For a quarter, No. 15 Ole Miss looked to be in trouble.

For another quarter, the Rebels seemed to be fighting to just get to intermission in College Station.

Then, in the second half, with seemingly everything pointing Texas A&M’s way at raucous Kyle Field, Ole Miss won.

That’s the best way to put it, I think.

The Rebels simply won.

A 93-yard, third-quarter drive, one aided by three critical third-down penalties called against the home team, gave Ole Miss a 17-14 lead, one the Rebels would hold on to to scratch and claw into the open date with a 31-28 victory over Texas A&M, leaving them very much alive in the Southeastern Conference Western Division race.

The Rebels improved to 8-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC and — if anyone inside the Manning Center has any sense at all — will take most of a week off before turning their attention to No. 6 Alabama on Nov. 12.

Ole Miss had no margin for error Saturday. The Rebels are beat up and injury-riddled after playing nine games in nine weeks. The Rebels are leaning on a 19-year-old quarterback and a freshman running back, Quinshon Judkins, who turned 19 on Saturday. They basically don’t have a tight end at this point, though Casey Kelly limped off the bench and caught a critical touchdown pass on third-and-goal from the Texas A&M 1, so they’re running a four-wides offense.

Big deal, right? Well, as of now, the Rebels have — yeah, you guessed it — four wide receivers. Zach Evans, the heralded TCU transfer who has taken a bit of a back seat to Judkins, played hurt Saturday night and made several big plays in the process.

Troy Brown, the linebacker transfer from Central Michigan, didn’t start Saturday but he was pressed into action when it became very apparent early on that the Rebels’ defense might be lost without him.

Despite all of that, it was Texas A&M, a loaded roster full of four- and five-star players, that was dropping like flies with “injuries” in the third quarter. Freshman quarterback Conner Weigman, making his first college start, was excellent early but Ole Miss adjusted and slowly but surely made him look like a rookie.

The Rebels’ defense bent against the Aggies’ talented tailback, Devon Achane, but they ultimately didn’t break.

Again, the Rebels just won.

It wasn’t some incredible performance. In fact, it was more perseverance than it was anything else, but on the final Saturday in October, that might have been more revelatory of character than a dominant outing would have been.

So Ole Miss gets the afore-mentioned breather before facing Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi State over a 12-day period next month. Can the Rebels win all three? The odds are stacked against them. Alabama, which faces LSU in Baton Rouge next Saturday night, has a versatile offense and elite pass rushers off the edge, two things that figure to give the Rebels fits.

That said, Ole Miss will likely be favored against both Arkansas and Mississippi State, and while the game in Fayetteville figures to have some difficult matchups, the Rebels could easily win both of those.

If Alabama beats LSU, the game against the Tigers will be for first place in the SEC West. There’s a decent chance ESPN’s College Gameday show, which spent Saturday morning in Jackson, will return to Mississippi that morning.

If, before the season began, Lane Kiffin had been offered that scenario, he would’ve jumped at it without asking a single question.

His team is flawed. It’s more than a bit broken down. It’s oh-so-thin. But it’s going to play at home in mid-November with a ton on the line and with at least a puncher’s chance.

Who knows? Maybe this Ole Miss team can find a way to just win again.