Ole Miss offense tops the charts after Week 1 blowout over Furman
The opponent is the opponent but No. 6 Ole Miss flexed its muscles early and often and let the starting offense enjoy the final 30 minutes of Saturday’s season opener on the sideline.
Furman’s defense was not a match for the Rebels potent attack led by quarterback Jaxson Dart, who put up video game numbers and played only two quarters so far. Despite lobbying to take the field after halftime Dart was left watching backups Austin Simmons and Walker Howard.
In those two quarters, though, Dart was looking like a quarterback determined to send a message about Ole Miss and its offense. His five passing touchdowns ranked him first among FBS quarterbacks and his 36 points responsible for also topped the FBS quarterbacks after most of the Week 1 action in the books, outside of Florida State-Boston College on Monday.
Dart’s 418 passing yards placed him seventh among quarterbacks but clearly that would have increased had he played beyond halftime.
“I think the biggest thing comes down to experience. I’ve had three years in this offense and I’ve played a lot of ball with a lot of the guys on this team,” Dart said on Saturday. “I’ve had a lot of time with guys like Tre Harris, J-Wat (Jordan Watkins) and Caden Prieskorn, which allows things to be comfortable able easier on the field for me.”
For Harris he also had another strong start to a season. Last he had four touchdown catches against Mercer in his Ole Miss debut. This year to start year two as a Rebel Harris hauled in two touchdown catches for 179 yards. Harris ranked sixth and eighth, respectively among FBS receivers.
When it comes to the team stats from Saturday Ole Miss was one of the nation’s best.
The Rebels offense is going to be a force to reckon with for opposing defenses and Furman had zero answers for it.
With its 76 points, Ole Miss is the No. 1 scoring offense after a week of action and the shutout makes the Rebels tied for first with 12 other teams that put a zero on the board.
The 772 yards put the Rebels at the top of the total offense chart and the 529 total passing yards was the best among FBS offenses.
Ole Miss finished with 37 first downs, tying them for fourth-best among FBS teams.
“Quite honestly, it was what we were expecting going into this game,” Dart said. “That’s the standard that we want to play at and excel at. A big thing for us is just trying to control what we can control. Regardless of what the score is, regardless of the situation, go into each play with the same mindset and try to execute the play the best we can. I was really happy with how we were able to do that tonight and I thought it was incredible by our defense to not give up any points.”
Pro Football Focus named Ole Miss its National Team of the Week while zero Rebels earned Southeastern Conference weekly honors.
