Ole Miss Football: Rebels End Season With Ugly Egg Bowl Loss

Ole Miss football entered the final game of the 2018 season looking for their sixth win but instead they found another ugly loss.

The 2018 Ole Miss football season is finally over and sadly ended the way many Ole Miss Rebels fans expected. Ole Miss (5-7, 1-7) faced Miss State (8-4, 4-4) in the annual Egg Bowl and fell to the Bulldogs in a ugly 35-3 loss. It could have actually been worse but the Rebels played their hearts out until the end. It’s hard to imagine it could have been much worse than it was but when you look at the game by the numbers you can see.

Offensively the Rebels mustered just 189 yards of total offense with just 152 yards of it coming thru the air and just 37 yards coming on the ground. The high-powered Ole Miss offense managed just 13 first downs against a very stingy Dog defense. Defensively the Rebels allowed 420 yards of Bulldogs total offense giving up a whopping 309 yards on the ground. It was obvious the Rebels were totally outmatched on the field and on the sideline. However, we can take a closer look at the Rebels numbers from the 2018 season finale.

Individual Rebels Numbers

Ole Miss Rebels

We have grown accustomed to huge numbers from this Rebels offense despite losses in other games. This wasn’t the case Thanksgiving night against the Bulldogs and the high-powered Ole Miss offense was stagnant and the Rebels individual numbers illustrate it perfectly.

Senior QB Jordan Ta’amu who leads the SEC in passing was hurt early so his numbers didn’t look that good. Ta’amu completed 8 of 17 for just 87 yards with 1 INT before being replaced by true freshman Matt Corral. Corral was impressive in his first Egg Bowl completing 5 of 8 for 65 yards while also throwing 1 INT. Corral also had 4 rushing yards.

Rebels junior WR AJ Brown had 4 receptions for 61 yards while senior DaMarkus Lodge had 3 receptions for 54 yards. Junior TE Dawson Knox had 3 receptions for 28 yards while true freshman Elijah Moore had 1 reception for 11 yards.

The one bright spot on the offensive side of the ball besides seeing Matt Corral in action against the bulldogs actually came on the ground from true freshman Isaiah Woullard who had 11 carries for 63 yards. Junior Scottie Phillips had 4 carries for 1 yard while junior TE/QB Jason Pellerin had 1 carry for 1 yard. Elijah Moore had 2 carries for -2 yards.

Observations

The observations were far different against Miss State from any other game the Rebels played in 2018. There was a noticeable difference with the offense as the Ole Miss Rebels played their least productive game of the season by far. The defense which had been porous most of the season was more of the same. Despite the Bulldogs low passing yardage the defense looked as bad as they had all season. Miss State didn’t have to pass the ball because they were able to run at will.

We all knew changes needed to be made and should have been made during midseason. This is what real college football teams who want to make difference in their programs do. Well at time of this release it had been announced defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff had been terminated Friday morning. Despite McGriff being a great guy and a very good motivator he was hired into a position he simply wasn’t prepared for. We can anticipate more personnel changes coming when a new DC is announced.

Despite the 2018 Ole Miss football season being over the Rebels have a lot going on behind the scenes. Please be sure to check back here, visit and like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for the latest Rebels news and updates. Hang in there Rebels. Hotty Toddy!