A game-by-game look at Bo Wallace and his two alter egos, Dr. Bo and Mr. Pick.

After one half of play, the best way to describe Ole Miss, and Bo Wallace is vanilla. He didn’t do a whole lot wrong, but he didn’t really do anything good either. The stats were decent as he went 8 of 16, but he only threw for 66 yards, though he did run for 21. Probably the biggest takeaway is that Wallace did not revert to Mr. Pick in the first half, which he has done in a few games this year. Not having negative plays from the QB was most certainly part of the first half game plan.

The back shoulder throw to Cody Core with 5:30 left in the first quarter was really the first time that Wallace did anything of note, either good or bad. That throw was perfectly timed and perfectly placed. There was a throw with about 13 minutes left in the second quarter, that I can’t decide if it was Dr. Bo or Mr. Pick. It ended up being a great catch more than anything, but Wallace took the snap, looked at Treadwell the whole time, threw into tight coverage and Treadwell ended up coming down with the ball. I guess we can probably leave it un-judged since it was a completion, but it easily could have gone the other way. The first appearance of Mr. Pick was when Wallace missed a wide open Cody Core for what would have been an easy first down put missed him wide, and it wasn’t close.

On the first drive of the second half for Ole Miss, the Rebels ended up scoring on a TD pass from Wallace to Treadwell, but that was not the most impressive pass from Bo in the series. The scoring play relied much more on Treadwell’s moves after making the catch. Two plays before that, however, featured a great play by Dr. Bo. He dropped back, stayed in the pocket, and stepped into his throw hitting TE Evan Engram in stride for a 50-yard gain. That is the play that set up the TD which brought the Rebels within one score. Later in the quarter, Dr. Bo made another crucial throw. On 3rd and 9 with the Rebels driving, Wallace stood strong in the pocket, and took a big hit as he threaded the needle between a lineman and a DB to find his receiver and move the chains. Evan Engram dropped a great pass shortly thereafter which would most likely have been a TD as he was running in stride.

Dr. Bo was alive and well on what would be the game-tying drive by Ole Miss as Wallace connected with Engram to get into Alabama territory, then found Vince Sanders for a 34-yard touchdown. Wallace dropped the ball perfectly over the head of the safety finding Sanders as he beat the DB on a post.

Ole Miss recovered a fumble to get the ball back with about 5 minutes left in the game and had a chance to take the lead. Wallace threw another fantastic back-shoulder throw to Treadwell to give the Rebels a first and goal at the 9-yard line. After a questionable coaching decision to run the huge-guy wildcat, Dr. Bo made his best throw of the season, finding Jaylen Walton for the go-ahead score. The throw itself wasn’t really that incredible, but just in that moment, it had to be his most gratifying throw. The Alabama secondary looked as if they missed an assignment, but regardless, he made the necessary play to get the Rebels out in front.

In a very ironic, considering this post, way for the game to end, Blake Sims threw an interception to seal the deal for Alabama. The game, as a whole wasn’t necessarily a crazy good game for Wallace, but he didn’t make any mistakes, which in-of-itself is very impressive. I am willing to admit I thought Mr. Pick would show up today and end up costing Ole Miss the game, and I was wrong. I wouldn’t say it was a Dr. Bo performance either, but Ole Miss got the win, and that is all that matters. The Rebels no know that they don’t need Dr. Bo to show up to win, they just need Bo Wallace.