'We stood our ground': Ole Miss' defense has put the team on its back in the second half

Not that many years ago the Ole Miss defense becoming the strength of the football team and the star of late-game heroics would have been hard to imagine.

Well this season it’s not an imagination at work, it is the honest truth and the reason No. 9 Ole Miss is still undefeated.

In last Saturday’s game against Kentucky there were three fourth quarter drives by the Wildcats that ended in zero points and a turnover. The final drive resulted in Ole Miss notching its first Southeastern Conference win after Jared Ivey’s forced fumble.

All through the second half the Rebels (5-0, 1-0 SEC) relied on the play of the defense to hold off a surging Kentucky. The defense did its job.

“We stood our ground,” said linebacker Troy Brown. “A couple bends but we didn’t break. I felt like that’s our identity and that’s how we want to play full games just all four quarters. No matter the situation is you go out there and you play your best play every snap.

“We didn’t worry about the other side of the ball was doing or what was going on. When we were off the field we were paying attention to our corrections and things that we had to do when we step back on the field the next time. I felt like every time we did that we went out the next possession and got better.”

The the other side of the ball has been an issue for Ole Miss in the final two quarters at times this season.

In Saturday’s game the Rebels scored three points in the second half. It is the third time this season the offense has scored no more than seven points in the second half of game.

During one of those three games Ole Miss was shutout, which occurred in its win over Tulsa after scoring 35 points in the first half.

Ole Miss is starting games extremely well, outscoring opponents 127-32 in the first half. Keeping that momentum after halftime and closing out games on offense has been a struggle. The Rebels have only outscored opponents 35-27 in the second half.

“Not a good offensive second half, and we’ve got to close people out,” said head coach Lane Kiffin on Monday. “Regardless of rankings, any of that. When you have a chance to finish off games, and maybe even earlier than that. We go up 14-0 and let a kickoff return give them all the momentum. There’s tons of times in there where you can make a game so it’s not close in the end, and we did not do that.”

Instead the defense was asked to come up with the stops when it mattered and they delivered.

Securing that victory has set up Ole Miss to have a potentially good start to conference play the rest of October. But it was only due to the play of the defense in winning time that the Rebels still have a zero in the loss column.

This is a defense that was still finding its way through fall camp and comprised of a lot of new pieces via the transfer portal. Through five games the defense is one of the top in the SEC and the country.

Ole Miss’ defense is third in the SEC in scoring defense and seventh in the country, holding opponents to 11.8 points per game. In nine of its last ten games Ole Miss has held its opponents to less than 21 points, including shutting out Georgia Tech last month.

When it comes to opponents’ fourth down conversion rates, Ole Miss’ defense is fourth in the SEC — 18th in the nation — in that category. Ole Miss’ opponents have converted five out of 16 fourth down attempts this season for a 31.2 percent success rate.

“We as a team and as a defense know what we can accomplish, internally, and that’s what we work towards to,” Brown said. “But to get these type of wins and these nail biters and come out (with a) victory, because it could have went the opposite way just as easy as it went our way. So we just learn to take the bumps and bruises and keep going.”

Watch Troy Brown’s full press conference from Monday below: