On Saturday evening, there were cheers and screams that rang loud and clear from the states of Texas and Ohio. #19 Ole Miss upset #4 Mississippi State, and with the upset win, it swung the door open for the following three teams: TCU, Baylor, and Ohio State. Mississippi State held onto that prestigious # 4 spot and they had other one-loss teams from the other power conferences clawing at them.
Many individuals were looking for Rivalry Week to produce a few upsets but they were not thinking that the Egg Bowl would produce it. Ole Miss’ Jaylen Walton and Jordan Wilkins had a different mindset, and they smelled an upset from the beginning of the game. Both Walton and Wilkins had unexpected touchdowns that led Ole Miss to a 31-17 win.
In the beginning, the game looked like it was going to a defensive game, as both offenses struggled and they went into the half at 7-3. However, when the teams came back onto the field, they turned on the offensive firepower.
Ole Miss won the game despite a bad offensive performance from their quarterback Bo Wallace. Wallace only completed 43% of his passes (13 of 30). However, he did rack up 296 yards on those 13 completions. Wallace did not have a TD pass and did record an INT. Even though he did not get a TD pass, his RB Wilkins threw a 31-yard TD pass.
On the ground, Ole Miss was led by Walton who had 148 yards on 14 carries, including a 91-yard career highlight. Walton picked up a toss sweep to the right and started to cut back to the left. In a blink of an eye, Mississippi State defenders were looking to converge on him, then all of a sudden, Walton froze a linebacker with a superb cut, and he was off to the races…….and the end zone. At only 5′ 8″, Walton truly resembled the great Barry Sanders on that run.
Ole Miss also had six different individuals catch a pass, and Evan Engram was the star of the night with 5 receptions for 176 yards.
Dak Prescott tried to keep Miss State in the game with a gutsy performance but he could not pull it off. He finished the evening with 22 of 37 for 282 yards. However, he really struggled on the ground. He carried the ball 24 times for a measly 48 yards. As a team, they rushed the ball 48 times for 162 yards for a terrible 3.4 yard average.
When the final buzzer went off, Ole Miss held the trophy.
When Ole Miss holstered the trophy above their head, Ohio State, TCU, and Baylor screamed loudly because the door was now opened for them to fall into the # 4 spot. With Baylor squeaking by, TCU winning a blowout, and the Ohio State win with J.T. Barrett injury; it looks like the following order might be what the Playoff Committee will have in mind when the new rankings come out next week: TCU, Ohio State, Baylor.
Let the controversy begin.
(Featured image: Thomas Graning/Associated Press)
Comments are closed.