Ole Miss wins Outback Bowl over Indiana 26-20. Five thoughts and analysis of the game, and what it all means.
Ole Miss wins the Outback Bowl
Final Score: Ole Miss 26, Indiana 20
CFN Prediction: Indiana 40, Ole Miss 34
Line: Indiana -7.5, o/u: 67.5
5. The Outback Bowl once again delivered
It’s been Big Ten vs. SEC since it made the change from the Hall of Fame to the Outback in 1996, and it keeps on coming through with good fun games.
Minnesota was able to come through against Auburn for a 31-24 in last year’s thriller on New Year’s Day.
Iowa got by Mississippi State 27-21 in the 2019 New Year’s Day version, South Carolina and Jadeveon Clowney blasted through Michigan 26-19 before that, and there were three overtime games in the 2010s.
ANNDD THAT'S A WRAP!!! FINAL SCORE 26-20! Our Champs of the 2021 #outbackbowl is @OleMissFB!!!! ☀️🌴🏈🏟️ pic.twitter.com/8VPpdeCrYn
— Outback Bowl (@outbackbowl) January 2, 2021
The Outback Bowl has now given us four straight good, tough SEC vs. Big Ten battles decided by seven points or fewer, and nine of the last 12 have been close.
This game always has that big conference teams that were just good enough to matter, but not so amazing that they’re disappointed to be playing in it. This one came through, too, only more so considering bowl games are still a huge deal for the Indiana program, and Ole Miss is just getting going under Lane Kiffin.
NEXT: What is this “defense” thing Ole Miss was doing?
4. Ole Miss played … defense?
This was supposed to be a wild and crazy shootout, and it was anything but.
Ole Miss was dead last in the nation in total defense allowing 536 yards per game.
It was bad against the run, the nation’s worst against the pass, and it gave up 41 points per game like they were M&M’s.
This defense did NOTHING all year long.
Second takeaway of the day for the Landshark D!
🖥 https://t.co/IwWL0AhrMk@TylanKnight x @iiamjordan3 pic.twitter.com/NPFIOFLenW
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) January 2, 2021
There wasn’t a pass rush, there weren’t enough takeaways to matter, and every game had to turn into a shootout after struggling to get that D off the field after struggling to come up with any third down stops, and …
Indiana managed three points in the first half and six in the first 45 minutes.
You and your close circle of quarantined friends and family could at least hang a taught 21 on this D in three quarters of play.
Ole Miss kept the big plays to a minimum, Indiana never quite got its mediocre running game going until late, and it somehow allowed just two field goals until the fourth quarter.
It came up with two takeaways, it held on late when it absolutely had to, and it survived by allowing a whole lot of short plays, but not a whole lot deep.
NEXT: The huge day from the receivers
3. The huge day from the receivers
Elijah Moore – not DeVonta Smith – actually led the SEC regular season in receiving on a per game basis, but he was missing from this.
QB/WR John Rhys Plumlee caught five passes for 73 yards, and Donatrio Drummond stepped up with six catches for 110 yards and a score.
Ole Miss QB Matt Corral wasn’t perfect, but he hit 30-of-44 passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 37 yards, but his real worth was spreading the passing game around without Moore to count on as a gamebreaker.
Oh yeah, and Indiana got a nice day from Whop Philyor.
Ty Fryfogle is the star of the IU receiving corps with his 20-yard average and seven touchdowns, but Philyor led the team with 36 catches as the team’s midrange receiver.
He added 18 catches for 81 yards on short pass after short pass, but he wasn’t able to break anything deep. The Ole Miss defense allowed the midrange plays, but it didn’t give up anything longer than 20 yards all game.
NEXT: Indiana loses another rough bowl game
2. Indiana loses another rough bowl game
The 1991 Indiana Hoosiers closed out a strong year with a decisive 24-0 Copper Bowl win over Baylor. It was just the third bowl win in IU history in in seven tries, but at least the program became a regular on the bowl circuit in the mid-to-late 1980s to the early 1990s.
It’s 2021, and Indiana is still stuck on three bowl wins.
The Hoosiers have gone 0-6 in their last six tries, including a brutally painful collapse to Tennessee in last year’s Gator Bowl, an overtime loss to Duke in your 2015 Pinstripe, and a 26-24 fight against Utah in the 2016 Foster Farms.
Under Tom Allen, IU has gone 0-3 losing b a total of nine points.
It’s a sour end to an otherwise amazing year. IU pushed Ohio State better than Clemson did, it beat Wisconsin in Madison, took down Penn State and Michigan, shut out Michigan State, and deserved a New Year’s Six bowl – probably the Fiesta Bowl – based on how good it was and the big-name teams it beat.
And it lost to a mediocre Ole Miss team in the bowl.
On the flip side …
NEXT: Everything is looking up for Ole Miss
1. Everything is looking up for Ole Miss
The 2014 Rebels got roasted by TCU in the Peach Bowl 42-3. That was the only blip in a terrific run, going 8-1 in the last nine bowl games and 12-1 in the last 13 going back to 1990.
This isn’t going to be the last bowl win for Ole Miss under Lane Kiffin.
With this win, the Rebels finish at a respectable 5-5, there was a win over rival Mississippi State, there’s a good nucleus of young players coming back, this is a fun and exciting team that’s going to keep wining it all over the place, and the program has the stability of Kiffin being tied into a new contract extension.
𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗕𝗢𝗪𝗟 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗦 🏆 pic.twitter.com/xqr3Dd1RfT
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) January 2, 2021
It’s supposed to start next year against Louisville, Austin Peay and Tulane with a date against Liberty and Hugh Freeze later on.
Those should be four wins for a program that’s about to get a whole lot stronger, and it’s helped further with no Florida or Georgia on the slate.
That’s what a bowl win can do. It was the first since 2015, and now it’s about to be a fun offseason.
