What I saw last night was that they were focused on shutting down our run game and making Leavitt pass. Which was very predictable after La Tech did the same thing to us with much success. I told my buddies before halftime that we'll be fine once emotions settle down and we get the run game going which I was pleased to see is what happened. As for passing game, again, it's been obvious through the season that Leavitt's ball placement esp on deep balls but even intermediary throws isn't good. Again no surprise there.

But our OL play has been a concern all season. Even after Clemson Kiffin said our guards have to play better. After the game, the Ole Miss DT Echoles basically said in a nice way that our guards weren't good and they took advantage. Sam can be electric when the play breaks down, but he's not gonna win you a game when he's forced to throw the ball. At least not yet, so we need a running game. But just like last year, QB can't do much when he has no time for plays to develop. Sam obviously has way more agility than Nuss, so he can avoid the sack, but he has a tendency to scramble as soon as there's any pressure. Once he does that, he doesn't really look to throw and generally just relies on his legs which isn't always ideal.

I'm hoping the QB play be coached and improved with rapport with pass catchers over time, but we're past game 3, so I'm less optimistic about that now. Our WRs haven't shown much so that doesn't help when you have a QB that doesn't place the ball well. And now it looks like Tre'dez is likely out for much of the year.

As for the defense, this may sound like a cop-out, but Chambliss was just on fire playing like an NFL QB. And sometimes, you just have to tip your cap. We contained him on the ground, but he was elite as he often is finding the open man. I was hoping with some adjustments at halftime, we can make him look more mortal which we did. But as Kiffin said in the postgame, we knew you couldn't keep him down for long. And he did enough to get the W. The defense got the pivotal turnover when we needed it to swing momentum. I don't think we'll see our defense struggle like that often because we won't see another Chambliss in Super Saiyan mode. We contained the run game overall even when Lacy was in the game and Chambliss was just too good. On a neutral field rematch, we win that game.

This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 9:25 am