The Rebels found themselves once again losing an SEC West contest on Saturday, this time falling to the Auburn Tigers at home, 31-16.

Ole Miss had a chance early when the defense was playing some of the best football it has played all season, holding the Tigers to 10 first-half points. But the Rebels offense couldn’t get anything going and settled for three field goals in the first three quarters. A late touchdown came when the game was out of hand.

Here are 3 things I liked and 5 things I didn’t like in the Rebels loss.

What I liked

3. First-half defense: The Rebels defense was dialed in after the Tigers’ opening 11-play, 77-yard TD drive; over the next three drives Ole Miss allowed just 7 yards on 13 plays. The first half as a whole was a tremendous success for the Rebels defense, which allowed just 179 yards and 10 points. Granted, the Auburn offense has its share of warts, but this is the same defense that allowed 629 yards to Southern Illinois, so this was a major step in the right direction. Ole Miss could not sustain that level, but for two quarters this looked like an SEC defense again.

2. No turnovers: The Rebels had no turnovers against the Tigers, and that should be applauded. Auburn didn’t turn it over either so it wound up being a wash, but Rebels quarterback Jordan Ta’amu forced the ball into coverage less frequently than he had been.

1. A.J. Brown: Enjoy him while he’s here, folks. Brown went into the game as the SEC’s leading receiver (50 receptions, 650 yards, 4 TDs), and he continued to bolster his lead with a 10-catch, 155-yard performance against Auburn. Brown caught the only Rebels TD late in the fourth quarter. With just four games to play, he is 23 receptions and 448 yards away from setting single-season records for the Rebels. On Saturday, he passed both Donte Moncrief and Evan Engram to move up to No. 4 on the school’s all-time receptions list, and he is 39 receptions from breaking Laquon Treadwell’s career record of 202. Brown has 2,469 career receiving yards; he passed Engram, Moncrief and Treadwell for the third spot and is just 178 yards shy of surpassing Shay Hodge for first all time in Oxford.

What I didn’t like

5. Pass protection: This has actually been a strength for the Rebels throughout much of the year, but that changed dramatically against Auburn. Ole Miss surrendered five including three by defensive end Nick Coe, who manhandled left tackle Greg Little throughout the contest. Little, a projected first-round pick in the NFL Draft next spring, could handle neither the speed nor the power of Coe, who constantly disrupted the Rebels backfield.

4. Second-half defense: I honestly get tired of ripping the Rebels defense because it’s the same story every week. I guess solace can be found in knowing they allowed less than 500 yards of total offense (the Tigers had 484), but Ole Miss was a train wreck in the second half, allowing 305 yards and 21 points.

3. Continually poor fundamentals: The tackling on this team might be the worst I’ve ever seen from an SEC team, and I feel I’m being generous by saying “might be.” It’s simply unbelievable how poorly coached this team is on a fundamental level. Hands, run fits, pursuit angles and wrap-up tackles are some of the basic fundamentals of defense, and this team hasn’t mastered any of that all season. The Ole Miss coaches clearly watch an enormous amount of film and it’s all but certain they see the same thing we all do, yet the problem persists week after week after week.

2. Missed opportunities in red zone: In the first half, the Rebels got inside the Tigers red zone twice, and another two drives led them down to the 23- and 25-yard lines. The result of these four drives? Two field goals, one blocked field goal and, inexplicably, a punt. In the second half, the Tigers defense allowed the Rebels into the red zone just twice, which led to 10 points including a garbage-time TD. The Tigers’ red zone defense kept them in the game in the first half and any opportunity the Ole Miss defense gave its offense was wasted.

1. Longo and offense awful…again: Auburn’s secondary was torched last week, allowing 328 yards passing and 2 TDs to Tennessee. Heading into the matchup against the prolific Ole Miss offense, and without starting DBs Jamel Dean and Jeremiah Dinson, there was a possibility the Rebels could have had an aerial field day. That wasn’t the case in Oxford as the Rebels offense again stalled against an elite defense, as it has all season. Phil Longo’s offense simply doesn’t work against premier defenses, as has been proven time and time again. Sure, they can pile up 800 yards on an inferior Sun Belt opponent, but against the likes of Alabama, LSU and Auburn, he’s consistently outcoached.

The Rebels had 324 yards passing on Saturday, but much of that came when the game was already out of hand. In the first half, with the Rebels defense playing as well as it had all season, the famed Ole Miss passing attack was 9 of 20 for 139 yards and no TDs. The Ole Miss defense won’t give the offense many opportunities like that. Just when one side of the ball starts playing well, the other side falls short…again.