Ole Miss spent much of last Saturday’s game against Auburn doing exactly what a defense is supposed to do.
The Rebels stopped the run, created negative plays and repeatedly forced the Tigers into third-and-long situations.
Unfortunately, getting Auburn into those situations and actually getting off the field turned out to be two very different things.
And that’s a problem Ole Miss can’t afford to repeat Saturday against No. 2 Georgia.
The Bulldogs have one of the nation’s most efficient third-down offenses, converting 47 of their 91 opportunities this season. That’s a 51.6% success rate, second-best in the SEC and 12th nationally.
As they showed last week against Auburn, the Rebels haven’t been great at getting off the field on third downs. They’ve allowed opponents to convert 50 of 118 third-down attempts, a 42.4% success rate that ranks 113th nationally.
Those numbers should cause some level of concern among Ole Miss fans and Auburn showed why.
The Tigers converted five of their eight third-down opportunities in the first half, including four of five requiring at least eight yards.
Those third down conversions didn’t always end with points being scored, but some did. Quarterback Byrum Brown completed a 24-yard pass to Chas Nimrod on third-and-13, keeping alive a touchdown drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock.
Auburn ultimately converted seven of 14 third downs, including six of 11 requiring at least seven yards.
That’s despite an Ole Miss defense that recorded 10 tackles for loss and limited Auburn to just 63 net rushing yards.
Unsurprisingly, Rebels’ coach Pete Golding wasn’t too happy with those results.
“We talked about it going into the game. If we can create some negative-yardage plays on early downs, then we’ve got them where we want them,” he said in the post-game press conference. “We had them where we wanted them, and we didn’t execute on third down.”
Golding pointed to missed tackles, communication problems and defenders failing to stay with receivers when Brown extended plays.
“One of them, we were in man, went to push alert and screwed it up,” Golding said. “One was a missed tackle. One was a scramble. We’re in zone and we don’t plaster the route. It’s attention to detail and doing your job.”
The encouraging part was how the Rebels responded after halftime.
Auburn converted just two of six third downs in the second half, and Ole Miss eventually scored 28 unanswered points to turn a competitive game into a 45-15 victory.
Doing that against Auburn is one thing, but surviving like that against Georgia may not end well for the Rebels.
Quarterback Gunner Stockton has completed 70% of his passes this season, and the Bulldogs average more than 200 rushing yards per game.
That balance makes defending third down difficult because Georgia doesn’t necessarily need to throw the football to move the chains.
The Bulldogs converted seven of 13 third downs against Alabama and six of 12 against Auburn. Even in their loss to the Tigers, they consistently found ways to extend possessions.
That’s what Ole Miss has to avoid. If it gets the Bulldogs in a third-and-long situation, it has to get off the field.
Every extended Georgia possession represents another opportunity for the Bulldogs to score while keeping the Rebels’ offense on the sidelines.
Ole Miss proved against Auburn that it can make adjustments and correct mistakes.
Against Georgia, the Rebels won’t have the benefit of time to adjust.
