AUBURN, Ala. — The first sack came on third down as Auburn defensive tackle Gabe Wright blew through the Ole Miss line on third down, pushing QB Bo Wallace to the turf.
A play later, Carl Lawson followed with another sack and the freshman jumped up, bouncing around as the Tigers sealed a 30-22 victory over the No. 24 Rebels.
Wallace walked toward the sideline, his head down; a once-promising season on the brink of disaster for Ole Miss.
"We have lost the momentum of our start, but that's the game of football when you play in this conference," said Rebels coach Hugh Freeze.
Wallace stood talking to reporters in the bowels of Jordan-Hare Stadium as his teammates boarded buses for the nearly five-hour ride back to Oxford, Miss. When asked if he was worried the season was getting away from Ole Miss, the senior — who threw for 336 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions — was blunt.
"No," he said. "Not at all."
But the reality tells a different story.
After a week in which the Rebels were blanked by No. 1 Alabama and were mired in a controversy stemming from allegations that a group of freshman players yelled gay slurs during an on-campus play, they were dealt another defeat that left them at 3-2 on the season and fifth in the SEC West at 1-2.
In the next two weeks, they'll play both No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 10 LSU, games that could potentially take the Rebels, once 3-0 and ranked 21st, toward a four-game losing streak.
"The road does not get much easier, but we at least will have our people behind us and pulling for us," Freeze said.
The Rebels came out flat, their first three possessions resulting in a field goal and a Wallace interception — his first of the year — in which he threw behind freshman wide receiver Laquon Treadwell. But Tigers defensive back Robenson Therezie stuck out his right hand, hitting the ball up as he corralled it and ran 78 yards for a touchdown and a 13-3 lead.
The spotlight was on Wallace for all the wrong reasons, something Ole Miss had dealt with for most of the week.
A group of 20 freshman players attended a production of "The Laramie Project," on Tuesday night and were accused of heckling the performers with what the play's director and faculty member Rory Ledbetter called "borderline hate speech."
The team did send one player to apologize to the cast after the play, which is based on the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was gay.
But after an investigation by Ole Miss the school's Bias Incident Response Team sent out a statement Friday evening saying that, because of "conflicting reports," there wasn't enough evidence to directly punish any of the unnamed players. Instead, all the students and student-athletes in attendance will attended a dialogue session "led by University faculty and Allies."
"The task of identifying specific individuals who were purported to have disrupted the performance is difficult because of the dark theatre, and initial reports vary in regard to the frequency, volume and source of the comments or disruption," the statement read. "Although initial reports indicate that student-athletes led the action, it is important to note that this has not been verified and they were not the only students present. Reports indicate that comments were made by student athletes and students but no report has singled out a specific student or mentioned any names."
It's expected that players could still see reprecussions from the incident if new evidence comes to light.
"We've had some adversity around us, our first loss (to Alabama) and the off-the-field issues," Freeze said. "I don't know that that took a toll, but I'll tell you this: these road games, night games, getting back at 4 a.m., that takes its toll physically and mentally."
Be it the schedule or the negative press, the Rebels were in a rut.
They had no answer for the Tigers' ground game as QB Nick Marshall ran for 140 yards and two scores on 14 carries -- to to along with 93 passing yards (11 of 17) -- and Tre Mason had 77 yards and a score.
Behind the duo, Auburn jumped out to a 27-9 lead midway through the third quarter.
The Rebels would finally break through as Wallace hit Dontre Montcrief for a 49-yard touchdown in the third quarter. That score that would end a 107-minute, 47-second drought without a score dating back to the third quarter of their Week 3 win over Texas. In real time, the dry spell lasted 21 days.
The two hooked up again on a 13-yard TD in the fourth to cut the deficit to 27-22, but Auburn responded as Cody Parker's 23-yard field goal made it 27-22 with 3:02 to play.
That left the Rebels with a last-chance drive that would get no further than their own 3 8-yard line, stopped by Wright and Lawson's sacks, the fifth and sixth sacks in the game by the Tigers.
Their momentum was stalled, much like that of the Rebels' season. Despite a breakthrough first season under Freeze and a stunning recruiting hall on National Signing Day, Ole Miss is teetering on needing to scratch and claw its way to bowl eligibility.
"It's tough, but we are a good program," said defensive back Cody Prewitt. "It's just one of those things we need to learn how to deal with."
