Ole Miss takes longer than expected to beat inferior Vanderbilt

The Ole Miss Rebels beat the Vanderbilt Commodores, 52-28. Despite the score, Vanderbilt was leading until the beginning of the third quarter. Considering the difficulty of the opponent, the Rebels downplayed their opponent for the second straight time. The prospects of the Rebels competing with the top dogs in the SEC and the college football world looked a lot slimmer after this game.

Ole Miss beats Vanderbilt 52-28

The game started out with both teams humming on offense. Despite both teams having a good first offensive drive, both struggled in the red zone and had to settle for three. After Vanderbilt tied the game at 3, the Rebels went on a solid drive but couldn’t convert on a fourth down and three. Ray Davis led the Commodores down the field and then AJ Swann threw a 36-yard pass to Jayden McGowan for a TD.

Vanderbilt was leading and the college football world was slightly paying attention. Ole Miss threw an interception on their first play of the next drive and the Commodores were able to turn that into a field goal. The Rebels woke up and Jaxson Dart threw a dart to Jordan Watkins for a 61-yard TD. Vanderbilt responded again with a TD on the next drive, making it a 20-10 game.

Dart quickly got the Rebels’ offense going the other way for a TD, and it was 20-17 at the half. Vanderbilt’s offense mightily struggled in the second half of this game. Ole Miss quickly got ahead and the game was all but over in the third quarter. Ole Miss definitely has things to work on going forward on offense.

It seems like this offense starts to shut down for quarters at a time. It happened in the second half against Tulsa and during the first quarter of this week’s game. If Ole Miss wants to compete with Alabama for the SEC West this offense needs to be on at all times. While Alabama does have its own issues, I do think that Bama will destroy Ole Miss if the Rebels don’t correct their offense.

Ole Miss certainly has a lot of potential with Jaxson Dart leading the passing attack and Quinshon Judkins being one of the better runnings back in the country. Still, I would certainly favor Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, and not give the Rebels a good shot against Alabama.

Ole Miss needs to be on their A-game when their schedule gets the hardest in November. Luckily, they have Auburn, LSU, and Texas A&M coming up before November hits and the Rebels face off against Bama. This is probably the best schedule going into the Bama game.

Auburn will be a great game to show that this offense will be able to stay consistent for all four quarters considering the Tigers allow 25 points per game. The game against LSU will be a chance to show that this offense can stay consistent against a good but not great defense.

Finally, when Ole Miss faces the Aggies, it will face a great defense (IMO). It’s like playing the easy, medium, and hard levels before facing the big boss in a video game for the Ole Miss offense. Quickly, I have been very impressed by Vanderbilt this year. A team that won 2 games last year has played a lot better this year. Clark Lea definitely has this squad on the right track.

The amount of talent that this Ole Miss team has shows it can potentially be a college football playoff caliber team. Whether they can stay consistent enough on offense to reach their potential is the question, and that should be asked about the Rebels for the rest of the college football season.