Ole Miss Football: While Not Pretty Rebels Get Win Over Kent State
It wasn’t the outcome most Ole Miss football fans expected or wanted to see but the Rebels still managed to get their third win of the season.
Ole Miss football (3-1, 0-1) was back in action Saturday as the Rebels hosted the Golden Flashes of Kent State (1-3). The Rebels were coming off their first loss of the season, a 62-7 blowout by No.1 ranked Alabama. Kent State was coming off their own 63-10 drumming by No.11 Penn State. Despite the Golden Flashes record they are a fundamentally sound and well-coached team from the MAC.
Ole Miss started the game strong and scored on their first scoring drive with a 38 yard TD pass from Jordan Ta’amu to RB Scottie Phillips. The Rebels offense struggled to get on the board again in the first half and the score was tied 7-7 at the half. The Rebels wasted no time getting cranked up in the second half and Scottie Phillips got in the end-zone on a 2-yard run.
Later in the 3rd quarter with the score 14-10 the Rebels struck again with a 41-yard TD pass from Ta’amu to Metcalf. After a Kent State score made it 21-17 Rebels Luke Logan added a 27-yard FG later to extend the lead to 24-17. Jordan Ta’amu added a 4-yard rushing TD in the 4th quarter to make the lead 31-17 Ole Miss. Running-back Isaiah Woullard finished out the Rebels scoring with 7-yard TD run and Ole Miss picked up the 38-17 win. Lets look at the statistics from the win.
By The Numbers
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Coach Phil Longo watched as the Rebels put up 651 yards of total offense with 442 yards coming thru the air and 209 yards coming on the ground. Senior quarterback Jordan Ta’amu had his 3rd career 400+ yard game going 28 of 38 for 442 yards and 2 TDs. Ta’amu also had 1 rushing TD.
The NWO had another huge receiving day of course. Junior DK Metcalf led all Rebels WRs with 5 catches for 102 yards and 1 TD while Junior All-American AJ Brown had 7 receptions for 96 yards. Senior WR DaMarkus Lodge had 6 receptions for 81 yards and freshman Elijah Moore had 4 catches for 30 yards.
We’ve watched and waited to see the tight-ends get in on the receiving action and Saturday they finally did with junior Dawson Knox getting 2 receptions for 79 yards. JUCO transfer RB Scottie Phillips had 2 grabs for 44 yards and 1 TD.
Scottie Phillips also led all Rebels running-backs with 19 carries for 112 yards and 1 TD. Freshman Tylan Knight had a good day with 6 carries for 62 yards while we saw the return of junior Eric Swinney who had 2 carries for 19 yards. Freshman Isaiah Woullard had 4 carries for 16 yards and 1 TD.
Rebels Defensive Numbers
It may have taken four weeks to do it but the Rebels defense finally held a team to under 400 yards of total offense allowing just 390 yards by the Flashes. The Rebels defense who have struggled thru the first three games of 2018 allowed just 242 passing yards and only 148 yards rushing.
The story of the day for the Rebels defense was the pressure the defensive front put on the Kent State QB. The Rebels recorded 7 sacks on the day with senior DE Markel Winters recording 3 sacks of his own. Senior Zedrick Woods had 7 tackles and 1 INT while senior CJ Moore also had 7 tackles and a fumble recovery.
Next. Season Predictions!. dark
No it may not have been very pretty yet coach Matt Luke and the Rebels got the win. Ole Miss is now 3-1 and will be back in action this coming Saturday as they travel to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers (4-0, 1-0). Please be sure to check back here at OHT or visit and like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for the latest Rebels news and updates. Hotty Toddy!