GAINESVILLE, Florida – Football no. No. 9 Ole Miss fell short of its first win at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2008, falling 24-17 to Florida.

The Rebels outgained the Gators by more than 100 yards, but came up empty on three drives in the red zone and turned the ball over three times, a plethora of mistakes that spelled the loss for Ole Miss in The Swamp.

Click here for a full recap and more from the trip to Gainesville, and scroll on for the three takeaways from the game in this week’s Fresh off the Field presented by Kroger.

Missed opportunities

After the teams traded punts on their opening drives, Ole Miss drove down to the Florida 11-yard line, but came up empty and the Gators found the end zone in response, putting the Rebels in recovery.

Ole Miss avoided the red zone with touchdowns of 43 and 22 yards on its next two drives, but missed a short field that would have given them a halftime lead. The defense did its job out of halftime, but a botched punt still resulted in a 17-14 lead for Florida.

The Rebels again drove inside the red zone, but again came up empty, failing to regain the lead as they turned it over for a second time. They were never able to really recover from that sequence.

Obviously very disappointing result today,” Kiffin said. “A game with a lot of missed opportunities. You go 0-for-3 in the red zone, you lose turnovers in a tough spot to play against a team that has played really well when that quarterback plays. Really disappointed with the result. Obviously there was a lot at stake and I didn’t make it.

Uncharacteristic INTs
All the mistakes put Ole Miss in a tough spot late and Jackson Dart he tried his best to lead the Rebels to victory in dwindling units.


The Ole Miss quarterback finished 24-for-41 passing and 14 carries for 394 total yards, throwing a pair of touchdowns, but also had two uncharacteristic interceptions on the Rebels’ final two drives — just the third multi- Rebel’s INT. career and first since the 2022 Texas Bowl against Texas Tech.

 

The only thing I can really say right now is I’m sorry,” Dart said. “I’m sorry to my teammates. I feel sorry for my coaches. I feel sorry for the fans. I can’t lose these games. It will hurt for a very long time. That’s all I can really say right now is I’m sorry.

Too Many Mistakes

Similar to Ole Miss’ close losses at Kentucky and LSU, the Rebels could point to a number of moments throughout the game that tipped the scales in their favor, but Florida also deserves credit for the win.

The Gators scored 14 points from the red zone, went 7-for-15 on third down and were able to sustain three strong touchdown drives, while Ole Miss was 3-for-14 on third down and 2-for-4 on third down. fourth down – those Two failed fourth downs making the Rebels essentially five fumbles for the day while the Gators only had one and no fumble recoveries.

It’s not the result we wanted, but we made more mistakes than they did today,” he said Chris Paul Jr. “Nothing against Florida, they’re a great team. I feel like the team that made the fewest mistakes won today.

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