OXFORD -- No. 12 Ole Miss wrapped up a "cool day" Saturday with a 29-19 win over No. 11 Texas A&M.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin reflected on the day, the win, the Rebels' defensive effort and more during his postgame press conference.

KIFFIN: Alright, that was cool. I feel like I’m usually down in here. I feel like I’m usually like we won but then I complain about something, so I won’t complain about our red zone offense right now. That was a cool win and it was such a cool day, and I just kept thinking if we could just pull this off, whether it was 2-0 or 52-51, just to get to 8-2 with Gameday here and all of the energy like it was, it would just be amazing in this setting for that to happen. I’m not saying we were great but this is one of those steps on the path from good to great. We know that we can play really great offense when everyones healthy. We’ve seen that movie. So, to play the way we did on defense today was huge. I always look at the big picture of the season and not just the one game. That was pretty cool. I know we’re going to continue to get healthier, the receivers are coming back. That was a great game by the defense. That was a team that was playing as well as anybody in America coming in. Four wins in a row. Beat Alabama. We continued to stop them. We scored twice on defense which was amazing. We got both the safety and a touchdown. It was really neat to not just get stops, but to score on them like that.

Q: What were you envisioning for this game coming in?

KIFFIN: I don’t really do that anymore because it doesn’t work. Sometimes I think it’s going to go one way. I wouldn’t have thought that we were going to have 400 yards at halftime. That’s an 800 yard pace. I certainly wouldn’t have thought that we’d only have 13 points or whatever it was in the first half with those 400 yards. Every week is its own deal and you just never know. It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. The defense stepped up. Our second best defensive player goes out, so they’re moving and you’re thinking about how we just lost the guy who makes a really big difference out there. Guys stepped up. What an awesome play by AJ [Finley].

Q: What was working for the defense?

KIFFIN: No explosive plays. It felt like everything was in front of us. We felt good knowing that they were going to play really slow. That plays to our favor on defense because we don’t have a lot of depth as we all know. We overplay our players on defense. We’ve got some guys that are playing around 70 snaps a game, and it helps a lot when they go slow so those guys can rest and you don’t see guys like Sam [Williams] coming out a bunch and stuff like that. When we play a team like that it helps us versus when we’re playing Arkansas and both sides are going super fast.

Q: How have you seen Ashanti Cistrunk grow where he can make those big plays down there at the end?

KIFFIN: That was huge. We were down some guys today, so for him to step up like that, especially having to play another backer instead of another defensive back, was really big. He was playing Tysheem Johnson’s spot since he was out.

Q: What was your day like?

KIFFIN: I said it on the show. Chip Kelly texted me and said “you’re the first duel threat coach.” You’re picking and it’s the day that you’re playing. When I walked up there I asked if anyone had ever done that and they said that nobody had done that. Felt like some of my games were going good. Didn’t really want the Mississippi State game to go like that did. I did say what a great offensive coach Leach was though, and it was high scoring. So, maybe I’ve got a career in that.

Q: How important is it to have a guy like Snoop who maximizes his opportunities?

KIFFIN: It was big. We just needed to score. We kept getting down there. In the first half we got down there three times and had a combined three points, which is obviously an issue. We joked in the locker room about how we came off to kick and Mac [Brown] had one carry for two yards. I wish he had fallen forwards. I told Casey Kelly that he needed to start pushing him. It was just a really good game. That play where Snoop broke right there was a big relief for all of us because we had really been struggling down there. I think that and then when they didn’t get the two point conversion, because that obviously kept it a two score game. The game would’ve been over if our quarterback wouldn’t have slid the one time we didn’t want him to slide, so he could end the game with a first down, but now he wants to slide.

Q: Can you talk us through the decision to go with a fake field goal?

KIFFIN: It was something that we saw schematically. They actually went with a little bit of a different rush over there. It was supposed to look a lot different and easier. It wasn’t supposed to be that difficult, but they used a different look then we were anticipating and we were still only a foot short.

Q: Are you concerned about the short yardage offense?

KIFFIN: Yeah. We’re not making stuff and it’s an issue. Since Ben Brown went out, we’ve struggled at times inside. That was kind of our leader in there. That’s three games in a row that we’ve started someone different at guard. We’re trying to figure it out.

Q: What can you say about Mac Brown both on and off the field?

KIFFIN: Awesome to be around. We were hugging and laughing as we came in joking about the fake. It’s really special for younger kids to see someone who takes advantage of their platform like that and utilizes it to help others.