Cody Prewitt’s ‘Objectively Biased’ | A look at the Rebels’ loss to Alabama

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cody Prewitt is a former All-American safety for Ole Miss. His intensity, ferocity and talent are well-remembered and always missed. We are blessed to have Cody sharing his time and insights on games again this season. 

OXFORD, Miss. — It is never fun to experience games like this week’s loss against Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, but sometimes it is necessary to go through a loss like this to push a team in the right direction. I said prior to the game, and I do still maintain this position, that for the first time in a few years we went into the Bama game the better team. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always translate to a “W” in the win column. This isn’t a bid for some sort of moral victory — we lost plain and simple, but this year we truly lost this game more than we got beat. 

For most of the first half, the offense played about as well as I expected against a Saban defense in Bryant-Denny Stadium. We started the game fast, as usual. We even looked like we might be  beginning to re-establish our running game a little bit to complement the passing game that has been the catalyst for our offense so far this year. 

Throughout much of the season we have struggled to find our rhythm on offense in the first half, but we have managed to get on the right track coming out of the half to put points on the board. However, Bama beat us to the punch here this week. It almost seemed like the offense just expected this trend to continue because the turnover we gave up that led to the Tide’s first TD of the day was a forced throw down the field that was not indicative of Dart’s decision making this season.

Once we gave Alabama that shot of momentum, we never gained it back. Momentum is more often than not the deciding factor for a matchup of two very capable teams. Even with our struggles on offense, however, the Landshark D still gave us a chance to win this game. 

Entering the game, I was a little worried about how we would look on defense given that consistency has sort of been an issue for us this year, but the defense eased my worries some in the first half. Early in the game we were struggling a little with stopping the run, but it IS Bama. Some success on the ground is to be expected, but we never just submitted to allowing them to impose their will on the ground as they are accustomed to doing to their opponents.

On this subject I have to mention the defensive game of Suntarine Perkins. He was all over the field all day and he was doing a superb job at setting the tone for the defense early and often.  

The defense, particularly in the first half, played with this unrelenting effort — cutting multiple Bama redzone trips short — despite us losing the field position game for the overwhelming majority of the game. We stalled one of these trips early in the second quarter with a couple of tackles for loss and capped this drive with an interception for a touchback.

To close out the first half of the game on defense, we got another sack courtesy of Perkins on a third-and-five that if converted would have put Bama at midfield and likely would have led to them putting at least 3 points on the board before the half.

As for the second half, the defense did as well as it could have with the circumstances at hand. During my tenure at Ole Miss, a rule of thumb we took into the Bama game was if we can keep them below the 200-rushing-yard mark, then we would have a very good chance to win the game and I believe that still holds true. We held the Tide to 131 total yards on the ground Saturday. 

Most people would agree we had plenty of opportunity to win this game, and even after Alabama did start getting in the end zone in the second half, the Rebel defense still gave us a chance to win. When you hold Bama to just 24 points and combine that with the explosiveness and scoring ability of our offense, Ole Miss should win. 

My biggest takeaways from this game are simple. We have to find some chemistry on offense, particularly up front, so that we can get the rushing game back to form to prevent us from becoming too one dimensional. On defense, we have what we need for our defense to put us in positions to win big games, we just have to play consistently-disciplined football and keep progressing as a unit.

Hotty Toddy! Beat LSU!