Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels lead the Mississippi State Bulldogs at halftime 16-14.

It wasn’t a pretty first half, as the Rebels kicked 3 field goals before finally scoring a touchdown late in the second quarter. Jaxson Dart hit JJ Pegues, the former Auburn standout, for a 1-yard touchdown.

During Mississippi State’s next drive, the Bulldogs went on a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Will Rogers throwing a 19-yard TD pass to Lideatrick Griffin.

At halftime, ESPN spoke with Kiffin before he entered the Rebels locker room.

“Well, we needed a score there (before halftime). We really struggled in the red zone with all the field goals,” Kiffin said. “We played really bad defense on the first drive and the last drive right there and really good in between. So, we’ve got to do a good job of keeping the ball in front of us. We’ve got to do a better job in the red zone.

Kiffin was then asked what’s going to be his message to his team on converting touchdowns in the red zone and not just settling for field goals.

“We’ve to go finish drives. We got a drop when we were going into score, and we’ve got to execute better in those situations.”