THE GOOD 
There was a point were it looked like we were going to absolutely blow Vandy out in the first quarter. Solid opening drive results in a field goal. Peria Jerry strips Vandy's qb and runs it in for a touchdown. Burnell Mike Wallace takes one of the most the most exciting returns I've seen right down the side line blowing past the defenders. Vandy fumbles on their kickoff return. It looked like we were going to go up big. Then Jevan folded.
But the running game looked amazing. Now that we're four games in it appears we have found our identity. We have two great running backs and another really solid freshman running back with promise to be great. Not to mention Dexter's rushing stats. Vandy could not stop us running the ball. For a team they ran at five yards a carry. Cordera averaged a sick 7.3 yards per carry on 14 carries for 88 yards. Bolden ran 8 times for 44 yards on a 5.6 yards per carry average. The team ran for 241 total yards. Amazing to believe they lost with 241 rushing yards. Eason and Bolden have both run for over 200 yards this season averaging around 5 yards a carry. That's remarkably solid.
The way this team runs. The way the offensive line run blocks. The stable of solid running backs. This team has to go back to Houston Nutt football. Control the clock, wear the defense out, and rush over 40 times a game. Grind it out and keep the defense off the field and the ball out of the quarterbacks hands except about 10 times a game on quick hitting routes and deep attempts to Burnell Mike Wallace to keep the defense looking for it. Other than that continue to pound the ball. Its the only chance they have.
The defense actually played great. Again its unbelievable that the Rebels lost. Now that the defensive line is fully back and healthy they are proving to be the dominate force we thought they were. They are stellar against the run and get a good pass rush to help the secondary. They won't do well in track meet games but if the running game can keep them fresh and of the field they will keep the score down. Powe played a good game and made a few big stops. With Peria, Hardy, Tillman, Powe, Laurent, Lawon the Manatee, Lockett and Stephens we've got great depth and performers. They completely dominated Vandy's offensive line. Peria had 6 tackles and Laurent had 5.
Kendrick Lewis and Jamarca Sandford were again the top two tacklers. It's no surprise they are the top two for the season as well. Fein and Cornell basically split so that Fein takes the obvious rushing downs and Cornell the obvious passing downs. They average about 10 tackles a game and it kind of works. Ashlee Palmer has regressed from last year. He has fewer tackles than Fein despite twice the playing time. Brumfield and Walker at the other position are only picking up about two tackles a game. Same with Trahan. The Cornerbacks are doing a good job so far of avoiding giving up the big play. All things considered the defense is playing better and better every game and is better than expected before the season.
But the running game looked amazing. Now that we're four games in it appears we have found our identity. We have two great running backs and another really solid freshman running back with promise to be great. Not to mention Dexter's rushing stats. Vandy could not stop us running the ball. For a team they ran at five yards a carry. Cordera averaged a sick 7.3 yards per carry on 14 carries for 88 yards. Bolden ran 8 times for 44 yards on a 5.6 yards per carry average. The team ran for 241 total yards. Amazing to believe they lost with 241 rushing yards. Eason and Bolden have both run for over 200 yards this season averaging around 5 yards a carry. That's remarkably solid.
The way this team runs. The way the offensive line run blocks. The stable of solid running backs. This team has to go back to Houston Nutt football. Control the clock, wear the defense out, and rush over 40 times a game. Grind it out and keep the defense off the field and the ball out of the quarterbacks hands except about 10 times a game on quick hitting routes and deep attempts to Burnell Mike Wallace to keep the defense looking for it. Other than that continue to pound the ball. Its the only chance they have.
The defense actually played great. Again its unbelievable that the Rebels lost. Now that the defensive line is fully back and healthy they are proving to be the dominate force we thought they were. They are stellar against the run and get a good pass rush to help the secondary. They won't do well in track meet games but if the running game can keep them fresh and of the field they will keep the score down. Powe played a good game and made a few big stops. With Peria, Hardy, Tillman, Powe, Laurent, Lawon the Manatee, Lockett and Stephens we've got great depth and performers. They completely dominated Vandy's offensive line. Peria had 6 tackles and Laurent had 5.
Kendrick Lewis and Jamarca Sandford were again the top two tacklers. It's no surprise they are the top two for the season as well. Fein and Cornell basically split so that Fein takes the obvious rushing downs and Cornell the obvious passing downs. They average about 10 tackles a game and it kind of works. Ashlee Palmer has regressed from last year. He has fewer tackles than Fein despite twice the playing time. Brumfield and Walker at the other position are only picking up about two tackles a game. Same with Trahan. The Cornerbacks are doing a good job so far of avoiding giving up the big play. All things considered the defense is playing better and better every game and is better than expected before the season.
THE DUDE
The Game Ball has to go to Peria Jerry. He had a mammoth night collecting 6 total tackles, 2 and half that went for a loss. He also had the already mentioned strip and score. Just an all around great game.
THE BAD
I have never seen a worse performance out of a quarterback. Had it not been for Snead the team would have clearly won. It normally would clearly be the "ugly" if it wasn't for the fact that the rest of the team played very well an enough for a double digit win. McCluster was credited for a fumble and Marshay really did fumble. Both were bad. The Rebels could have overcome both.Snead's performance on the other hand was the kind that you can simply not overcome. When your quarterback throw four credited interceptions and a fifth that the receiver strips the defender back for you its hard to win. When all of his completions were the result of amazing plays by the receivers to make a play on the ball its hard to win. When you combine the two it is impossible to win.
My favorite statement of the night was when someone compared him to Brett Favre saying he was just trying to much. Um no. Brett Farve tries to much and throws a bullet into triple coverage deep. Jevan telegraphed who he was throwing to, the came out of his had in a wobble, and other than the punt looking hail mary didn't go deep. If attempting a ten yard pattern was trying to much he doesn't need to be a quarterback.
It seems like Snead has a lot of the physical attributes to be a quarterback. He's got some mental block now and after a game like that its hard to get over it. Its affecting his mechanics and he's not using his legs like he should. He throws with his upper body completely and it makes his passes wild and wobbly. He's developing into a Ryan Leaf like case and somehow Kent Austin has to fix it. In the pros mid way through a game like that you pull the qb to protect his psyche. Unfortunately the Rebels don't really have another option right now so Snead has work it out.
Ole Miss dominated Vandy in every aspect other than penalty yards and turnovers. Vanderbilt was just smart enough to quite throwing the ball. They recognized the weakness and just waited for Ole Miss to throw it away. The one part of this I blame on the Fox is that he continued to throw the ball in part because the Rebels were behind. Regardless he did enough to put them in position to win and I don't think the Fox makes this mistake again. I expect them to run the ball into the ground in the future.
THE UGLY
I hate to harp on the refs but this is becoming to much of a recurring theme with the entire SEC. The referees in the league are terrible for every team. The replay officials are even worse. Sadly for the Rebels they get more than their fair share of these terrible calls. The commissioner's office has to do something to keep from embarrassing the league.The two biggest offences were 1) a non call on a hit out of bounds where the Vandy defender clearly hit Eason out of bounds close to the endzone. It was blatant, obvious, and egregious. But no call was made. Instead the refs called a late hit on the very next series on the Rebels almost as a screw you to all of us in that very endzone yelling at the refs.
And 2) Dexter was down. He went down on the two popped up again and was stripped in the air subsequently. It's clear as day in the photo below. Has a knee down and control of the ball. If some yahoo with a DVR and the Comcast replay can get the screen caps to prove this why can the replay official. Its absurd and completely ruining the integrity of the conference.
Sadly this game also shows that the Rebels aren't in line for a quick fix. They have a few years to go before they can return the respectfully mediocrity of the Cutcliffe years.
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