No. 12 Ole Miss Defeats No. 11 Texas A&M 29-19

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

No. 12 Ole Miss defeated the No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies 29-19 on Saturday night inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

“That’s a cool win and a cool day,” head coach Lane Kiffin said. “I just kept thinking if we can just pull this off, don’t care if it’s two to nothing or 52 to 51, just get to 8-2.”

Kiffin added with the day like it was with the energy from GameDay and the Grove “it would just be amazing.”  

Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2 SEC) had a strong performance from the defense that was capped off by a pick-six from AJ Finley to secure the win.

The Rebels defense played lights out in the first half that kept the Aggies off the scoreboard.

“To play how we did today on defense was huge,” Kiffin said. “That was a great game by the defense. (The Aggies) were playing as well as anybody in America coming in with four wins in a row and beat Alabama.”

Ole Miss’ offense got rolling and scored 15 points in the first half. The Rebels scored 10 points in the first quarter on a field goal and a touchdown pass by Matt Corral to Dontario Drummond for two yards.

Drummond finished the game with six receptions for 49 yards and a touchdown.

“I look at the big picture of the season, not just one game and I know we are going to continue to get healthier with the receivers coming back,” Kiffin said.

Junior Jerrion Ealy became the eighth running back to rush for over 2,000 career yards on a 53-yard scamper. Ealy finished the night with 24 touches for 152 yards at half he had 122 yards on the ground.

The defense got a safety on Issah Spiller in the end zone by Chance Campbell.

“We scored twice on defense with the safety and the touchdown,” Kiffin said.

Ole Miss went into halftime with 408 yards of total offense and held the Aggies to 91 total yards.

Corral finished with 247 yards through the air and a touchdown.

In the third quarter, Jake Springer got ejected for a targeting call. 

Texas A&M’s (7-3, 4-3 SEC) quarterback Zach Calzada went 24-41 for 237 yards with two interceptions on the night.

Ole Miss’ Ashante Cistrunk came up with an interception off Calzada.

The Aggies found the end zone twice both by sophomore Devon Achane on a 24-yard run (third) and a nine-yard score (fourth). Achane carried the ball 12 times for 110 yards.

Ole Miss held Spiller to 15 attempts for 41 yards.

Ole Miss finished the game with 504 yards of offense with 257 yards on the ground and 247 yards in the air.

The Aggies were able to move the ball in the second half, ending up with 378 total yards with 141 yards coming on the ground.

Ole Miss plays host to Vanderbilt on Saturday as they close out the 2021 home slate. The kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network.