Thoughts on Louisiana/Ole Miss – From the Bird’s Nest

Before the season I said I believed the Ole Miss Rebels might be one of the nation’s surprise teams in 2014.  Time will tell whether I’m right about that.  The SEC West is pretty brutal.  Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and LSU are all ranked ahead of the Rebels.  Mississippi State is much improved.  Even Arkansas is better.  But, one of the reasons I said what I did was because of the schedule.  Ole Miss gets both Alabama and Auburn at home.  And, they avoid South Carolina, Georgia and Florida out of the East.

Ole Miss was one of the few teams in the SEC returning its starting quarterback.  Bo Wallace during his career had sometimes been inconsistent.  But he’s a good one, as Boise State found out in the fourth quarter.

Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns were up in Oxford this past weekend.  Before the season, there were some who felt the Cajuns just might sneak into Oxford and sneak away with a win.

Honestly, I was not one of them.

If the Cajuns were going to have a prayer, they were going to have to play perhaps their best game in the three-plus years under Mark Hudspeth.  And, Ole Miss was going to have to help them.

Instead it was the Cajuns who did the helping.  Wallace showed why he’s one of the SEC’s best.  And it was over early.  The Cajuns had one real shot, which ended at the Ole Miss five yard line on an Alonzo Harris fumble.

Now, I understand that fans want their team to be competitive.  If their team is going to lose, they want their team to look good doing it.  Blowouts hurt their egos.

I’m not one of those people.  As a fan and as a sports journalist, I’m not into playing close.  I’m not into moral victories.  And, my ego doesn’t get squashed in a game that turns into a rout.  For me, 56-15 isn’t any different from 21-20.  It’s a loss.

Some of what we saw Saturday is what we saw against Louisiana Tech the week before.  Poor play by the secondary.  Not much of a pass rush.  Too many big plays given up.  Poor tackling at times.

And, once again, too many turnovers.

I’m not one to just look for something positive.  In fact, if you read my analysis of the Louisiana Tech game, the only thing I was positive about was how poorly the Cajuns played.

I actually left Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with a couple of positives.  I thought the effort was good, unlike the previous week.  Daniel Cadona is turning into a real weapon as a punter.  And, the offensive line was actually quite good.  Alonzo Harris and Elijah McGuire had some room to run…in fact, the Cajuns only had one carry for loss in the game.  The O-line, along with the tight ends, did a good job of keeping Terrance Broadway upright against a very, very good defensive line from Ole Miss. And, the Cajuns did not have a single accepted penalty in the game.  I don't remember the last time that happened.  In fact, I don't know that I've ever seen that happen.

Now, here’s some (more) bad news.

The Cajuns aren’t the same without Jamal Robinson.  Not at all.  They don’t have that guy who is just going to out-athlete people as they’ve sometimes had in the past.  It’s not that the other receivers aren’t capable of making plays.  But none of them are Robinson and the news he’s going to be out another month is not good news for the Cajuns.  Without him to cover up some offensive sins, the Cajuns are going to have to rely on McGuire for their big plays because there really isn’t anyone else.  Harris is solid and will be asked to pound between the tackles more than ever.  And, he has to do it without leaving the ball on the ground like he has the past two weeks.

Terrance Broadway isn’t nearly as good without Robinson.  But the senior needs to make better decisions on when to throw the ball and when to eat it.  And, if the Cajuns are going to try and go deep, they have to make sure they have sufficiently rocked the opposition to sleep with the running game and short passing game so they can take a defense by surprise.

But, to be honest, I felt better leaving Oxford than I did leaving Cajun Field the previous Saturday.  The score might not have shown it, but the Cajuns were better in some areas than they were against Louisiana Tech.

Regardless of what the scoreboard said.