Ole Miss Football: Grading Out The Rebels Against California

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Ole Miss Rebels Football

As a Ole Miss football fan I wish I could hand out all As, however it’s not that easy when we grade out a loss. It’s even harder when you see two totally different Ole Miss football teams in the same game. If you remember last season then you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t then watch the replay of the FSU game and Alabama game. See what I mean.

Of course, this Saturday we saw relatively the same thing in the Cal game. There were obvious early bright spots within the Ole Miss offense and glaring differences late. Yes, there were injuries on the offense which surely played a part in the difference over the night.

AJ Brown and center Sean Rawlings both went down early which did affect the outcome. However, Brown and Rawlings went down early and Ole Miss still continued to be productive to a certain extent in the first half.

First Half, B-

Overall, the first half was actually a pretty good one for the Ole Miss offense. Yes, I watched the same game you did. While Shea Patterson did throw two of his three interceptions in the first quarter, he also threw for his two TDs in the first quarter as well. If you look back at the two INTs he threw they weren’t bad throws. There are INTs and there are really bad INTs. These two weren’t that bad.

The two TD’s which Shea threw in the first half were very impressive as the offense obviously had the Cal defense befuddled. The first was a 74 yard TD strike to DK Metcalf and the second was a 71 yarder to DaMarkus Lodge. The offense scored on three of its first five possessions. And scored TDs after each of the 2 INTs.

Second Half, D-

Shea Patterson threw for 363 yards total in the game. Of course, much of this was not in the second half. While Shea played well in the first half and looked poised and comfortable, that changed in the second half. Only a sophomore Shea is still building experience under center and it was evident in the second half he had gotten rattled.

Of course, the quarterback always falls under the scrutiny to the viewer in a loss; it’s simply a part of the game. However, the offensive grades in the second half aren’t all Shea’s fault. As stated earlier there are variables which affected the outcome of Saturday night’s game. Losing Rawlings certainly threw a wrench into the works and I’m certain the loss of Brown played into the game-plane.

Late in the game we witnessed a young quarterback under monstrous pressure. Shea was doing all he could do to have enough time to find open receivers, however he had absolutely no time to properly check down and made a few costly mistakes. All of this is not just on Shea but also on his offensive coordinator coach Phil Longo and head coach Matt Luke. We’ll discuss that more in the coaches grades later.

Overall Grade C-