Ole Miss Football: Grove Grinder, Not A Very Good Weekend For Some

This Grove Grinder is dedicated to a rough weekend for Ole Miss football fans with the loss to and for football fans in general.

No it isn’t easy being a Ole Miss football fan so this Grove Grinder is dedicated to a rough football weekend no matter who your favorite team is. It was a rough weekend for some college football fans. It for sure wasn’t an easy weekend if you’re a Rebels fan or a product there of. I even waited to see if my Giants would win but never fail the weekend only got worse.

My football weekend began Friday night with a local high school game. My high school team the Philadelphia Tornadoes were in action against Lake. The Tornadoes won a 35-14 decision and I believed it was a good sign at the time; I had my hopes set Ole Miss would follow suit and get a big win Saturday. No that was too much to ask.

We watched Saturday as the Rebels moved the ball at will between the 20s but they couldn’t manage to get TDs. The Rebels who were the underdogs lost a very winnable game because of some of the worst play-calling a fan could imagine. I’m sorry if you didn’t see the same thing I saw but if you go back and watch, why?

Last Week I Said…

Ole Miss Rebels

OHT did a piece last week on ‘Five Important Keys’ to beating the Auburn Tigers. OK, I may not be a coach and no I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night but I do know the game of football. Lets just see what we said last week and how the Rebels fared.

First we said the Matt Luke and the Rebels needed to go wide open and be fast, however OM controlled time of possession which we have never done under coach Phil Longo. This offense is supposed to go fast and they didn’t. When they did it was pitiful play-calling, especially in the red-zone. Strike one.

Second, OHT said the Rebels needed to be able to control the line of scrimmage on offense. Jordan Ta’amu was sacked 6 times in the game. Strike two. Third, we said Luke and Longo needed to turn Ta’amu loose. Jordan played as good of a game as could be expected with the pressure he was under. You can’t run for your life and expect to put up big numbers yet he did.

Fourth, and this bothers me most of all, we needed Scottie Phillips to get more quality touches. None of the ‘hope I can bounce outside’ crap we saw Saturday. Feed Phillips and he makes things happen. If coach Longo insists on running him between the tackles then he needs about 10 more touches per game. If you want him to find the edge then call a play outside which will put his skills in play. Two receptions for 20 yards and 17 carries for 59 yards. Poor play-calling made it really tough on a very good back. Strike three.

Not Rocket Science

This is football so why try to fix something which already works? The offense doesn’t need tweaking, the offense needs something besides very vanilla play-calling against a very good coach who can make in-game adjustments. Gus Malzahn is a great coach and simply took advantage of a much younger staff. What happened to seeing what doesn’t work and changing it? The Ole Miss coaching staff stuck with a failed game plan to the very end. Strike whatever.

Two things really quick. One, the defense held Auburn to 31 points which is very good and the Rebels could have won this game if the offense had shown up. Two, there is no reason to lose a winnable game with the No.1 QB, the No.2 RB and the No.1 and No.3 WRs. Period. Hotty Toddy!