victory marked Ole Miss’ first in Fayetteville since 2008, and it ended a streak of 5 consecutive home victories in this matchup.
Here were 3 takeaways from Ole Miss’ blowout win:
1. Ole Miss’ offense rolled in historic fashion, but add Henry Parrish Jr. to the growing list of key offensive injuries
Here’s the good news. After Ole Miss’ offense was stopped on the goal line on its first offensive series and Jaxson Dart was visibly frustrated on the sideline, it was a dominant showing. Dart finished the day with 515 passing yards and 6 touchdowns. He also broke Archie Manning’s single-game program record for total offense (previously 540 yards) became the program’s all-time leader in total offense.
Jordan Watkins might’ve earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his first half showing alone. In the first 2 quarters, Watkins had 5 catches for 172 yards and 3 touchdowns. On the game, he had 8 catches for a school record 254 yards and and Ole Miss record 5 (!) touchdowns. Not too shabby for a guy who had 295 receiving yards on the season and 5 receiving touchdowns since the start of the 2023 season.
Watkins needed to step up because for the second consecutive game, Tre Harris was sidelined. The nation’s No. 2 leading receiver was dressed and considered “a game-time decision,” but he never played. He’s been out since the second half of the LSU game. Ole Miss was also without top tight end Caden Prieskorn, though just as Watkins did in Harris’ role, Dae’Quan Wright stepped up in his absence. Ole Miss was also without Washington left guard transfer Nate Kalepo.
The most troubling Ole Miss development of the day was that Parrish got his leg twisted in the second quarter and he was sidelined for the rest of the game. The team’s leading rusher only had 10 carries for 22 yards, but that was for a struggling group — Ole Miss averaged 3.2 yards/carry in SEC play entering the day — that was already lacking depth with LSU transfer Logan Diggs still sidelined.
2. Taylen Green wasn’t at 100% for most of that game, which meant an already overmatched Arkansas had zero chance
It would’ve been nice to see a healthy Green, but in the middle of the first quarter, it appeared that Green hurt his knee after it got twisted up at the end of a run. Mind you, he had both ankles taped coming off the injury he suffered against Tennessee. Green was in and out of the game. Eventually, Arkansas turned the offense over to Malachi Singleton.
Either way, Green needed to be at full strength for Arkansas to pull off the upset. Limited, Green couldn’t escape that loaded Ole Miss offensive line. That group had 13 tackles for loss against an overmatched Arkansas offensive line, though it wasn’t quite as overmatched as the Arkansas secondary.
By the time Dart had 3 touchdown passes, Green had just 3 completions. It was that kind of day for the Hogs. They’ll look to get healthy — top tailback Ja’Quinden Jackson was also sidelined — and clinch bowl eligibility after the bye week when Texas comes to Fayetteville.
3. Next up for Ole Miss? An all-or-nothing Georgia game
On one hand, Ole Miss still has Playoff hopes going into the Georgia game. That’s a positive. It beats the alternative. The negative, of course, is that Ole Miss is in an all-or-nothing situation against Georgia instead of having another loss to give. Given how lopsided last year was, that’s a daunting thought.
But at the same time, Ole Miss’ 2024 season was always going to be defined by the Georgia game. It’s why Lane Kiffin was so aggressive in the transfer portal with those defensive additions, several of whom have been at the foundation of the No. 1 scoring defense in America.
That group will have to do some heavy lifting if Kiffin wants to capture his biggest win in Oxford.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
