Ole Miss Suffers First Loss Of The Season

BATON ROUGE, La. (Ole Miss Athletics) – The No. 3 Ole Miss football team forced four turnovers at No. 23 LSU on Saturday night, but the Ole Miss offense couldn’t find a rhythm and the Rebels (7-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) lost their first game of the season, 10-7.

While the Ole Miss “Landshark” defense further cemented itself as one of the best in the country, the offense couldn’t get enough points to support it, proving to be the difference in the game.

“We’ve been on the good side of these for seven (weeks) in a row now,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. “This league is brutal. It is difficult each Saturday to win football games, particularly when you may not play your best, and you suffer some injuries you’re not used to having and you’ve got to play some other kids. That hasn’t happened to us this year, but give LSU a ton of credit. We knew last week they figured out who they wanted to be. That’s the best offensive line we’ve played, and the running backs were very, very good. Defensively, they’re kind of coming into their own. We obviously needed to generate some points.”

Seniors Deterrian Shackelford and Cody Prewitt each forced fumbles in the first half, while senior Senquez Golson and junior Mike Hilton each picked off passes in the second half.

Senior quarterback Bo Wallace finished 14-33 for 176 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. Wallace also ran for a team-high 40 yards on a dozen rushes.

Sophomore wide receiver Laquon Treadwell led Ole Miss through the air with 70 yards receiving on four catches. Junior wide receiver Cody Core had four catches for 45 yards, and scored Ole Miss’ lone touchdown.

The Rebels hadn’t allowed an opponent to top 200 rushing yards all season, but couldn’t stop the Tigers’ three-headed monster of Leonard Fournette, Kenny Hilliard and Terrence Magee, who led the way for LSU en route to 264 rushing yards. In doing so, LSU (7-2, 3-2 SEC) won the time of possession battle by 12 minutes despite logging just three more total plays.

Ole Miss was fortunate in the first quarter to escape with a 7-0 lead. On its opening drive, LSU drove down to the Rebels’ 12-yard line, but missed wide left on a 28-yard field goal attempt. Then, on its second drive of the game, LSU again drove down the field, but fumbled at the 1-yard line and Prewitt recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback.

The Rebels’ offense took advantage of the turnover, going 80 yards in six plays, finishing with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Wallace to Core. It was Core’s team-leading fifth touchdown reception of the year.

LSU got on the board with 2:47 remaining in the half on a 21-yard field goal to cut the Ole Miss lead to 7-3 going into the break.

After a scoreless third quarter, LSU seized the lead in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Logan Stokes with 5:07 remaining.

Ole Miss couldn’t answer the Tigers in the fourth quarter, as Wallace was intercepted with two seconds left, marking the first time all year he has been picked off in SEC play.

The Ole Miss defense, which entered Saturday night tied for the lead nationally with 15 interceptions, now has 17 picks. The Rebels have also now caused a turnover in 31 consecutive games, which is the second longest active streak in the country.

The Rebels will face No. 5 Auburn next on Nov. 1 at 6:00 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The game will be televised by ESPN.

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