Ole Miss did not play its best, still crushed Wake Forest on road

• The reality is there’s value in winning big in spite of suboptimal play.

Sometimes there’s a little shine within the slop.

Ole Miss trashed a Power 4 opponent by five touchdowns on the road. Achieving that result without playing your best football – anywhere near it – is some consolation but not enough to rest and feel satisfied.

From an efficiency standpoint, the Wake Forest game was the one the Rebels had avoided. Quality of opponent had a hand in how things played out too.

ACC coaches picked Wake Forest 15^th out of the re-worked league’s 17 teams. The reality is Wake, though 4-8 last year, has won seven or eight games in most of Dave Clawson’s 10 seasons as coach.

It wasn’t an Alabama or Texas A&M type of road atmosphere, but Wake was an opponent with well-coached FBS-level players. The Rebels didn’t maintain their first-quarter intensity throughout the game. They were too handsy in the secondary, and that was a big part of their inexcusable 114 yards in penalties.

Through it all, the shine came from the defensive line. That’s where the Rebels were most consistent, again holding their opponent to fewer than 50 rushing yards.

Against the pass, Pete Golding brought a lot of pressure. When the Rebels didn’t get there, Wake effectively worked the short passing game and the middle of the field. But often the Rebels did get there with four sacks, five tackles for loss and eight pressures.

Wake moved the ball deep into Rebel territory several times but either failed to convert on fourth down attempts or had to settle for field goals. 

Through three games, Ole Miss still has not allowed a touchdown and is outscoring opponents 168-9. That tally of points allowed puts Ole Miss second in the nation behind only an Ohio State team that did not play on Saturday.

“That was a good offensive line. I think they’re going to do good things this year on offense. Our scouting reports are high on their players on the offensive line,” said Head Coach Lane Kiffin, who also praised Wake’s offensive skill players.

The Demon Deacons were coming off a one-point loss at Virginia in which they put up 30 points.

It was a solid outing for both Ole Miss lines, a signal that “Operation Fix the Trenches,” launched by Kiffin after last year’s massive loss at Georgia, is trending the right way.

Wake didn’t camp in the Ole Miss backfield. Jaxson Dart usually had good protection, and Henry Parrish usually had running lanes.

The intensity drop was most visible from Dart and in the defensive backfield where there were multiple holding and pass interference calls.

“I thought Jaxson had two critical mistakes. He got a little bit lax there. He was kind of playing down to the situation which is something we emphasize all the time, that just because the score is going one way you’ve still got to take care of the ball,” Kiffin said.

Dart hit on 76% of his pass attempts (26-for-34) for 377 yards and two touchdowns. 

No sooner had television announcers on the CW (insert Buffy the Vampire Slayer joke) explained that Dart had just passed Eli Manning for consecutive throws without an interception, he forced a throw into coverage and was picked off.

The reality is there’s value in winning big in spite of suboptimal play. Elite teams will learn from efforts like this and keep them from becoming the norm. And Ole Miss considers itself an elite team in 2024. The Rebels’ play this far supports that theory, even at Wake Forest.

“It was a good road win, 40-6, ACC opponent. That’s a good outcome. Now there’s some stuff in there. We were a little bit sloppy,” said Kiffin in his opening statement. “But if this had been another 60-point win I probably wouldn’t have their attention. It’s good to have stuff to clean up.”

Next up is Georgia Southern of the Sun Belt Conference. The Eagles after three games rank No. 109 in rushing offense, No. 131 in rushing defense.

They were competitive but gave up 56 points in an 11-point home loss against Boise State to start the season. They won 20-17 at Nevada and won 42-14 at home against South Carolina State.

It sounds like another game in which the results of Operation Fix the Trenches will show out.

Hopefully, with the SEC opener against Kentucky looming, there will be more shine than slop as the Rebels work to stay on course for a playoff bid.

And maybe something more.