The offensive main points were impressive on Saturday, as Ole Miss piled up 35 points and 613 total yards in its season opening 16-point loss to Florida. The Rebels mostly kept pace with a Florida attack that set the school record for passing yards against an SEC defense, and optimism is high on that side of the ball as a trip to Kentucky is up next for the Rebels.
But there's room to improve, especially up front, in week two.
"Up and down," head coach Lane Kiffin said about the offensive line. "There's some good stuff. Some good protection on some deep balls. In the run game, we left a lot of yards out there. Whether it was getting beat or not going to the right guys. It really cost us, especially in a 3rd-and-2 or a 3rd-and-1 in back-to-back drives. So, its six plays and out that we don't make the 3rd-and-1 or the 3rd-and-2 with some identification issues."
Ole Miss played its five starting offensive linemen -- which included two freshmen (Reece McIntyre and Jeremy James) making their first career starts and Ben Brown primarily at center for the first time in his career -- all 82 offensive snaps against the Gators.
Quarterback Matt Corral was 22-of-31 for 395 yards and three touchdowns but was sacked four times and faced pressure on 18 of his 42 dropbacks. Florida got to Corral three of the four times without blitzing, as the Gators brought extra pressure on only nine of the 42 Corral dropbacks, and he completed 5-for-7 passes for 71 yards and two touchdowns. All five completed passes against the blitz went for first downs.
Ole Miss, as a team, had 45 dropbacks on Saturday and faced pressure 22 times. Sixteen of those were hurries. Broeker allowed seven pressures (six hurries and one hit), while McIntyre and Newman allowed four apiece. James allowed three, and Brown had the best pass blocking day of the group, giving up one pressure.
The Rebels ran for 206 yards on 33 designed runs and quarterback scrambles for a very solid 6.2 yards per attempt. Six rushes went for more than 10 yards, and the backs shined with 4.27 yards per attempt coming after contact.
Jerrion Ealy avoided 11 tackles and 70 and of his 79 rushing yards came after contact. Corral scrambled for 76 yards with 42 of those coming after contact.
FIVE QUICK FACTS
-- Corral torched the middle of the field on Saturday, completing 19 of 24 passes for 346 yards between the hashes. He completed deep middle passes five of six times for 218 yards.
-- Jaylon Jones, Keidron Smith and AJ Finley played 78, 68 and 58 snaps, respectively, but otherwise Ole Miss did a nice job rotating defenders to keep people fresh on Saturday. Lakia Henry played 50 snaps and all other players were under that number. Twenty three defensive players were in on at least 10 snaps.
-- Florida receiver Kyle Pitts caught eight passes out of nine targets for 170 yards and four touchdowns. Seven different Ole Miss defenders were on him during those targets, and Deane Leonard was the only one to be in coverage for an incompletion.
-- Kenny Yeboah converted his five targets into five catches for 91 yards against five different defenders.
-- Receiver snap counts were divvied up as follows: Elijah Moore (78), Jonathan Mingo (76), Dontario Drummond (53), Braylon Sanders (22), Demarcus Gregory (6), Dannis Jackson (4). Running back snaps were distributed as follows: Ealy (38), Snoop Conner (32), Tylan Knight (12). One of John Rhys Plumlee's 11 snaps were in the backfield. Six were at quarterback, one was out wide and three were in the slot.