Ole Miss 40 Wake Forest 6

Ole Miss defeated an overmatched Wake Forest squad 40-6. This was the third time the two squads have played, with the Demon Deacons holding a 3-1 advantage over the Rebels.

This was an ugly game, and it was no fun to watch at all. Penalties. Penalties. Pentalites. Ole Miss, at least as far as I can tell, was running five or six offensive plays the entire game, a hitch route to the flat, a quick pass to the flat, a pass over the middle, a quarterback option play, and a hand-off up the middle. Very plain vanilla on offense to this point in the season.

The Rebels also seem coached to flop on defense. I suppose all teams to do it, not sure, but Ole Miss sure as hell does. I’m referring to players faking injury to slow down the opposing offense. Ole Miss flopped last night, a lot. I understand exploiting the rulebook to win, and I would do it, too, I suppose, but this one sucks because it slows down the game and it is cheating; yeah, it’s a rule-book glitch, an exploit. No one can prove they are flopping, but they are flopping and it sucks.

Dart went 26/34 for 377 yard, two touchdowns, and one interception. The interception was a ball he ought to have carried out of bounds and instead he forced a pass into double coverage, and it looked like a freshman mistake from this 5th-year senior. Plus, he took a legal hit that seems to have bloodied his nose, and he ripped off his helmet and postured as if he wanted to fight the defender, who hit him perfectly legally. It was a weird moment, and it actually costed the Rebels a touchdown because Dart drew a penalty for his helmet-removing theatrics. By my count, Ole Miss left two touchdowns on the field. The scoring discrepancy could have been greater.

I don’t know what to make of this game. It was weird. At no point was Wake Forest a threat, and the Rebels defense kept the Demon Deacons out of the end zone. So far, the defense has prevented its opposition from scoring a touchdown. This is a good defense. They fast, big, and they tackle.

On offense, like I said, Ole Miss seems to be running 5 or 6 plays, probably saving the playbook for SEC competition. That’s smart if you can do it. They’re winning on pure talent to this point. Next week expect more of the same against Georgia Southern, then SEC play opens with a Kentucky squad that has a pretty stout defense and no offense whatsoever. They just lost to Georgia only 13-12 at Lexington. The Georgia defense limited UK to only field goals, so they are another team which has given up no touchdowns yet this season. They were probably only operating with a limited playbook, too, because they have Alabama coming up in a couple of weeks in a game I wish both teams could lose.