This past Saturday on September 28th, the Kentucky Wildcats went to play the Ole Miss Rebels on the road. Ole Miss was the favorite in this matchup, but Kentucky went in and shocked Ole Miss by a score of 20-17.
Kentucky is an exceptional team, despite their record. Coming into this game, they were 2-2. They lost by one point to what was the number two team in the country, the Georgia Bulldogs. The Wildcats defense shut down the explosive Rebels offense giving up just 17 points to a team who had scored over 40 points every game.
Kentucky's defense forced one fumble and gave up 353 yards of offense, but were able to hold on third downs. Ole Miss was one 1/10 on third downs in the game. And, the Rebels were only able to pick up 14 first downs. The other reason for the Wildcats win was their offense; their offense played a solid game, but they were excellent at managing the clock and didn’t turn the ball over once. The offense had 336 total yards and 22 first downs and they were 4/16 on third downs. The offense did their part and ate clock and did as much as they had to and let the defense play their game.
The Ole Miss Rebels didn't play well in the loss, but they did have more total yards of offense then Kentucky. However, they lost the turnover battle and they were bad at converting third downs. They were only 1/10 on third downs and only 14 first downs and that's not going to get the job done offensively. The Ole Miss defense gave it their all, but they weren't able to hold Kentucky's offense enough for the win.
Overall, it was a great game by Kentucky to pull off the upset and Ole Miss did all they could but the game changer was Ole Miss missing the game Tying field goal with the clock expiring. This loss for Ole Miss could very well end their playoff hopes as they are going to have to most likely win the rest of their games to make the playoff and that is going to be hard with Georgia and LSU on their schedule, which are both top 25 teams right now and will most likely stay there too.