Tub Survives Rebels

The game was probably a little closer than Tuberville imagined it would be early in the week, as Auburn defeated Ole Miss 17-3 on Saturday. It was a game in which the Rebels really only put together two offensive drives. Most of the game saw the Rebels go three and out on offense, as Seth Adams has trouble releasing the ball under pressure. As far as the defense for the the Rebels, they held the Tigers to third and ones most of the game, but the difference is Auburn converted on just about all of those situations.

The offense saw Ben Jarvus Green Ellis gain 62 yards in a game where he was out injured for parts of the second and third quarter. Quarterback Seth Adams was removed from the game after a hard hit on him in the fourth quarter. With Adams out, Brent Schaeffer came in to connect on three straight passes and a seven yard run before throwing an interception to an Auburn defender in the end zone. That interception all but wrapped up the win for the Tigers.

The defense was led by Tony Fein who had 16 tackles on the day. This was Fein's second game in a row where it seemed like the light finally came on for him on making tackles. The defense was on the field for what felt like an overwhelming part of the game, and they seemed to handle the job pretty well. Notably absent was defensive end Greg Hardy who did not make the trip due to "violation of team rules." It is hard for a team like Ole Miss to win a game when their best defensive player does not even make the trip.

A bright spot on the day was the kicker Joshua Shene. Shene connected on a 41 yarder to end the first half before a holding penalty was called. Shene responded by making a 51 yarder, after the penalty yardage was stepped off, to end the half.

Couple of thoughts:

- I thought Coach O would have gone to Brent Schaeffer earlier in the game. I commented last week I thought Schaeffer would play and that I thought it was bad move to announce Adams the starter so early in the week. Maybe he was using some type of reverse psychology on Schaeffer who knows, but I hope he will not do it name the starter early again this week. I think the little that Schaeffer has played has been good enough to warrant at least a chance to start.

- Greg Hardy needs to pull it together. Hardy is not only hurting the Rebels, but he is hurting his pro career. The NFL is considering more and more these days the off the field character of the athletes they sign. Someone needs to tell Hardy if they have not all ready that he is really messing himself up if he wants to get drafter high in the draft. And in the meantime he is hurting his teammates on a day to day basis.

-I will continue to preach it until I am blue in the face, but early evening games are the way to go. The five o'clock kickoff was perfect, and I enjoyed every minute of it. People had plenty of time to wake up at a decent hour, drive to the game, tailgate for a little while, experience the game, and get home at a decent hour in enough time to watch the SEC night game finish up. While Ole Miss continues to remain adamant about not having night games, we continue to have a terrible atmosphere at games. For Pete's Sake change our game times next year.

The Rebels have an out of conference game this week as they play host to Northwestern State. I can only begin to imagine how few Ole Miss fans will be there. Imagine the Louisiana Tech game minus ten thousands fans in the seats. I would say it will be without a doubt the lowest attendance in the modern era of Ole Miss football.