Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin tells it like it is after extremely disappointing SEC loss to Kirby Smart and Georgia Bulldogs
Lane Kiffin doesn’t pull punches on his defense’s performance against Georgia on Saturday
Lane Kiffin isn’t one to shy away from the truth, whether good or bad, and the Ole Miss Rebels’ defense was bad on Saturday. Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels offense did their part for over three quarters of the game, scoring five touchdowns in a row to start the game, but ultimately that wasn’t good enough because the Rebels defense played like one of the worst units in the country Saturday and coach Kiffin couldn’t help but acknowledge the mess Ole Miss has to fix on that side of the ball.
Ole Miss defensive stats in loss to Georgia Bulldogs
- Ole Miss gave up 34 first downs to the Georgia Bulldogs. The average FBS team converts just 21 per game.
- The Rebels allowed six third down conversions on just 11 attempts. That mark of 54.5% conversion rate would rank 135th among FBS teams.
- Ole Miss allowed seven scoring drives for Georgia, and never forced the Bulldogs to punt, not once.
- The Rebels allowed 9.3 yards per pass attempt and 510 total yards of offense for the game. The worst defense in FBS gives up 497 yards of offense per game.
Ole Miss Rebels defense just couldn’t get off the field
Giving up 34 first downs is just absolutely indefensible. It doesn’t matter who Ole Miss is playing. That is almost impossibly bad. The worst defense in the entire country is giving up 25 first downs per game on average. 34 first downs is what an SEC offense puts up against FCS opponents. That number clearly bothered Lane Kiffin more than any other when it came to the Rebel’s tough loss to Georgia on Saturday seeing as he mentioned it three times in a five minute span after the game when he met with media:
“They score every time they have the ball. And you give up 34 first downs. When you’re in a game like that you just have to keep scoring, and we didn’t do that…We did limit explosive plays. There weren’t a ton of explosive plays, but it was just a slow death. 34 first downs. That’s hard to do against a service team…Georgia did a good job today, but that’s not the number one offense in the country. 34 first downs is really concerning. That’s a lot of things we’ve got to work on.”
Kiffin is right, the defense didn’t give up too many explosive plays, keeping most everything in front of them, but when the team gives up six third down conversions, seven scoring drives, and never forces Georgia to punt, that’s a problem. And when the one explosive play you do allow comes at the worst possible time (the late shot to Dillon Bell), then it doesn’t even really matter what the defense did prior to that.
The loss to Georgia wasn’t all bad, and the Rebels’ offense did really impress for much of the game, but the result came down to just a handful of critical moments where Ole Miss failed emphatically on defense. The most noteworthy, and the one that likely completely changed the outcome, came on a critical 4th & 1 for Georgia early in the fourth quarter.
Ole Miss was up by nine points. All they needed was a stop and they could start burning clock quickly. Instead, Georgia’s heavy short yardage specialist Josh McCray stays on his feet through contact and a failed initial push, falls for the first down, and the Bulldogs go on to score a touchdown on the drive, reducing the deficit to just two points. Kiffin was well aware that’s the moment that could have changed everything:
“If you go back [to the early fourth quarter], we’re ahead. They have the fourth down. They run the fullback, a little dive, and we’ve got him stopped. Like, what happens at that point? Now we’re head. Now there’s some momentum. We finally stop them. And then [instead] he goes through our tackles, and great job by him keeping his feet moving, and makes the first down. I really felt that point was a really, almost a slow motion moment of like, ‘Okay, this is the moment, we have him.’ If we stop him here, this game really is headed a good direction.”
That critical fourth down conversion by Josh McCray that eventually led to Georgia’s win might end up defining not only the game between Ole Miss and Georgia on Saturday, but the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff seeding.
Ole Miss was so close. Up by two scores in the fourth quarter at Georgia. They just couldn’t seal the deal and it was entirely the defense’s fault. Yes, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss couldn’t hardly complete a pass in the final three drives, but the Rebels should have already had the game in hand given the five consecutive touchdowns scored prior to those late game struggles. Hopefully Lane Kiffin and company can get the defense fixed, and soon. Otherwise Rebels fans are set to repeat their colossal disappointment late in the season.
We’ll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
