Ole Miss was their own worst enemy in brutal SEC rivalry overtime loss to LSU Tigers on Saturday
Ole Miss gained 43 more total yards than LSU in Saturday's 29-26 overtime loss to Brian Kelly and the Tigers in Baton Rouge. Lane Kiffin and the Rebels were more efficient through the air and on the ground. They were better on third downs. Ole Miss finished the game leading in most every single category. […]
Ole Miss gained 43 more total yards than LSU in Saturday's 29-26 overtime loss to Brian Kelly and the Tigers in Baton Rouge. Lane Kiffin and the Rebels were more efficient through the air and on the ground. They were better on third downs. Ole Miss finished the game leading in most every single category. So, how did they lose to LSU on Saturday?
Two things. Penalties and sacks. First off, Ole Miss' top ranked pass rush forced exactly zero sacks while the offensive line surrendered six sacks to the LSU Tigers' pass rushers. That was an outcome not many saw coming. But perhaps the most important issue had to do with all the penalties committed by Ole Miss.
Ole Miss ended up committing 12 (twelve!) penalties on the game for a whopping 110 yards. Yes, that's correct. Ole Miss cost themselves more than entire football field in penalties against the LSU Tigers. Part of this can be explained away by the fact that playing in Baton Rouge at night is perhaps the most difficult away environment in all of college football. It's loud, and thus very tough to think straight, let alone communicate important signals and information on every offensive play.
How tough is LSU's home edge? The Tigers have now logged 15 straight home wins at night. It's an incredibly tough place to play. However, that doesn't give Ole Miss (or any team for that matter) the right to screw up a dozen times in the same game. And it certainly doesn't excuse the awful penalties in overtime that likely cost Ole Miss the game.
The very first play of overtime resulted in a holding penalty against Ole Miss which set the team back to the LSU 35-yard line. 1st and 20. Then after calling a timeout Ole Miss almost immediately followed that up with a false start penalty. 2nd and 25 to start overtime. Ole Miss had to settle for a long field goal, and that proved to be fewer points than they needed in the end as Garrett Nussmeier found Kyren Lacy for the touchdown to seal the win for LSU.
Ole Miss has to clean up their penalty issues. Otherwise they're going to keep failing to close out games in which they should truly win. Lane Kiffin has his work cut out for him now that Ole Miss just logged their second loss of the season. The climb to the College Football Playoff is steep for the Rebels now.
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