No. 18 Mississippi uses big third quarter, 9 sacks to beat Oklahoma 26-14

OXFORD, Miss. -- — Jaxson Dart threw for 311 yards, No. 18 Mississippi's defense produced nine sacks and the Rebels used a big third quarter to beat Oklahoma 26-14 on Saturday.

The Sooners were up 14-10 at the half before the Rebels (6-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) scored two touchdowns in the third quarter behind Dart and tight end Caden Prieskorn, who had five catches for 71 yards.

Oklahoma (4-4, 1-4), in its first game since last Sunday’s firing of offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, was productive in the run game in the first half but struggled out of the gate on the back end. The Sooners did not cross the 50 in the second half until the middle of the fourth quarter.

That drive reached the Ole Miss 13 but ended with three-straight sacks of quarterback Jackson Arnold and a turnover on downs.

Arnold, the Sooners' starting quarterback, at the beginning of the season, made his first start since being benched in favor of freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. in Week 5.

With Littrell out, play-calling duties were handled by Joe Jon Finley, who was tight ends coach at Ole Miss in 2020, Lane Kiffin’s first season with the Rebels.

Dart’s 24-yard pass to Prieskorn and a 1-yard run by defensive lineman and short-yardage specialist JJ Pegues, both in the third quarter, were the scores that made the difference. The Rebels were without injured star Tre Harris, who came in as the nation's leading receiver.

“We told them before once Tre wasn’t going that, ‘Hey, this needed to be a big tight end game,’" Kiffin said. “We gave it to them the first play(s) of the game. We worked the middle of the field with them. It was good to see.”

Facing the pressure of a two-score deficit the Sooners were forced to abandon a run game that was productive in the first half when OU rushed for 125 yards.

Ole Miss began the day No. 1 nationally against the run at 66.6 yards per game allowed. OU had 22 rushing yards in the second half.

“We weren’t able to put anything together in the second half against a good, experienced defense, and their explosive offensive plays were the killer,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said.

Key players remain out for Ole Miss, but the return of defensive end Princely Umanmielen was huge, Kiffin said. Umanmielen had three tackles and two sacks and was a disruptive force other times.

Ole Miss finished with 380 yards to Oklahoma’s 329.

The finish was a vastly different feeling for the Rebels.

“That’s why you coach and they play. It was not a good feeling going into a game that everybody thinks we’re supposed to win because the spread’s a certain way, everybody thinks you’re supposed to blow out an SEC team,” Kiffin said.

THE TAKEAWAY

Ole Miss: Defensive tackle Walter Nolen, the Rebels’ most highly rated transfer, limped off the field late in the first half and made the decision that he would not play in the second, Kiffin said.

Oklahoma: Arnold threw two touchdowns with no interceptions and hurt the Rebels with savvy decision-making in the run game early. He 22-for-31 for 182 yards passing.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

The Rebels could reach the top 15 and revive some playoff buzz lacking after their loss at LSU.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma: Maine Saturday afternoon.

Ole Miss: At Arkansas Saturday morning.

------

Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll