Ole Miss' Defense Was Improbably Awful Against Alabama

We had no delusions that Ole Miss was going to suddenly stiffen up on defense and stop Alabama. The Rebels gave up 400 yards on the ground to Kentucky, was outsized in the trenches by nearly 50 pounds a man, and simply did not have the talent of Alabama -- which returned four starters on the line and tremendous running backs.

What happened during the 63-48 contest was improbably worse.

Alabama had the ball 11 times.
It scored nine touchdowns.
It fumbled on the one.
And punted, just once, from the Ole Miss 40.

While that all reads easily, here is what it means: Of all of the yards that Alabama could have gained during the game, Ole Miss only prevented it from 41 of them.

Alabama gained 723 yards of offense. If it played a perfect game, it would have only had 764.

That is mathematically improbable.

Breaking it down further, Alabama quarterback Mac Jones completed 28-of-32 passes for 417 yards, while Najee Harris piled up 206 yards and five touchdowns.

To be fair, it is not like Alabama was much better defensively.

Ole Miss gained 647 yards in its own right. The Rebels converted 9-of-17 third downs and went 4-of-4 on fourth down attempts. Its star Snoop Connor had a career high 128 yards and two touchdowns, and Jerrion Ealy contributed with 120 yards and two scores. Quarterback Matt Corral also had 365 yards and two touchdowns doing a Swag Kelly Lite impression.

All combined, the 1,370 yards is the most in a single game in SEC history.
The 111 points will certainly be more than some SEC basketball games this year, too.