Rebel Insider: Leftover observations from Ole Miss football’s 24-10 loss at Alabama

On Ole Miss’ second possession of the game, they lit Alabama up with chunk plays, going 75 yards on seven snaps to take a 7-3 lead. It looked easy and nobody in their right mind would have believed after watching that march the Rebels would not get in the Tide end zone again, but they didn’t.

From that point on, Ole Miss had eight more possessions the rest of the game that resulted in four punts, a missed field goal, an interception and turning the ball over on downs. Even more discouraging for the Rebels, the next three possessions after the touchdown were three-and-outs.

Fortunately, the Tide didn’t fare much better as the Rebel defense played lights out the first half and only allowed 24 points and 356 yards.

In the games against Tulane and Georgia Tech, the Rebels exploded in the second half. They could only muster a field goal against Alabama, a very poor second half showing. While we ballyhooed the Rebels for being a second half team in those games and hoped that would be a trend in 2023, they reverted to last year when they could do very little in the second half. Simply put, the Tide dominated the second half on both sides of the ball.

Tide Quarterback Jalen Milroe was benched for the South Florida game last weekend for poor play against Texas, but was able to complete 17-21 passes for 225 yards and a TD while registering a QB rating of 177.1 against the Rebels. This after a first half where he was sacked 4 times. 10 different Alabama wideouts were on the receiving end of his passes. Once again, joining a long line of Reb defenses that make a mediocre quarterback look like a Heisman candidate with his 81% completion rate.

While Alabama was much more effective in the second half, they only managed 356 yards of total offense which in today’s game, overall, is a decent defensive effort. The issue was that Ole Miss’ supposedly high octane, tempo offense could only muster 301 yards of total offense and only 56 yards on the ground, all belonging to RB Quinshon Judkins.

When a play isn’t working and the opposing defense has figured it out, why do coaches keep calling it for no gain or a loss? The Rebels ran the jet sweep four times for -9 yards. After a couple, it would seem like someone would tap Lane Kiffin and Charlie Wies on the shoulder and say “coaches, the jet sweep ain’t fooling Alabama.”

It was good to see TE Caden Prieskorn and Wide Receiver Zakhari Franklin make their first appearances as Rebels. Having them back will pay dividends soon, we believe. Caden had one catch for 21 yards and Franklin had one catch for 16 yards on the lone TD march by the Rebels. Even though he only played a couple of snaps that we saw, it was good to see WR Tre Harris out there as well. All three will make significant contributions moving forward.

Where is the tempo? For most of Lane Kiffin’s tenure at Ole Miss the Rebel offense has been fast, fast, fast. Where has that speed gone? Even the commentators during the game were talking about the wasted seconds the Rebels were using up at the end of the game. Is this a communication issue? Is it intentional? Is it a change in strategy?

We have criticized Rebel punter Fraser Masin since the first punt of the season, but against Alabama, he averaged 47.5 yards on four punts. Yes, there was a blocked punt, but it didn’t look to be his fault. It looked like his outside protection broke down. Maybe he will continue doing a better job, fingers crossed.

A lot of fans were right and I was wrong. Freshman Linebacker Suntarine Perkins needs to play until he can’t play anymore, take him out a play and then play him the rest of the game. The kid is a playmaker and this defense, while being OK, needs playmakers, difference makers, guys who can turn a game on a dime. Perkins is that guy. I apologize to everyone who I told that “Get” needs to keep learning before giving him a bigger role. I was wrong.

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