What a wild game that was.
No. 6 Ole Miss took down No. 3 Georgia in a game with more twists and turns than a roller coaster and is moving onto the CFP semifinals.
In a game like that, there’s so many angles to cover, look at, discuss and write about that it’s hard to pick where to start.
There’s the defensive effort and how it stiffened in the second half in some key moments. The goal was to make the Bulldogs punt at least once and they forced four punts in the game.
There’s Kewan Lacy making up for his previous performance against Georgia with 100-yard, two rushing touchdown game.
There’s the failed fourth down try by Georgia (that apparently wasn’t supposed to happen) that resulted in a fumble. The Rebels would score a touchdown two plays later.
There’s the 100-plus receiving yard performances by Harrison Wallace III and De’Zhaun Stribling. That includes Stribling’s 40-yard catch in the final minute to set up Lucas Carneiro’s game-winning field goal.
Speaking of Carneiro, he deserves his own turn in the spotlight with three field goals, two of which set Sugar Bowl records for longest field goals.
There’s Pete Golding and the job he’s done taking over. He showed he’s the right man for the job, too. Go back and look at what he said the Rebels needed to do better. Then look at the game and watch the Rebels fall behind by not doing those things and then get ahead doing them.
There’s the incredible performance by Trinidad Chambliss, especially in the second half. At one point he completed 13 straight passes. All night his passes were on target and his spirals were tight.
There’s the performance by the Ole Miss offensive line that didn’t allow any sacks and no quarterback hits against a Georgia defense that was playing at an elite level.
And you get the idea.
What all that tells us is that Ole Miss is headed to the semifinal because it’s a really good football team. What other conclusion can one draw other than that?
It wasn’t just Chambliss having a dominant game. It wasn’t Lacy, either and it wasn’t a dominant defensive effort. The most important player for the Rebels may very well have been Carneiro.
It was a great team effort to beat the Bulldogs and now the question is, why not the Rebels to win the whole thing?
