Ole Miss was strongly in the conversation when it came to a New Year’s Six bowl bid going into Saturday’s game with Arkansas. But the Rebels emerged with their third loss of the season, which now is at a crossroads of sorts.
Here are five takeaways from the Rebels’ loss.
An unusually slow start hurt.
Ole Miss usually gets out to a fast start. That wasn’t the case Saturday night. Instead, Arkansas was the aggressor and it helped the Hogs to the win. Arkansas outgained Ole Miss 188-86 in the first quarter despite the teams basically having the same number of plays (Arkansas had 19, Ole Miss 17) and led 14-6; the Hogs increased the lead to 17-6 less than a minute into the second quarter.