Objectively Biased with Cody Prewitt: Ole Miss defense comes to play in 37-20 win over Tulane

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. 

What is college football? When faced with this question it is easy to just think of the more glamorous aspects we see in the game today with all of the NIL deals, the flashy uniforms, and everything else that seems to grab our attention in headlines and social media. Of course all of that is fun and probably very necessary in today’s CFB landscape, but it would still serve us all well to appreciate every gameday for what it truly is: a collective effort by a group of young men persevering through relentless adversity in order to accomplish a singular goal — to win. 

Saturday’s game against Tulane was a beautiful example of this irrefutable truth of college football.

The expectations we have put on the Rebels given the success we have had in recent seasons perhaps played a part in the disappointment I am sure most of us felt at some point during the first half of the game against the Green Wave, but the truth is this was a very good Tulane team that is coming off of a historic 12-win season and a Cotton Bowl victory. 

We know with our SEC schedule that we do need early tests to prepare us for the gauntlet of teams we have to face and a test is exactly what we got! 

The first quarter offered a preview of what we should expect for the rest of the game and even glimpses into what we would have to do in order to win the game — and ultimately what we will have to do to have success as the season progresses. 

On offense we have to do a better job at protecting the QB and communicating on the offensive line. The game started with the type of beautiful offensive drive we have grown used to, but our success was then limited until the second half. The most obvious hinderance appearing to be a lack of communication from the o-line when Tulane started dialing up blitzes and showing a lot of movement up front. This is something teams are going to see on film and take advantage of until we do fix it, but we have to give a lot of credit to Jaxson Dart and head coach Lane Kiffin for not wavering in their game and eventually getting a W in the win column. 

We also have to give credit where it is due; Tulane’s defense played fairly disciplined for the entire game — and this discipline was very evident in how well they were able to limit preseason All American Quinshon Judkins’ productivity, as he is arguably one of the best running backs in the country. 

Fortunately for us, the Rebel defense came to play, too.

For the Rebels’ defense, our biggest issues this game were not keeping Tulane behind the chains and our inability at times, particularly in the first half, to get off the field on 3rd down. While we did struggle with this for most of the first half, we were able to do just that on a very important drive at a point in the game where every bit of the momentum was on the side of the Green Wave. 

With less than a minute in the 1st quarter JJ Pegues, an experienced leader on the defensive side of the ball, came through with a huge sack to stop a drive that I am convinced could have very well changed the course of the game:

The remainder of the first half was not quite as eventful in the way of potentially influencing the outcome of the game and was somewhat of just a power struggle for which team would be coming out of the half with the most momentum, setting the tone for the second half. 

This task of gaining the upper hand on momentum to start the second half was completed successfully in the form of another sack, this one by Isaac Ukwu for a five-yard a loss. A sack on first down may not seem too impactful but the importance of this particular sack can’t be overstated. Not only did it set the tone defensively for the rest of the game, on this drive specifically it put Tulane behind the chains affording the defense a much more favorable opportunity to get off the field two downs later.

While the defense did successfully set the tone with a sack on the first series of the half, the subsequent defensive drive for the Rebels offered some additional adversity in the form of a penalty that gave Tulane a free 15 yards. The Rebels responded to this with another 1st down sack, this time by Jared Ivey. Yes, Tulane did convert a 1st down a few plays later, but this play served its purpose in disrupting a momentary shift in the momentum, giving the defense a much better chance at keeping the opponent out of the end zone.

Just a few plays later, and thanks to the defense already disrupting the drive, the defense would have one more adversarial situation to overcome to get off the field. The Green Wave offense was likely aware of how the momentum was slipping away and in an effort to regain the upper hand, they decided to attempt a 4th down conversion. Again, however, the Ole Miss d-line showed up for the task with Cedric Johnson pressuring the QB causing an incomplete pass to get the turnover on downs.

After a much-needed trip to the end zone for the offense, and then an unfortunate turnover by the offense on their next drive, the defense is back on the field with a tie game for the first time in the game, appreciating the fact that if Tulane does not score again then they can not win.

In response to the offense giving up an interception just a few minutes prior, the defense was able to create a turnover of its own on a Deantre Prince interception for the Rebels. He provides a good return after the INT to put the offense in a position to score and start creating some distance on the scoreboard.

For much of the 4th quarter, the Rebel offense kept the spotlight to themselves, but the defense did get blessed with some more adversity late to build on the performance they’d already had. 

With just a few minutes left in the 4th quarter, we found ourselves backed into our own red zone and it was obvious our defense was not going to compromise the integrity of an overall good defensive outing by giving up cheap points at the end of the game. This stand started with sold pass coverage and pass break up by Deantre Prince who undercut the route beautifully in man coverage.

Two plays later, the unwillingness to allow Tulane to score remained, this time with another stout effort by the d-line. On 3rd down of this red zone defensive stand that we started so well, Tulane tried a back shoulder pass at the pylon that is usually a fairly safe play for QB’s, but in this case our d-line was able to put enough pressure on the QB to force an inaccurate pass. This forced a Tulane field goal attempt with 3:00 minutes left in the game.

If the game ended after that drive, I would absolutely be pleased with our performance on defense for this game, BUT this is the Landshark Defense and it decided to reinforce this identity by putting an exclamation point on the day. 

With less than 2 minutes left on the clock, Khari Coleman forced a fumble and Jared Ivey put to work the scoop-and-score drills we did every day in practice, scoring the touchdown on what he calls the “thick six.”

Final thoughts

On the offensive side of the ball, I was very happy to see Dart showing just how much progress he has made since last season. Despite being under constant pressure for the entire game, he remained calm and unfazed. He showed he can lead not only in games like week 1 where we are seemingly just padding the stat book, but more importantly he showed he can lead in the games that are tough and the adversity is unrelenting. 

We have some work to do up front so we can get Judkins back in our games so he can be the explosive back we saw last season, but that will come as this group continues to play together. Coach Kiffin said today this week they are working on it and, unlike the passing game, the running game takes everybody. 

“The running game is different than the passing game…it takes everybody. You can be a great running back and not be having success because it takes everybody around to block, perimeter blocking — not just O-line. We have to do a better job. We were very disappointed last week,” Kiffin explained. I have no doubt that will be addressed this week.

The defense played fairly consistently disciplined football and is continuing to build its own legacy as a group. This defense is going to give Dart and the offense a lot of opportunities to win us some games this season. We have the leadership on defense — and that leadership just has to keep everyone focused on being consistent and disciplined week after week.

Hotty Toddy!