Ole Miss vs. Kent State football 2018: Rebs pull away late in sloppy 38-17 win

It lasted a little longer than five and a half hours, but Ole Miss ultimately ushered Kent State out of Oxford with a 38-17 win on Saturday. The game was prolonged for nearly two hours thanks to lightning strikes in the area of Lafayette county, clearly a message of elemental punishment for Ole Miss’ sundry NCAA crimes.

The Rebs’ offense appeared still shell-shocked from the thrashing they received at the hands of Alabama last week, at least for the first half. The Rebel defense was not at all shell-shocked, however, because the Rebel defense does not exist.

Most frustrating about the game — besides the weather delay — was the fact that Ole Miss just couldn’t shoo Kent State out of the building with ease or efficiency. The Flashes continued to flit around in the Rebs’ field of vision through the middle quarters, and indeed resorted to a trick to play flea-flicker to a wideout to score their first points. It’s frustrating when a conference opponent pulls that off. It’s embarrassing when Kent State does.

“A win’s a win,” runs the wisdom, and sure, whatever. This week was something off a write-off game to begin with: continue to work out early season kinks, recover from Alabama, stay healthy, and try a few things with LSU scheduled for next week. That’s what the boys did, and now they’re on to Baton Rouge.

We even got a handful of glamorous downfield plays on offense.

D.K. Metcalf remains a dangerous deep-ball threat.

If there’s one thing that can wash a bad taste out of a Rebel football fan’s mouth, it’s an enormous D.K. touchdown, topped with a one-handed catch to boot.

Just really impressive stuff. Ole Miss Athletics photographer Joshua McCoy also popped off this frame, which is now your favorite piece of Rebel football visual art.

Despite the long weather delay, Ole Miss took over in the second half.

That Metcalf TD grab spurred the Rebs to pour 24 more points on top of Kent State, which could only manage a touchdown for the remainder of the proceedings. Jordan Ta’amu finished the day with 442 yards passing on 28-of-38 attempts. He threw a pick and two touchdowns, one to sudden breakout star Scottie Phillips, the JUCO transfer’s first receiving touchdown.

At last, we’re on to LSU.