Anyone with the ability to see and think knows how bad Ole Miss’ defense played Sunday night against No. 24 Louisville.
The Cardinals took advantage of coverage busts, miscommunication and missed tackles to mount a 14-point fourth quarter comeback against the Rebels. If not for a little bit of luck and a lot of Trinidad Chambliss doing his best Superman impression, the Ole Miss defense could’ve cost it the game.
Like many things in the life, though, there isn’t one specific reason why the Ole Miss defense struggled.
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” Rebels’ coach Pete Golding said. “What I wasn’t going to do going into the game, because I know in these big games you have to be able to be multiple on defense, was go very vanilla early and let them have a crutch. I wasn’t going to do that because that’s not who we’re going to be, and that’s not what it takes to win in this league and compete for championships.”
Louisville showed it had some talent on offense. Issac Brown was held in check, quarterback Lincoln Kienholz found success with his legs and his arm thanks to coverage busts.
So, Golding knew that Ole Miss needed to challenge Louisville and challenge his own defense, even with several new faces in the secondary. That decision came with risk, and Sunday showed exactly what that risk looks like when communication slips and the personnel changes faster than expected.
“There were some things from a coaching standpoint that we’ll have to clean up and understand who is in the game,” Golding said. “They’ve shown us now whether they have the ability to do certain things or not, and we’ll obviously have to clean that up.”
The defense’s poor performance wasn’t entirely due to mistakes on the field. Some key players were injured and missed most, if not all of the game.
Sharif Denson, who started all camp and had one of the best Augusts on the roster, didn’t play. Cornerback Antonio Kite went out early. That forced younger defensive backs into real snaps against a veteran offense, and Golding admitted he didn’t adjust quickly enough.
“When you start plugging some of those other guys in there, I should have done a better job in the second half with them, to be honest with you, and not put too much on them, which I probably did,” Golding said.
The good news for Ole Miss is that the mistakes weren’t mysterious. They will be obvious on film and, in Golding’s mind, fixable.
“From a communication standpoint, they’re all correctable,” he said. “Some of them are what we call LOVs — lack of violence — bad angles and not wanting to finish with effort. That’s a decision you have to make. Those are the ones we can’t put on tape and can’t allow to be on tape.”
That’s the part that bothered him most. Not the scheme. Not the calls. The effort. The angles. The finishing. Those are things he expects to be consistent no matter who is on the field or what play is called. And he made it clear that Tuesday’s live tackling periods are going to matter even more now.
“The communication component, obviously, we can fix and we will,” Golding said. “But we have to do a really good job on our Tuesdays when we go live tackling. You don’t get a ton of those opportunities. You create takeaway circuits, tackling circuits and all that, but I think there’s a lot to learn from this tape.”
Golding wasn’t down on the entire performance. He thought the first half was solid. Ole Miss limited explosives, held up despite bad field position, and looked like a group that understood the plan. But the final two minutes before halftime flipped momentum, and the second half exposed every communication issue they’d been trying to iron out.
“We came out in the second half and I just didn’t think we responded defensively the right way,” Golding said. “There were a lot of mistakes, missed tackles and communication errors that led to explosive plays.”
That’s the part he kept circling back to. Louisville didn’t need help, but Ole Miss gave them some anyway. And Louisville left plays on the field, too, which Golding pointed out as a reminder that the margin could have been worse.
Still, Golding saw something he liked. When injuries hit, backups stepped in and played real snaps. That’s the balance of Week 1. Ole Miss made mistakes. Ole Miss survived them. And Golding walked away knowing exactly what needs to change before Charlotte comes to Oxford.
A defense that wants to compete for championships can’t afford communication errors and missed tackles. Golding didn’t sugarcoat any of it. He just explained it, owned it and made clear that the tape tells the truth.
And now they have to fix it.
