Ole Miss falls to Georgia on the road in Athens
ATHENS, Ga. — Ole Miss learned a valuable lesson at Georgia Saturday night. To be in the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference, a team must play defense.
After being competitive early, Ole Miss was outscored 31-0 as the Bulldogs ran away with a 52-17 win at Sanford Stadium.
In the first half, the two-time defending national champions had five drives with four of them resulting in touchdowns. Georgia racked up 214 yards passing and another 90 on the ground. Ole Miss did not have a tackle for loss nor a sack in the first two quarters.
But the game looked as if there would be no defense at all.
Ole Miss opened the game with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that was highlighted by a 33-yard completion from Jaxson Dart to Caden Priestkorn to get the Rebels inside the Georgia 5. After a penalty nullified an Ole Miss touchdown run by Quinshon Judkins, the sophomore took care of the scoring on the next play with a 15-yard touchdown run.
Caden Davis hit the conversion and Ole Miss led 7-0 early.
Moments later, the Bulldogs had tied the score on a Daijun Edwards one-yard run and the conversion indicated a track meet was underway.
Yet on the ensuing drive, Ole Miss went from a 100-meter dash to a shot put contest. The Rebels lost possession after a failed fourth-down conversion attempt and after Georgia took over, the Bulldogs unleashed their sprint team.
On its next drive, UGA’s Ladd McConkey gave the Dogs the lead on a 29-yard reception and after the kick, Georgia led 14-7.
Ole Miss did not surrender, however. The Rebels mounted another long drive that led to a Judkins touchdown and after Davis nailed the extra point, the game was tied again at 14.
McConkey put the Dogs back in business with a 41-yard catch to set up Georgia at the Ole Miss 2. Two plays later, Edwards blasted into the end zone for his second touchdown and UGA led 21-14.
UGA stretched the lead late in the first half with a six-yard run by Kendrick Milton and Georgia had a commanding 28-14 advantage. That score stood at the half.
Things did not get better for the Rebels after the break.
Halfway through the third period, Milton exploded through the middle of the Ole Miss defense for a 33-yard touchdown run and suddenly the Rebels were down 35-14. By the end of the third quarter, Georgia was up by 24 points, 38-14,
The onslaught continued in the final quarter.
Coming off ankle surgery, Brock Bowers caught an 8-yard touchdown to end all doubt of the outcome.
Davis did add a measure of respect for Ole Miss with a field goal midway through the fourth to cut the deficit to 45-17.
The final was 52-17 to send Ole Miss to an 8-2 record. Georgia improves to 10-0.
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
