A new heartbreak finish for Rebels
LSU rallies, escapes with shootout win
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BATON ROUGE, La. — The Ole Miss football staff gathered early Saturday morning at the team hotel, with first-year head coach Hugh Freeze getting final updates on the mental and physical status on each position of his team from various assistants.
By meeting’s end, one thing was clear. The bruised, battered, depthdepleted Rebels were being held together by adhesive tape and heart.
Yet as darkness fell on Tiger Stadium Saturday night, just two things kept 19-point underdog Ole Miss from upsetting the No. 7 BCS ranked Tigers in a heartbreaking 41-35 loss: The ghost of Billy Cannon returning a punt 89 yards for a touchdown and a controversial roughing the passer penalty.
The Rebels (5-6 overall, 2-5 in the SEC’s Western Division) trailed just twice in the game, the final time on LSU running back Jeremy Hill’s 1-yard gamewinning TD leap with 15 seconds left.
“We were shorthanded, but our kids fought for our university and our fans,” said Freeze, whose team suffered more growing pains, losing for the third time this season after holding a fourth-quarter lead.
“We just can’t seem to get the stop or the touchdown when we have to have one,” he added, “but we played one of the top teams in the country at their place toe-to-toe.”
Despite starting quarterback Bo Wallace playing with such an aching throwing shoulder that Freeze didn’t know beforehand how long Wallace might last against the physical Tigers (9-2, 5-2 in the SEC West), Ole Miss did more than enough to overcome giving away 13 points off turnovers.
The Rebels scored more points on LSU than any other team this year and outgained the Tigers 463427.
Time after time, the Ole Miss produced clutch plays, such as a 97-yard scoring drive just before the half that produced a 21-17 halftime lead. Or a 65yard TD march that lasted just 27 seconds to give Ole Miss its last lead at 35-28 with 11:11 left to play on Wallace’s 30-yard strike to Donte Moncrief.
“Hats off to the gutsy Ole Miss team,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “It seemed like it was their night.”
Even after LSU pulled into a 35-35 tie with 9:10 left to play on Odell Beckham’s 89-yard punt return — the same length as former LSU Heisman Trophy winner Cannon’s famous 1959 return against the Rebs on Halloween night – the Rebels fired right back.
In fact, after Ole Miss linebacker Mike Marry recovered a LSU fumble at the Rebels’ 32 with 7:18 left, it took the Rebels just two plays to reach the LSU 16 after a 47-yard Wallace to Randall Mackey pass.
“At that point, it was over to me,” said Mackey, a Louisiana native. “But we let it slip away.”
Following Mackey’s play, Wallace, who threw for 310 yards and two TDs, and ran for 54 yards and two more scores, was sacked on consecutive downs for losses of 11 and 7 yards.
That put Ole Miss on the edge of Bryson Rose’s field goal range and the senior placekicker sailed a 53yard attempt wide right with 4:18 left to play.
It was more than enough time for the Tigers to patiently pick apart an exhausted Rebels defense, which played most of the second half without its best pass defender after cornerback Charles Sawyer injured a shoulder.
Though LSU got the last 19 yards of the 64-yard game-winning from runs by Hill, it was a questionable roughing the passer penalty against Ole Miss’ Denzel Nkemdiche that moved the ball from Ole Miss 35 into field goal range at the Rebels’ 20.
Freeze said he was told by an official that there was helmet to helmet contact, though replays didn’t show that.
“I hit him (LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger) in the chest with my facemask,” Nkemdiche said. “I’m so short (5-11), I would have had to have jumped to hit him.”