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Mississippi State  

Bulldogs stun Ole Miss with amazing comeback

By JIM MASHEK
SUN HERALD

STARKVILLE --

Mississippi State needed a break, a spark. Something. And when the Bulldogs finally got one, everything changed in the 80th edition of the Egg Bowl.

Mississippi State stopped the Ole Miss Rebels on a fourth-down play near midfield with 10 minutes left in the game this afternoon, turning it on for an amazing 17-14 victory before 51,727 at MSU’s Scott Field.

Gulfport’s Adam Carlson provided the winning points on a 48-yard field goal with 12 seconds left.

The Bulldogs (7-5, 4-4 SEC) played their way into their first bowl appearance since the 2000 season, after doing next to nothing on offense for the first three quarters of the game. Ole Miss (3-9, 0-8) led 14-0 when BenJarvus Green-Ellis was drilled for a 3-yard loss on the pivotal fourth-down play.

State’s offense had four first downs at that point. Six plays later, the Bulldogs reached the end zone on Wesley Carroll’s 4-yard touchdown pass to 240-pound tailback Anthony Dixon.

"I thought all along this was going to be a great day for Mississippi State football," MSU coach Sylvester Croom said, "but I never thought it would come down to that."

It was a devastating defeat for third-year Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron and the Rebels. Ole Miss went winless in SEC play for the first time since 1982.

"Obviously, the turning point was the fourth-down call to go for it," Orgeron said. "All year long, we said if we had a chance to go for it, we would. We were up 14-0. I thought we could get the first down, perhaps go up 17-0 or 21-0 and put them away."

Brent Schaeffer, Orgeron’s starting quarterback in 2006, put the Rebels in position to win, mostly with his speed. But he completed just 10 of 30 passes for 115 yards and a third-quarter touchdown. Ole Miss failed to punch out a first down after the Bulldogs’ first touchdown.

"It was a tough way to end it all, with a game like this," Schaeffer said.

State tied the game at 14 on Derek Pegues’ 75-yard punt return for a touchdown with 2:38 left, after the Rebels’ Ashlee Palmer had intercepted a Carroll pass at the Ole Miss 10-yard line. Carroll got the Bulldogs into position for the winning points on a 17-yard pass to Gulfport’s Tony Burks with 20 seconds left in the game.

Croom sent Carlson in at that point, confident he could kick a career-long 48-yard field goal with a 12- to 15-mph wind at his back.

"I just wanted to make sure I didn’t overkick, and follow through," Carlson said. "I was thinking about those kinds of situations in the fourth quarter."

Schaeffer, making his first start of the season, took the Rebels 75 yards in 12 plays for a touchdown on their first possession of the game, Green-Ellis’ tough 14-yard run through the teeth of the MSU defense. Ole Miss had a chance to extend its lead to 10-0 with the wind at its back in the second quarter, but Joshua Shene’s field-goal try from 37 yards out hit the left upright and fell back into the end zone.

The Rebels’ spread offense, however, continued to give State fits and Schaeffer capped a 62-yard drive in the third quarter with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Shay Hodge. Ole Miss dominated the line of scrimmage for three quarters and finished the game with 228 yards rushing to the Bulldogs’ 99.

"We put ourselves in a bad situation," said Green-Ellis, who led the Rebels with 117 yards rushing.

Mississippi State is likely headed to the Music City Bowl in Nashville or the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, two locations that would allow success-starved MSU fans the opportunity to attend the school’s first postseason game in seven years.

"We talked about treating this year like a journey," Croom said, "and the most important part of a journey is the people who have been on this trip with us."

State’s memorable comeback ensures the journey will continue for another month. The Rebels, meanwhile, can only think about what went wrong.

Which was plenty in the last 10 minutes of this game.