Rebels still have a chance for what might have been
Ole Miss is ranked No. 14 in the country and coming off its first two-game win streak of the season. Headed into the bye, there are plenty worse predicaments the Rebels could be in.
It could also be better.
What if the Rebels hadn’t blown either of the three-touchdown leads against Florida State or Alabama? Where would they be? No. 1?
Maybe not. Teams like Clemson still may lay claim, though it would be tough to argue if Ole Miss had navigated 4-0 through the toughest September in college football before taking care of Memphis on the first of this month.
That’s where it could be. Where they are still leaves room to get there. An SEC title game is realistically a stretch. Alabama would have to lose a couple of games, and Ole Miss can’t. However, the Crimson Tide is entering a brutal four-game stretch that will define its season. That starts this week at Arkansas, then at Tennessee, vs. Texas A&M and then at LSU.
If Alabama makes it through that gauntlet unscathed, then all you can do as an Ole Miss fan is tip your cap to the Tide.
But a Playoff shot is not out of the question. Ranked where they are, the Rebels have a shot to get in and reverse (re-reverse?) its fortunes.
With road games coming up at Arkansas, LSU and Texas A&M, and assuming the poll positions related to those games — specifically Nov. 12 in College Station — Ole Miss has a big chance to re-steer the ship towards where it looked like it was headed in the first halves against the Seminoles and Crimson Tide.
But Ole Miss’ failures may wind up its savior. Judging from the blowout of Georgia and a pretty complete win over Memphis, it looks as though the Rebels have learned and moved on from their mistakes.
The time of possession has increased, thanks in large part to Eugene Brazley’s rise as a (potential) feature back. Key third downs are being converted to give the defense a few extra breaths on the sidelines. The defense had no interceptions in the first three games, but they’ve had pick-sixes in the last two. The offense has found extra rhythm with Jason Pellerin spelling Chad Kelly near the goal line.
The fact that the Rebels are improving is a scary thought for the rest of the opponents on their schedule.
They are the highest-ranked, two-loss team in the country and have outscored opponents 55-6 in the first quarter and 131-40 in the first half. Boy, if you could combine the Ole Miss team in the Florida State and Alabama game with the second-half Tennessee team.
Lessons were definitely learned over the rough September. Another rough stretch lies just ahead. If the Rebels play the rest of the season even close to how they played before halftime against Florida State and Alabama and the whole game against Georgia, what might have been may still be.
But even one more loss and the season will go down as what could have been, not what was.
What could have been? That’s been the motto for 2 years. It sucks to lose those two games I feel we should have won, but a tip of the hat to each squad , they did awesome. I am pleased with where this squad is heading. Saban has had the luxury luring top flight talent into Tuscaloosa, but I feel Freeze is doing a great job of closing the talent gap (insert pay for play joke here). I hate to already look at the future but with all these freshman thrust into the fire early, another good class this year could tip the scales and finally allow Ole Miss to be consistent. This obviously all falls on Shea Patterson being able to step in where Kelly leaves off
As long as we beat LSu (42-21) & finally Arky (31-24), I’m good !
You guys need to petition to play AR EARLY in the season. Y’all wait until we get our shat together (which is usually down the home stretch) and we been ready for Ya. Make us your SEC opener and play us while we are still trying to learn not to trip over a pulling guard or struggling to contain a mobile qb and you’ll murder us every year. We are ARKANSAS! We don’t rebuild. We don’t reload. We start from scratch every September.
True, we have a bye week and get ya’ll after Bama and I’m still worried !
I still believe OM is the second best team in the SEC and will probably win out. The only team that Im worried about is A&M because they have a dual threat QB. That is OM’s weak spot on defense.
Could not agree more.