Game Notes: Ole Miss

What a great, competitive game to watch. I took my nine-year-old daughter and even she was engaged til the end (with a few mini sinking spells).

My thoughts are these:

• I was really proud of how the team fought til the end, and Dennis Johnson was flat-out amaze balls. Just incredible. I love watching that guy run.
• Johnson did enough to make up for how badly Tyler Wilson actually played. He threw into tight spots at least 10 times. Two or three of them were incredible receptions -- that were lucky. The rest were either almost or actually intercepted. Wilson lost track of the game clock -- twice? I heard something about maybe his hip hurt? Perhaps that might led to his questionable judgement. Not used to him throwing so many bad balls.
• The Ole Miss kicker is a gamer. 54 yards AND the game-winner? Please tell me he isn't a freshman.
• I can not imagine a world in which the illegal formation call that took Arkansas' beautiful touchdown away is actually valid. Refs also missed two pass interference calls against Ole Miss. Has anyone ever seen grounding called three times in one game? Weird. Never seen refs booed like that.
• The defense really kept us in this game and deserves tons of credit. It's too bad they just collapsed completely during that final two-minute drive. Poor guys. They held onto the rope as long as they could.
• There was a stretch in the game where Ole Miss threw a screen to the left THREE TIMES IN A ROW and it worked each time. Twice out of the tripps formation, and once with a single receiver. Then, they faked the throw over there on the fourth time and I seriously thought the QB would run it in for a touchdown, but thankfully, we figured it out. How can a screen to the left work on three straight plays?
• It felt really good to watch John L. get mad and give the refs and earful. I have wanted to see passion and gametime involvement from him and he came up with it today in spades.
• Once again, fans left the stadium in the fourth quarter even before the Hogs got the ball back for the final drive that tied it. They left because they thought we were done. Such an assinine thing to do. If you go to the game, watch the game. Please.
• I knew we would probably lose when the punt was blocked, because that is what happens 90 percent of the time, so I was amazed when we actually had a chance at the end. Our last drive was the second most incredible thing in the game -- second to their last drive.
• I would like to know exactly how that punt got blocked. John L. has already taken the blame for it. But I have other special teams questions. For example, why hasn't Dennis Johnson, last year's best kickoff returner in the SEC, done anything at all this year with that role? Totally different guy, though he is tearing it up from scrimmage. Also, why can't we find someone on the team who can actually catch a punt? And, why is it that when Adams was returning punts, there was often space between him and the approaching kickoff team, but this year the coverage guys are already on top of the punt returner every single time? Is that to be balmed on our coverage scheme? Terrible blocking? Returner playing too shallow? Our special teams went from just about the best around last year to incomprehensively bad this year, with the exception of our place kicker and the distances logged by our punter when he isn't getting blocked or having the snap sent over his head.

Now go read the food part, because that's what this is really about. :-)