Well, that didn’t go as Ole Miss had hoped.
No. 21 Florida ran over the Rebels on Saturday in a 52-28 win.
There are plenty of reasons why Ole Miss got steamrolled and with no game next week, there’ll be plenty of time to dissect and analyze those reasons.
But right now, in the immediate aftermath of No. 4 Ole Miss suffering its first loss of the season, there are some stats that tell the story.
Here are five stats that explain how and why the Rebels lost so big to the Gators.
303
That’s how many rushing yards Florida had Saturday and is arguably the most frustrating stat of the whole game.
The Gators coming out and running the ball wasn’t a surprise to anyone. The run game was mentioned in every preview story of this game. Jadan Baugh had inserted himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation with more than 130 rushing yards in the first three games.
There’s no way Ole Miss didn’t plan for that. If it didn’t, that’s a very different conversation. Assuming they did, though, then the execution simply wasn’t there.
Against LSU last week, there was a lot of disruption from the interior of Ole Miss’ defensive line. It didn’t show up Saturday. The Rebels looked like they were playing on ice skates. Florida moved them back and opened holes with ease all game.
4
That’s how many third down conversions Ole Miss had on offense in 11 attempts. In a rare even comparison, Florida also had 11 third down attempts and converted seven of them.
A big reason for that is the Gators’ needed an average of 5.5 yards for a first down. Ole Miss needed 7.2 yards. Two yards may not seem like a lot, but without Kewan Lacy in the game it does matter. There’s also a failed fourth down attempt on the opening drive that Florida turned into a field goal and a 10-point lead.
Considering how the rest of the game played out, those 10 points were the deciding factor. Without it, Ole Miss isn’t playing from behind.
But Florida was the one to convert more third downs, keep more drives alive which led to more points. Sometimes it is that simple.
1
That’s how many tackles for a loss the Ole Miss defense had a week after recording eight against LSU.
As previously mentioned, there was very little penetration from the Rebels’ defensive line. Blake Purchase had the only tackle for a loss and that came in the final minute of the first half. It put Florida in a third-and-11 situation that wasn’t converted.
One tackle for a loss of two yards. That was it. The Rebels could’ve used more of that.
If you’re looking for evidence of a LSU-hangover, this is the stat for you.
11.9
That’s how many yards per completion Trinidad Chambliss averaged against Florida. He completed 25 passes for 298 yards and a touchdown. He also had an interception on the Rebels’ final possession of the game.
The Gators’ pass defense was a weak spot and Ole Miss found ways to exploit it. At one point in the second half, Chambliss was nearly impossible to stop.
Deuce Alexander finished with 134 yards and seven catches. Three other receivers had three or more catches, too. In a vacuum, that’s not a bad offensive day.
The Rebels just needed the offense to be firing on all cylinders from the beginning and it wasn’t. Is that because Lacy was out? Or is Ole Miss just a slow-starting offensive team?
But seeing how well the passing game worked, all the defense needed was a few stops throughout the game. That didn’t happen, though.
151
That’s how many kick return yards Florida gained on Saturday. Most of that came in the second half on two returns by London Montgomery that came after Ole Miss touchdowns closed the gap to three points.
After each of those Ole Miss touchdowns, there was a sense the Rebels were figuring things out, gaining momentum and could flip the score. Montgomery killed that momentum and restored the energy inside a loud Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
