One of the stories we wrote in the lead up to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal was looking at what Ole Miss had to avoid repeating from its first game against Georgia.
In the regular season meeting the Bulldogs won, the Rebels gave up more than 200 rushing yards, forced no punts and Kewan Lacy had just 31 rushing yards.
If the Rebels wanted to knock off No. 3 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, it couldn’t have those three things happen again.
And they didn’t.
Ole Miss held Georgia to 124 rushing yards, forced four punts and Lacy ran for 98 yards. Let’s examine why each of these mattered in Thursday’s epic 39-34 win.
124 rushing yards
Why it mattered: There was a more even time of possession.
In the regular season game, Georgia’s time possession was 15 minutes more than the Rebels’ TOP. The Bulldogs’ ground game couldn’t be stopped and kept the clocking running.
That wasn’t the case this time. Georgia did have more time of possession, 32:32 to the Rebels’ 27:28, but a five-minute difference is a lot different than 15.
4 punts
Why it mattered: The Ole Miss defense got off the field.
A common goal expressed by Ole Miss before Thursday was they wanted to make Georgia punt the ball at least once. They accomplished that on the first Georgia possession of the game.
Although, it was a bit of buyer-beware considering the first punt was downed at the Ole Miss one-yard line. Of course, it didn’t really matter since the Rebels went 60 yards on the drive and kicked a field goal for the game’s first points.
Ole Miss didn’t force a punt after the third quarter, but seeing Georgia’s punter was a sign the Rebels’ defense was going to be much better this time around.
Lacy’s 98 yards
Why it mattered: Moved the chains and opened up the passing game.
The All-American running back ran the ball 22 times for 98 yards (4.5 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. He also had two very important catches while Trinidad Chambliss was running away from Georgia defenders.
Ole Miss was able to stay on schedule, gaining positive yards on first and second down to avoid a long third down. Also, the Bulldogs had to account for the run game while trying to cool off a red hot Chambliss from throwing perfect passes all over the field.
Establishing the run does a lot of good things for a team, especially when it’s a talented running back like Lacy.
Final Thought
As previously stated in another column, there are a lot of reasons why Ole Miss won the CFP quarterfinal and Georgia didn’t. These are just three and shouldn’t discredit the other reasons either. But these were three important things that happened.
