Arkansas and Ole Miss suffered humbling losses last week. Two of the most entertaining teams in the sport this year, the former could do absolutely nothing against Georgia while the latter got thrown around by Alabama, as both programs are wont to do. The two sides squared off on Saturday hoping to bounce back, and by the time the game came to its conclusion, the Rebels survived in Oxford, 52-51.
The two offenses went back-and-forth all game, with the Hogs gaining 676 yards of total offense and the Rebs accruing 611, with things pretty evenly split on the ground and through the air. The scoring matched the impressive yardage, with Ole Miss up, 21-14 at the break.
In the second half, things went totally off the rails. There were 14 total possessions between the two teams, and only three of them did not end in points. Despite this, Arkansas never led, although they put themselves in position to steal a road win when KJ Jefferson punched one in to tie things up at 45 with 1:22 remaining.
KJ JEFFERSON JUKED EVERYBODY TO TIE THE GAME 😱 pic.twitter.com/t0HMMdYMBB
— ESPN (@espn) October 9, 2021
It took exactly two plays for the Rebels to go back on top. Matt Corral let one fly to Braylon Sanders, who went 68 yards and found the end zone to go up, 52-45.
MATT CORRAL OMG. pic.twitter.com/2A8NoICDwa
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 9, 2021
But the Hogs would not be deterred. The team got it down to the Ole Miss 9 with six seconds left, and while Jefferson’s first shot at the end zone was incomplete, he connected with Warren Thompson as time expired.
https://twitter.com/FTBVids_YT/status/1446925262889709571
Arkansas decided they’d need to go for two at some point and went for the win. It was all for naught — Ole Miss’ defense got pressure on Jefferson, who threw it out of the back of the end zone.
Arkansas went for two, Ole Miss wins pic.twitter.com/BGdr7cXB0e
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) October 9, 2021
Pandemonium. pic.twitter.com/hVnWWqHM3h
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 9, 2021
Ole Miss will head to Tennessee next week hoping to win their second in a row, while Arkansas has a home date with Auburn.