There were a lot of things that you could point out in today’s game as the Ole Miss Rebels beat the LSU Tigers 25-23 in a contest that featured one of the most bizarre and mind boggling endings in recent memory.
Sure, we could point out the fact that Ole Miss played well and more than deserved to win the game, as the Rebels once again got a huge performance from one of the most underrated players in the nation in the talented Dexter McCluster. We could also point out how the LSU offense again struggled mightily for the second straight week.
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But, what this game will be remembered for most is what took place in the final one minute and seventeen seconds. After a missed two point conversion that would have tied the game…the Tigers came up big, when Brandon LaFell recovered an onside kick giving LSU new life.
Down 25-23 with a buck seventeen left and two timeouts…the Tigers needed a field goal to win their 9th game of the season. On first down a pass attempt was incomplete. On second down and ten, the Tigers were able to move the ball down to the Ole Miss thirty-two yard line.
If LSU had not gotten another yard, kicker Josh Jasper would have been able to attempt a 49-yard field goal, which would’ve been well within his reach. We all know that, because he made an fifty-yarder with plenty of room to spare back in the 2nd quarter. LSU still had two timeouts left, but chose to try and pass the football.
On first down, Jordan Jefferson was nearly sacked, but managed to get the ball out and throw an incomplete pass. On the very next play Jordan Jefferson was sacked for a loss of nine yards…taking LSU out of field goal range with 32 seconds left in the game. The Tigers immediately called time out. Now forced to pass to get back into field goal range LSU ran a screen to the near side of the field that resulted in a seven yard loss.
So listen as I slowly repeat – LSU had a 1st and ten at the Ole Miss 32-yard line with two timeouts left in the game and already in field goal range. But even that strange sequence of events could not be as baffling as what we are all about to witness.
Once Steven Ridley was tackled for a seven yard loss, the Tigers still had twenty-six seconds left in the game and one time out facing 4th and 26. But for some unknown, questionable and down right inexcusable reason that we have yet to determine or gotten an explanation for, LSU did not signal for a timeout, until there were nine seconds left in the game.
Seventeen seconds…seventeen seconds…one more time people – seventeen seconds elapsed before anyone, any player or any coach signaled for a timeout. So with one final crack to try and win the game or get into field goal range, the plot thickened even more and the stupidity reached a fever pitch.
Jordan Jefferson completed a 42-yard pass to Terrance Tolliver down to the Ole Miss 6-yard line. The clock stopped as the officials had to move the chains and reset the football. LSU did not have their field goal team ready, nor did they have a play to call. They did not know what to do…and the game ended as time expired. Everyone in Vaught-Hemmingway stadium…everyone in the country…and for those who live in a far away galaxy…were all left dumfounded saying…what in the hell are they doing? They of course being the LSU coaching staff.
After the game, Coach Miles said that he had no idea where the call came for Jordan Jefferson to spike the ball.
However, video shot by a WBRZ-TV cameraman apparently shows Miles emphatically calling for Jefferson to spike the ball.
To view the video, click the following link:
www.wwl.com/Video-shows-Miles-calling-for-spike-at-end-of-game/5731289
As poorly as LSU’s offense played in the game, especially in the second half…the Tigers had a chance to win. But poor clock management, which is a direct reflection of poor coaching…cost the Tigers a chance at victory.
Now LSU faces an Arkansas team …or as coach Miles once said AR Kansas…that is playing much better than the Tigers, with the Bayou Bengals needing a win to possibly avoid another trip to Atlanta to the delicious Chick-Filet Bowl. After an embarrassing 24-16 win over La. Tech last week, and this week’s time ticking disaster…many of you will call in this show and say it’s time to get a new coach!
I myself will only say this – in his first three seasons as head coach, Les Miles posted a 34-6 record. He had two appearances in the SEC Title game, an SEC Title and a National Championship as well.
But since the Tigers 38-24 win over the Ohio State University Buckeyes back on January 7th of 2008, LSU has posted a16-8 record in their last twenty-four games.
Is it time for a change at the top? I don’t know…but from what we’ve seen in the last fourteen months, I will say that…something…definitely needs to be changed.
--Here is the Associated Press account of the game and quotes from LSU Coach Les Miles and others:
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- So many unusual things happened in the final 3 minutes of Mississippi's victory Saturday against No. 10 LSU, it got confusing.
Even for the participants.
"I don't know what all happened down there at the end," Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said. "I just know the scoreboard read 25-23 Ole Miss Rebels."
Nutt's confusion was nothing compared to what was happening on the LSU sideline as precious seconds ticked off the clock with less than a minute left and the game on the line.
The Tigers were divided over what plays to call, lost 17 seconds when the team tried for a timeout and didn't get it, and there was admittedly no backup plan when LSU went for the end zone on the last play of the game and came up short at the Ole Miss 5 with 1 second left.
"I can only tell you that the management at the back end of the game was the issue," LSU coach Les Miles said, later adding: "It's my fault that we didn't finish first in that game."
When reporters asked Miles which coach decided to try to spike the ball before the clock restarted rather than going for a field goal, he said he wasn't yet sure and would have to find out. Jordan Jefferson and the Tigers never got lined up anyway and Ole Miss earned its second straight win over the Tigers and the first at home since 1998.
Nutt has beaten LSU four straight times with Ole Miss and Arkansas and has never experienced anything like it.
"You were holding your breath every play," he said.
It was the first time Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) beat LSU (8-3, 4-3) in consecutive seasons since 1997-99. The win also gives the Rebels the inside track to second place in the SEC West, which could lead to a better bowl spot when invitations are handed out.
Until the final quarter it was a game only a defensive coordinator could love. But things got interesting fast.
First Dexter McCluster, who ran for 148 yards, completed the first pass of his career with a 27-yard scoring strike to a wide-open Shay Hodge, giving Ole Miss a 22-17 lead 29 seconds into the final quarter.
On their next drive, the Rebels appeared to put it away with a 15-play, 8:26 drive that ended with a short field goal to make the lead eight points.
Jefferson answered with a 10-play, 66-yard drive that ended with his second touchdown pass to Rueben Randle, a 25-yarder that left LSU with a 2-point conversion to tie it.
Ole Miss' Cassius Vaughn was called for pass interference on a fade to the left corner of the end zone, putting the ball at the 1. Jefferson made the same pass on LSU's second attempt, but was hurried by Kendrick Lewis. The ball and Vaughn arrived at the same time and Terrance Toliver couldn't make the catch.
But Brandon LaFell recovered the onside kick with 1:16 left at the LSU 42, giving the Tigers one last chance. LaFell gave his team another big boost when two plays later he took Jefferson's pass, broke two tackles and ran 20 yards after the catch to move LSU into field goal range at the Ole Miss 32.
Here's where it got sketchy for LSU. Kentrell Lockett forced Jefferson to throw his first pass away, then the quarterback was sacked by Emmanuel Stephens, a play that pushed the Tigers all the way back to the Ole Miss 41.
"We talked about runs," Miles said. "I felt like the quarterback could manage the situation. That was my mistake."
Miles said he suggested to assistant coaches that they call a run play at that point, but allowed a pass play to be signaled in. Jefferson completed a 7-yard pass to Stevan Ridley with 26 seconds left and Miles said he thought he heard timeout being called.
But the referees never got the message and 17 seconds ticked off the clock before coaches realized what was happening, leaving LSU with fourth and 26 at the Ole Miss 48 with 9 seconds left.
"The clock ran down, timeouts were being called verbally and I didn't relate that to the official apparently and that was the mistake," Miles said.
The team was going for the end zone on the last pass play, he said, and when Jefferson found Toliver in traffic at the 6 with a second left, the team was unprepared. Rather than run the field goal unit on field while there appeared to be confusion with the chain gang, Jordan tried to get the team lined up to spike the ball but never got the play off.
"I know there was a lot of confusion on the sideline," said Jefferson, who rallied the Tigers with 120 yards passing and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. "Nobody knew what to do."
Ole Miss fans rushed the field and celebrated with the Rebels while several LSU players dropped their helmets to the field in dismay.
Despite all the confusion, Vaughn said the Ole Miss defense knew exactly what was going on as the Tigers foundered making a final decision.
"You have to have a plan," Vaughn said. "I'm looking at the ref waiting for him to call the play. As soon as I hear the whistle and the clock went to zero, I threw my helmet and ran off. It felt good to beat LSU."
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