Ole Miss left Saturday night with more than a top-15 win. The Rebels also kept their playoff road in clear view.
What looked like an elimination game in Week 7 ended in a surprisingly lopsided 28-point victory for Ole Miss, which moved to 5-1 and collected its third SEC win of the season. Missouri dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
The Tigers are not officially out of the postseason picture, but the loss in Oxford makes the climb much steeper. Missouri likely can’t absorb another defeat if it wants to stay in the College Football Playoff conversation, and the road ahead is unforgiving with Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma still on the schedule.
Ole Miss has its own demanding stretch coming up, with Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma still ahead, plus matchups with Auburn and Mississippi State. The difference now is margin. The Rebels still have a little of it; Missouri essentially doesn’t.
That matters in a conference where there’s barely room to breathe. Even with Texas and Georgia taking losses in Week 7, the SEC path remains a grind, and it’s unlikely anyone cruises through unscathed enough to lock down a playoff spot in emphatic fashion.
For now, Ole Miss gets to enjoy the win before turning quickly to Texas. On Sunday, the focus shifts to a Longhorns team that Trinidad Chambliss described as fired up after losing to Florida.
“Whenever you go on the road in the SEC it’s definitely tough to win, especially it being a night game. Them just losing to Florida, so I know their blood is probably boiling right now,” Trinidad Chambliss said about the upcoming meetup with the Longhorns.
“Emotions are probably high down there and they’re probably going to have a really good week of practice. We have to as well too.”
The Rebels had two big reasons to like the night: the defense blanketed an offense that had real substance, and Chambliss posted a 200-yard, four-touchdown game that still wasn’t his sharpest outing.
Even with the scoreline in hand, Ole Miss isn’t treating this as a team that has arrived and can coast. Chambliss made that clear, too.
“Yes, we got the win. Yes, we won by a lot, but we can’t get complacent,” Chambliss added.
“(Texas has) a really good defense. Their edge rushers are really good.
They got a really good head coach in Coach Sark. Their quarterback Arch is good too.
You really can’t look at records in the SEC because everyone is elite.”
That’s the part Ole Miss can take away from Saturday: after six games, everything it wanted at the start of the season is still sitting there in front of it.
In Other News...
Missouri's Loss Exposed An Ole Miss Problem Tigers Couldn't Contain
Missouris defense found out the hard way just how many different ways Ole Miss can hurt an opponent. Even with injuries limiting Edwin Joseph and Kewan Lacy, the Rebels still got steady production from Joenel Aguero on defense, a big receiving night from Caleb Cunningham and enough from Lacy on the ground to keep the Tigers chasing for much of the afternoon. It was the kind of win that reminded everyone Ole Miss can survive bumps in the lineup and still dictate the terms of a game.
What stood out afterward, though, was how the Rebels still left room for more. Deuce Alexander had a quieter outing than usual, but he remains a key part of the offense, and that matters as Ole Miss keeps pushing into the heart of the season. If the Rebels can keep getting impact plays from different spots even when injuries show up, the bigger question is how much more dangerous this group becomes once the offense is fully healthy and clicking at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Suddenly Has A Kewan Lacy Concern Fans Feared
Kewan Lacys status was already something Ole Miss fans had been tracking closely before the trip to Missouri, and Friday night added another layer of concern. The running back went down with a lower-body injury in the first half on Oct. 17, was evaluated on the field and wound up missing most of the second quarter before returning after halftime.
For a Rebels offense that has already had to manage Lacy through a shoulder issue earlier this season, it was another reminder of how fragile the backfield can be. He had already sat out the previous game against Florida, so even though he came back in the second half, his availability moving forward is now something Ole Miss will have to monitor carefully. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Sent A Serious SEC Message Against Missouri
Ole Miss keeps stacking up the kind of wins that get attention in the SEC, and Saturdays 21-3 result over Missouri felt like another clear step forward. At Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the Rebels controlled the game on both sides of the ball, backing up their recent momentum with a performance built on physical defense and an offense that found plenty of balance.
Missouri never got comfortable, with Ole Miss holding the Tigers to just 38 rushing yards while Kewan Lacy and Makhi Frazier helped fuel a ground game that piled up 223 yards. Trinidad Chambliss did the rest through the air and on the ground, throwing three touchdown passes and adding a score himself, leaving the Rebels with a statement win and a second straight victory to build on. [Read more 🡒]