Ole Miss 38 Fresno St. 28: Game Recap
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 11:24 AM EDT
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Well, Ole Miss won. You would think that these are more fun to do after wins, but I actually don't have that much to rant about, so I'm at a loss. We beat Fresno State 38-28 and put up over 430 yards of offense. There were some good things and some bad things, so I'll just make a few observations and leave it to you all to make the astute observations.
The obvious point is that Randall Mackey is clearly the guy. His ability to run takes some pressure off our offensive line and it also creates a distraction in the backfield. I think the running game opened up largely because we were able to line up in the shotgun and pistol formations and keep the defense guessing where the ball would. With Stoudt under center, linebackers and safeties can basically key the fullback/tight ends and then swarm to the ball. When Mackey hands it off, Fresno State had to make sure he wasn't taking off with it.
Mackey finished 8-18 for 214 yards and 1 TD to go along with 35 yards rushing on just six carries. Even though he started out slow, he came through in a big way on some third downs (we were 6-13 on third down) and was able to find receivers when he needed to.
Jeff Scott looked as fast as ever and Brandon Bolden looks like he's on the road to being healthy. Having the next two weeks to heal up should help Bolden tremendously before we get into the meat of the schedule. Scott's 69 yard touchdown run was eerily similar to some of Dexter's plays in that he got to the second level in a hurry and was gone. Having a homerun threat in the backfield really takes a lot of pressure off the quarterback, so it's been a welcome sight.
Our receivers looked pretty good. Melvin Harris is obviously a great option near the goal line and Ja-Mes Logan appears to be filling the Shay Hodge/reliable receiver role well. Donte Moncrief is a baller. I knew he was big and had good hands, but despite getting just one catch on a fourth-quarter screen, he made the most of it, running for 57 yards. His run after the catch put us in field position to go up by two scores and ice the lead.
I know Fresno State isn't a dominating team, but our offense needs to be racking up 400+ yards against that level of competition.
Our defense, on the other hand, played rather poorly. The noticeable difference between this one and last year's is that we actually will defend third and longs and we are getting turnovers. We gave up 444 yards, but made some big stops and picked up two turnovers while not giving any up. Charles Sawyer is tied for the lead in interceptions in the SEC. He has 4. Last year our team collectively had 6 picks all season. Cool. Now, for those of you who watched defense, let me know what you thought. I don't care to watch us play D, so Saturday night, I just sim'd to the next offensive possession. EA'd.
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Defense... smh
Honestly, I saw a lot of our 2010 defense Saturday. What I noticed was the secondary reverting to the “not going to look for the ball” paradigm. I hope they clear that up when they watch their film.
As a whole, I’ve been proud of our receiving corps this season. Logan, Sanders, Brassel, and Moncrief definitely oppose more of threat than last year’s Lionel and Markeith. It’ll be good to get Melvin Harris back into the rotation as well.
What about Philander Moore though? Was he not recruited as a return specialist? I don’t think he’s had a single return all season.
...I'm probably in Hume Hall
I've had a different opinion about the receivers.
Except for Logan, they’ve underachieved this year. Brassell and Moncrief definitely have talent, but haven’t really shown it much except for Brassell on special teams.
That changed on Saturday night. They all looked very good and helped Mackey out a lot for once. If they keep playing like that Ole Miss may finally start moving the ball through the air.
Tyler Campbell for Heisman.
Personally,
I think Moncrief has been pretty good.
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
He's done pretty good at times.
I’m not sure they used him well before Saturday though. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned him in that bunch.
I do think Brassell is going to be a heck of a player. He’s already one of the better players on the team.
Tyler Campbell for Heisman.
They may not be living at the maximum potential,
but my heart would jump into my chest every time a ball was thrown in Markeith “Cinder Block” Summers’ direction ,and Lionel “Moon the Crowd at the Spring Game” Breaux hardly played.
I have been disappointed with Korvic Neat, Philander Moore, and Derrick Herman though. In particular, Herman withdrew his hands from a catchable ball in the Vandy game… That’s bad.
...I'm probably in Hume Hall
by Nerd the Rebel on Oct 3, 2011 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Bleh.
Resident Fresno State fan here. You won that game fair and square, but it bordered on being handed to you. The only part of Fresno State that showed up besides Carr was our D-line, which got tired in the 3rd quarter. Our secondary stuck with your receivers but never turned around to break up the pass. The O-line protection was decent but sporadic. Rouse and the receivers needed Stickum, that adhesive NFL players used in the 80s before it was banned. The pick Carr threw was a perfect pass that that particular receiver let bounce off his chest. And Goessling missed three field goals (I think. I seem to remember a short one in addition to the one at the end of the 2nd quarter and the one at the end of the game), two of which he should have made. I have seen him make it from over 50 yards before. In addition, Pat Hill burned nearly 30 seconds at the end of the first half instead of calling a timeout. Pathetic.
And now we have a short week to deal with Boise State. Sometimes I wonder why I care.
Well.. um..
at half of your fanbase isn’t tied to a vaguely racist mascot to the point of irrational obsession!
Cheer up pal!
True, but..
I hate Pat Hill. We are going nowhere under him. Neither up nor down. His mantra is “Play anyone… etc,” Nowhere does it say anything about winning. We go 8-4 at best in season and lose in an unimportant bowl game. Maybe moving to the MWC will help with recruiting.
And I’m not knocking on your team when I say this: Ole Miss didn’t really deserve to win that game. But Fresno State deserved to win even less.
by ROFLCOPTER16 on Oct 3, 2011 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
The issue is that your argument
is basically that FSU lost to themselves. I have no qualms with saying that Ole Miss is the better team and wins 9 out of 10 with FSU. I don’t see how you can justify the statement that Ole Miss didn’t deserve to win that game.
Ole Miss had no turnovers and collected two themselves. FSU missed field goals while Ole Miss scored touchdowns when they got in the red zone. Ole Miss made big plays down the stretch, FSU didn’t. Why does Ole Miss not deserve to win that game?
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Exactly
We’ve all seen games over the years where you can really say “man, we really didn’t deserve to win that one”. This isn’t one of them. We made plays. We were better. We deserved the win.
When anyone argues
“Well if X hadn’t happened, we would have won”, I question their sense of reason and logic. I guess he hasn’t seen “The Butterfly Effect”.
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 3:34 PM EDT up reply actions
not really.
Just saying I saw so much shit I formally apologized to my parents for persuading them to buy tickets. Literally.
We deserved to win it because we made fewer mistakes than you did.
We had our own list of problems as well. The Oline played like shit (common place this year), the defense gave up huge amounts of yards, our freshman WR’s dropped balls, our best RB played hurt, our play calling in the redzone was awful, our special teams coverage was bad and we allowed several big plays from your offense. So… it goes both ways. NTTAWWT.
I can't entirely disagree it didn't look like Fresno all showed up for the game.
But Ole Miss’s defense, which isn’t great, has played decent this year and they didn’t really seem to be in the game either. Ole Miss made less mistakes than Fresno State though, and that’s a big part of football even if both teams played excellent. I’m glad the Ole Miss offense finally decided to attend a game though, because FSU would have won by 2 TDs if they’d played like they have all year (though the O-line still isn’t doing well).
I’ve seen Ole Miss legitimately give away games before. BYU was one instance. Trust me, the effort against FSU wasn’t really a case of Ole Miss doing everything they could to hand a win to the other team.
Tyler Campbell for Heisman.
If both teams had been at their best
I honestly think Fresno would have won. I will admit to a certain bias when saying this, but when ole miss was stopped, with a few rare exceptions it seemed to be actual talent on FSU’s side. When Fresno was stopped…
Missed catch and pick.
Fumble by Rouse and turnover
Fumble by Rouse, recovered for loss of yards.
Missed FG.
Missed FG.
Missed Fg
Dropped passes.
"If Fresno State
hadn’t made all those mistakes, they would have won".
You know who doesn’t miss three field goals and lose the turnover battle? Good teams like Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma. Keeping mistakes to a minimum might be the best gauge of the quality of a football team. You can’t just forget about the mistakes and then say “Without those, we were better.” If you were better, it would have been Ole Miss that missed three field goals and lost the turnover battle.
I could just as easily have argued that Ole Miss would have beaten the dogshit out FSU had we not committed 10 penalties for 107 yards. Both teams made mistakes. However, the better, more focused team made less mistakes.
As far as talent, how are you gauging that? Certainly not by the score on the field, so maybe just trying to look at the quality of players on the team? I’m not one to dwell on recruiting numbers too much, but Fresno state hasn’t cracked the top 50 in four years whereas Ole Miss has been top 25 five times in the last six years. Again, I’m not saying that translates to wins on the field, but you’re definitely the first person I’ve heard claim that Fresno had more talent than FSU.
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions
Which FSU didn't do...
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 3:35 PM EDT up reply actions
by that argument
we would have beaten georgia if those touchdowns weren’t called back.
we would have beaten vandy if we weren’t so shitty.
we would have beaten byu if it weren’t for dropped passes in the endzone.
WE SHOULD BE 5-0 RIGHT NOW
Ole Miss: Making Other Teams Feel Good About Themselves Since Forever
chelseaLhelms on the twitters yall
by Sideline Snead on Oct 3, 2011 2:46 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
Lol. Can't comment on that.
However, I’ve seen Fresno State play neck and neck with Nebraska. So I think at the very least it’s safe to say that Fresno hardly showed up whatsoever. In any case, what’s done is done, your team won, and my team is left wondering what the hell to do with a program that is stuck in place.
So, your basis for saying FSU is better than Ole Miss
is that they narrowly lost to a team that lost 48-13
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
we feel the same way too about the rebels..
except it’s like “how the hell do we stop this train wreck of a football club.”
Ole Miss: Making Other Teams Feel Good About Themselves Since Forever
chelseaLhelms on the twitters yall
by Sideline Snead on Oct 3, 2011 3:39 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I'm sorry
But you’ve lost to two shitty Ole Miss teams. I disagree with your insinuation that FSU is more talented. It’s not like we won on a string of fluke plays. And last year wasn’t even close.
Y'know, at least you guys had reliable shit.
I figure, Fresno State could at least not tempt us with delusions of grandeur by alternating week to week.
Anyone else
think Sawyer’s post INT bow didn’t deserve a flag? He has bowed after all four of his picks this season, but this is the first time it drew a penalty. I thought the unsportsmanlike conduct was BS. He bows to his teammates. It’s not like he’s taunting opposing players or fans.
Yeah, it's a bad call, but that's a product of the rules...
One of the hallmarks that they look for with those penalties is “drawing attention to oneself…”. It’s left up to the discretion of the referees, which, in my opinion, is one of the banes of officiating calls like that. I understand that there are lots of old men in the NCAA who remember when celebrations were minimal (mainly because games ended 6-3). I think the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in general are bullshit. It would take a player running along the opposing sideline throwing the finger for me to be like “well, that’s fucking distasteful”. When kids get penalties for having fun, I get really pissed.
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Bad deal
but it is a rule. There were several other times the refs could have called us for taunting but didn’t. We will get those called against us in the Bama game. We need to clean it up.
You can rest assured
If Ole Miss looks like they might win, that quality SEC officiating crew will be looking for anything to keep that BCS Crystal in AL.
Graduated University of Mississippi Leonard McCoy School of Medicine, 2481
by SkylarkThibedeau on Oct 3, 2011 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions
CONSPIRACY
Ole Miss: Making Other Teams Feel Good About Themselves Since Forever
chelseaLhelms on the twitters yall
by Sideline Snead on Oct 3, 2011 3:35 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Just remember
How Georgia year before last and Ole Miss last year got one of those Celebration penalties when Top Ten LSU fell behind.
Graduated University of Mississippi Leonard McCoy School of Medicine, 2481
by SkylarkThibedeau on Oct 4, 2011 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions
It was borderline.
I can’t really fault the refs for throwing the flag on it, though I think it was a bit strict. Sawyer really needs to stop it though. All it will take is for one opposing player to happen to be in the area and take offense to it and all hell breaks loose.
Tyler Campbell for Heisman.
As I understand it, the bow thing started as a joke in practice one day.
The other players liked it, so he just kept doing it. Maybe he should just wait and do it on the sideline toward his teammates.
Mackey should have been in there from the get-go.
The offense looks smoother with him in there, we looked crisp at times and that wasn’t something I ever expected from this offense. Granted it was against Fresno, but still we looked decent. That second td run from Bolden was freaking amazing, I’d love to see that in a video similar to the punt return one.
"Go then, there are other worlds than these"-The Gunslinger
Don't forget that Mackey is just as much to blame about not being in there from the get-go.
I’m not happy with our coaching at all. I think it is a huge problem. However, Mackey is the idiot that got himself benched at the beginning of the year.
Glad it’s settled though.
I'm a Rebel, but I bleed the cherry and silver of the Lobos.
so i only got to watch the 2nd half of the game
but I did hear the announcers say, “Coach Nutt said that if they can win this game, then they can really turn this program around.” And that left me thinking.. When the hell do you plan on doing that?? The next 3 games are bama, arkansas, and auburn. Maybe he meant the bye week…
Ole Miss: Making Other Teams Feel Good About Themselves Since Forever
chelseaLhelms on the twitters yall
by Sideline Snead on Oct 3, 2011 1:57 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I heard that too.
In addition to the 98 times they called the game “critical” for Ole Miss, they mentioned it could be a program-changer if Ole Miss won. That may be the first time anyone has ever had a program-changing win over Fresno State.
Tyler Campbell for Heisman.
Props to Mackey in that pic at the top for prime placement of the Ole Miss logo on that football.
Screw a laces spiral, I’m gonna pimp dis here logo n shit.
What I like is the block in the back
our lineman is apparently committing right in the foreground of the photo.
FWIW
There’s no blocking in the back at the LOS.
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees." –Jason Kidd
by Mexter Dccluster on Oct 3, 2011 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions
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