The mismatch was clear from the start as the No. 23 Rebels beat the No. 12 Bulldogs 45-14 to hand Georgia its first loss of the season.
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Smart said he did not know the severity of the injury, but said Chubb was unable to re-enter the game in the second half due to the injury. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, left, and MS head coach Hugh Freeze confer prior to their NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, in Oxford, Miss. “So we’ll go back to look at it, learn from it and we’ll be all right”. Anyone who watched Kelly and his pass-catching targets toy with a flimsy Georgia defense knows Ole Miss will be a handful for every team it faces the rest of the way.
Kelly torched the Bulldogs secondary.
The game was nothing less than a statement victory for Ole Miss.
Down 24-0 in the second quarter, Isaiah McKenzie dropped a pass in the end zone on fourth down immediately after dropping one on third down.
Offensively, Ole Miss football is averaging 325.3 yards in passing and 115.7 yards in rushing, and 38.3 points per game. “Growing up watching Reggie Bush, Carson Palmer and Mike Williams and all those dudes, just sitting at home watching on TV and imagining maybe one day I’ll play with them or against them. He couldn’t come back in the game”, Smart said, via DawgNation.com.
Ole Miss left Vaught-Hemingway Stadium seeming to be back on the championship track, while Georgia is searching for answers, particularly on offense. He threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns, the first of which came after Kelly escaped pressure and threw up a long, 55-yarder to DaMarkus Lodge. Quarterback Chad Kelly played a near flawless game, connecting on 18 of 24 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns, while adding another TD on a nifty 41-yard run in the third quarter. Freshman quarterback Jacob Eason had a tough day, completing just 16 of 36 passes for 137 yards and an interception.
“A lot of plays, our defensive line has to play the run”, Smart said.
Engram said he didn’t expect Ole Miss to receive as many one-on-one matchups as it did. “It’s another game. We got to stay focused”. We really never got a rhythm in the first half. As good as he is, freshmen are bound to make mistakes. “I just had to get it out”.
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After stopping Georgia (3-1, 1-1) on the Bulldogs’ opening drive, the Rebels quickly got on the board with a 24-yard field goal by Gary Wunderlich. While the SEC East is a mess, winning the division was always going to be an uphill battle. He also became the first Orange receiver to have two 200-plus yard games and four consecutive 100-yards games in a season. “This is obviously the best team we have played, and we didn’t perform real well”.
