Lane Kiffin addresses Ole Miss red zone offense, not kicking field goals

Ole Miss came into Week 9 ranked inside the top 10. The Rebels have now fallen to No. 15 after suffering a 31-20 defeat to Auburn on Saturday. Part of the reason for the Ole Miss loss was inefficiency from the Rebels offense in the red zone.

Ole Miss scored just two touchdowns in eight trips to the red zone against Auburn. Head coach Lane Kiffin opted to be aggressive by going for it multiple times on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal. Ole Miss turned it over on downs in the red zone three times in the second half.

“I mean they did a good job,” Kiffin said. “But it wasn’t any special new defense or anything. When you get in the red zone things tighten down. So if you’re not running the ball well, you’re going to have tight windows and guys got to make good throws and got to make big plays. And we didn’t do that.

“Obviously (we can) sit here and say go kick field goals, but we’ve made a lot of these. Converted more than anybody in the country. And when it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. But we could have kicked those field goals and still lost too.”

Kiffin has been known to be aggressive by going for it on fourth down, especially in the red zone this year for Ole Miss.

Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral injured in loss

Heisman candidate Matt Corral came into Saturday’s game with an ankle injury, and he left the game with another one. Corral was carted off at one point against Auburn after rolling his left ankle, but he quickly re-emerged from the locker room and went back into the game.

Corral completed 21 of his 37 pass attempts for 289 yards and an interception in the loss. While he didn’t throw a touchdown for the first time this season, Corral did add 45 yards and a touchdown on 10 rushing attempts.

Ole Miss, who has dealt with injuries in recent weeks, just couldn’t get enough going to hang with Auburn. As a team, the Rebels rushed for 157 yards and two touchdowns, averaging four yards per carry. Jahcour Pearson and Casey Kelly each had seven receptions. Pearson had 135 receiving yards while Kelly had 81.

Ole Miss is back in action next week at home against Liberty.