Ole Miss improved its College Football Playoff chances with an upset victory against Georgia, which hadn’t lost to a team other than Alabama in four years.
The 16th-ranked Ole Miss Rebels defeated No. 3 Georgia, 28-10, Saturday in Mississippi.
It wasn’t the ideal start for Ole Miss after Jaxson Dart’s first pass was intercepted.
The Bulldogs promptly turned it into seven points, but Ole Miss answered right back with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive of its own. After forcing a three and out, the Rebels went on to convert two field goals to go up 16-7.
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After halftime, Georgia kicked a field goal to make it a six-point game.
On Ole Miss’ first drive out of the half, Dart completed all four of his passes, including a 10-yard score to Antwane Wells Jr. The two-point conversion failed, but it was the largest lead of the game with 6:10 to go in the third.
The Bulldogs were driving midway through the fourth quarter to find some life, but a Carson Beck pass was tipped at the line and intercepted by Ole Miss. The Rebels knocked down a chip-shot field goal to go up 25-10 with 3:22 to go.
Georgia needed a miracle. And on the second play of its next drive, Beck lost a fumble, all but icing it and prompting chants of “overrated” from the Rebel crowd. Ole Miss knocked down a field goal off that turnover to make it a three-possession game with 1:11 to go.
It was redemption for Ole Miss, which lost by 35 to the Bulldogs last year while allowing over 600 yards of total offense, the most lopsided defeat in Lane Kiffin’s tenure with the Rebels.
This also marks Georgia’s second loss of the season. It’s first was a thriller in Tuscaloosa against Alabama when Alabama erased a 28-point deficit. It’s Georgia’s first loss to a team other than Bama since it lost to Florida Nov. 7, 2020.
The win could be enough to get Ole Miss an at-large bid, and it will be interesting to see where both teams sit next week.
Georgia had an automatic bid for leading the SEC, but Texas’ dominant win over Florida gave the Longhorns a 4-1 record in conference and 8-1 overall. Georgia (7-2, 5-2) will likely be safe and have an at-large bid in next week’s rankings, but it has another tough test in just seven days that could knock it out if things go poorly.
At the very least, Georgia’s SEC title game hopes dwindled because four other teams in the conference have just one loss against SEC rivals. Georgia is now behind Texas A&M, Texas and Tennessee in the conference.
Ole Miss is off next week, and the Bulldogs will host Tennessee in yet another top-notch SEC bout that will affect playoff seeding.
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