Thursday, August 28, 2014

Ole Miss Overcomes Self, Boise State

It was two and a half hours of ugliness followed by 15 minutes of beauty. Which was the real Ole Miss? That's what many of you are pondering as you read this, and you'll be left to wonder for the rest of the week.

Are the Rebels the team that could do almost nothing right for 45 minutes out of 60? Or are they lightning in a bottle ready to explode all over their opponent like they did in Boise State's face in the 4th quarter?

You decide.

On Thursday night Ole Miss overcame a host miscues in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game with a burst of 4th quarter touchdowns to beat Boise State 35-13, but the final score is deceiving as the heavily favored Rebels led just 7-6 with 15 minutes to play.

The way things had gone for Ole Miss through three quarters of play a Boise State upset seemed almost inevitable. But thanks to that flurry of 4th quarter touchdown passes by Bo Wallace, the Rebels pulled away and departed the Georgia Dome 1-0. A win is a win is a win, but whoa, there is a lot of room for improvement.

"Awful and hard to watch for two and half quarters," is the way Hugh Freeze described it.

For 45 minutes, it was just bad.

"There's no way we could have played any worse and still be ahead," co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner said.

Anybody else who was watching would certainly agree with both coaches.

Though the Ole Miss defense looked as tough as advertised, offensively, the Rebels have a lot of work to do, starting with the offensive line and the decision-making that has plagued Wallace since he became the starting quarterback for Ole Miss two seasons ago.

The interception bug is still very much alive in Wallace's bloodstream.

"Two of those throws were not even in his progressions," Freeze said, almost shrugging his shoulders as to what happened with his senior quarterback. "They were totally not a part of the route, and I don't know if he's pressing too hard with so much that's.... He wants to do so well and have such a great year. I'm sure he felt that we've got to press a little bit."

Despite the errant throws, Wallace still finished with 387 yards and four touchdowns. The 35-13 final score makes those interceptions almost completely forgettable but for the fact that we all know Ole Miss will face much tougher opponents than Boise State in the near future. Ole Miss won't beat SEC opponents on nights that Wallace throws three interceptions. No way. No how. The hope coming into this season was that Wallace had outgrown the bad decisions. Maybe he hasn't. Maybe he never will. Maybe Wallace is the Ole Miss version of Brett Favre, and maybe we just need to learn to take the good (4 touchdowns, 387 yards) with the bad, and hope the good wins in the end like it did Thursday night.

Bo is still a work in progress. Deal with it.

There was another glaring problem, too.

The offensive line didn't open up the running game (the Rebels had 97 yards rushing, averaging a paltry 2.1 yards per carry), and struggled with false start after false start after false start. Offensive line coach Matt Luke had to be pulling his hair out. The unit simply must get better for Ole Miss to have the kind of season it wants. Wallace will be a better quarterback if the Rebels can run the football. On Thursday night, the Rebels couldn't do it. That has to change, too.

Fortunately, talent was on the Rebels' side in this one, and that speed and size was eventually more than Boise State could overcome. Laquon Treadwell created breathing room with two big catches early in the 4th quarter. Freeze said it was the only time Ole Miss caught the Broncos in man coverage on Treadwell all night. That was a mistake. Treadwell absolutely out-muscled his coverage, manhandling his way to a 14-yard score that gave Ole Miss a 14-6 lead and a little breathing room with 12:26 to go. Treadwell, who finished with 7 receptions for 107 yards, looked so dominant on those two 4th quarter catches that it was almost as though he was willing the game away from Boise State all by himself.

And then, like a golden flash of lightning, Wallace struck with two more touchdown passes - the first a 31-yard pass to Quincy Adeboyejo, and the 2nd a 76-yard catch and scamper by Cody Core that put the game away.

Core, who finished the night with 2 touchdowns and 4 receptions for 110 yards, showed off some serious jets and made obvious the reason he somewhat surprisingly won the starting position at slot receiver. His 30-yard touchdown catch late in the 1st quarter is what gave the Rebels an early 7-point advantage. Freeze was proud of his new starter in the slot.

"So happy for him," Freeze said. "He's been through some tragedy, losing his mom, and going through that is difficult for a young man. I can only imagine. And to see him succeed... I'm really happy for him."

Credit the Ole Miss defense for preserving a lead with those first 7 points for the majority of the game. The Rebels grabbed four interceptions, recorded three sacks, and stopped Boise State in the red zone. They did it with great open field tackling and thunderous hitting. One hit in particular was too hard. Serderius Bryant was ejected in the 4th quarter for hitting too high. With Denzel Nkemdiche serving a one-game suspension on the bench the Rebels relied on walk-on linebacker Taylor Polk for large portions of the game. Cody Prewitt, Mike Hilton, Keith Lewis, Senquez Golson and Tony Conner all had highlight moments. As did Robert Nkemdiche, who disrupted Boise State's offense for much of the evening, just as we hoped he would.

All in all, the defense looked completely up to snuff. A good defense can take a team a long way.

But that Ole Miss offense... Are they the disaster you watched in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarter, or are they that super nova from the 4th?

We just don't know.

We do know that there's work to do. For now, Ole Miss is 1-0 with an extra-long week to prepare for Vanderbilt. The 35-13 final score really is all that matters.

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