Ole Miss Football: Five Keys To A Rebel Victory Over The Tide

Fewer Penalties Is A Must

Ole Miss Rebels Football

When I say last week was ugly I mainly mean it from this aspect alone. When you have the penalties we had you can’t expect to win games and especially when we get to conference games. One of the obvious keys to beating Bama is to win the penalty game. Of course, last week we witnessed what happens to Ole Miss when they are playing catch-up. Catch-up is not a place we want to play from against the Tide.

In three games, the Ole Miss Rebels have been penalized 30 times for 220 yards. The first two games they gave up 7 penalties each and then eclipsed that mark in the Cal game alone. In the Cal loss they committed 16 penalties for 113 yards. That is unacceptable from any college football team. We know from experience every yard against the Tide is precious; we can’t give them back because of penalties.

Ok, so we give Ole Miss offense a pass last week with the injury to Sean Rawlings. When your center goes down and you suffer false starts there is a deficiency. That deficiency came last weekend when we found ourselves down a center. Of course, we lost his back up red-shirt freshman Eli Johnson the week before against UT-Martin.

There was an obvious issue with Javon Patterson last week. However that should not be an issue against Bama. The Ole Miss offense is a lot like a forest fire. When they have air behind them then they move quickly. Any disruption in the rhythm of the game for Ole Miss and we are someplace we don’t won’t to be with Bama. With a bye-week the discipline of a solid Javon Patterson as center should not be an issue.