Ole Miss sees playoff shot intercepted by Gators in surprising 24-17 loss

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When Jaxson Dart overthrew a pass into triple coverage late, you knew a last-chance drive by Ole Miss was in trouble. When Florida intercepted it pretty much closed the door on a 24-17 win and ended the Rebels’ chance to get into the College Football Playoff.

To be fair, Dart had Antwane “Juice” Wells somewhat in the area, but over threw the ball so badly it never had a chance. He either overthrew Wells or short-armed a pass intended to be over everybody’s head.

Ole Miss’ defense held Florida and got the ball back for another shot with 1:03 to go in the game. With Dart getting sacked on first down, it showed a problem with an offensive line that was in disarray after center Reece McIntyre was injured. Everything looked confused in assignments the rest of the way.

Dart found Cayden Lee down the hashmarks for a 19-yard gain, but Dart appeared to throw another interception later on a miscommunication on a route but replays clearly showed it wasn’t a catch. Then Dart turned around and threw another interception when he and Wells didn’t read the same coverage.

The result is now the Rebels are 8-3 on the year  and there will only be a bowl game after next week’s Egg Bowl in Oxford, Miss.

Ole Miss started the game with top receiver Tre Harris back and he played well, catching a touchdown pass, but then re-injured his groin going up for a catch he didn’t even make and hobbled to the dressing room. He didn’t come back out in his uniform.

Throw in the injury to McIntyre and everything didn’t seem to be running smooth.

But give Florida a big amount of credit. Coach Billy Napier has gone from being on the fast track out of town and rumors about Kiffin replacing him to having security for a few more months. It’s hard to think of a team playing better since mid-October than the Gators.

For Ole Miss, though, that Kentucky loss that was even more difficult to swallow than this one comes back to haunt fans. With just a single loss, the Rebels could have survived this one and still been in the playoff conversation.

Three losses won’t get in, though.

Those hopes sailed wide with Dart’s interceptions. We won’t know immediately exactly who was at fault, but he and the receivers weren’t on the same page when they need to be the most. They had a chance to come back and tie the game, but kept throwing it away.

It probably never should have down to that, though.

In the first half, the Rebels had three fourth-and-short situations and Kiffin chose to try JJ Pegues on an off-tackle play Florida kept stuffing. Because of the Gators’ size and physicality up the middle, they tried to get wide of it and Pegues wasn’t able to get first downs.

Forget the points. Getting stuffed on those drives killed any momentum and Ole Miss never was able to get it back.

Florida became bowl-eligible with the win and will be the favorite for a seventh win playing a terrible Florida State next week to finish the season.