Ole Miss ends Mississippi State’s SEC West hopes
A week after Ole Miss’ SEC West dreams disappeared, the Rebels ended the division hopes of their in-state rivals by beating Mississippi State 31-17 on Saturday.
And the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff hopes are likely kaput too.
After Mississippi State took a 10-7 lead early in the third quarter, Ole Miss assumed control and rattled off 17 straight points to make it 24-10. The touchdown that opened a 14-point lead was a nifty cutback run from Jaylen Walton that went 91 yards and could have demoralized Mississippi State.
However, the Bulldogs bounced back and cut the lead to 24-17 with a touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to De’Runnya Wilson. Though Ole Miss quickly got the lead back to two possessions when Jordan Wilkins threw a halfback pass to Cody Core for the final points of the game.
Soon after the game was over, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze got a Gatorade bath while attempting to kiss his wife, Jill.
Ole Miss was victorious on the strength of its defense, which held Mississippi State to less than four yards per carry. Bo Wallace, who was injured against Arkansas, was 13-of-30 for 296 yards, but the yardage statistics were inflated because of two long catch and runs by Rebel receivers.
When Ole Miss was shut out at Arkansas last week, the loss was the Rebels’ third conference loss of the season and made winning the West impossible. Now, with Mississippi State at two losses, the Bulldogs are also eliminated as MSU loses the tiebreaker to Alabama (if it comes to that). This means Alabama will face Missouri next Saturday in Atlanta for the SEC Championship.
And since TCU, Baylor and Ohio State still all have one loss, Mississippi State is going to need some serious help to sniff the College Football Playoff now that its regular season is officially over.
At best, the Bulldogs will be seventh in the rankings on Tuesday, but there’s a chance they could be usurped by Michigan State, Arizona and Kansas State, the latter of two have big games remaining to move up even further.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
