Ole Miss Suffers the Most Heartbreaking Loss You Will See All Year
Your heart aches for Ole Miss after its 35-31 home loss versus Auburn.
It doesn’t matter if your rooting interests lie in Oxford, Starkville, Auburn or another geographical location entirely. This was an emotional gut punch that will linger for some time.
As we were reminded again—right around the moment Ole Miss sophomore wide receiver Laquon Treadwell hit the ground in pain, making it clear something was deeply wrong—college football, for all its bliss, can be a cruel, soul-crushing experience. On Saturday evening, as Auburn all but eliminated the Rebels from the postseason in a way that we may never truly understand, it did just that.
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The matchup between Ole Miss and Auburn was billed as an elimination game, a tussle between two playoff teams—No. 3 and No. 4, according to the College Football Playoff selection committee. With one loss apiece, this was all about staying alive for another week while operating in the nation’s most grueling division.
As a result, expectations were enormous. Although these types of games are often met with a resounding thud, this was different. This was superb. Each team grabbed hold of the momentum at various times in the contest, and the scoreboard operators worked up a good sweat as a result.
The offensive talent (wideouts in particular) shined throughout much of the evening. Future NFL players delivered NFL-level plays, and the back-and-forth between the two SEC West juggernauts had the feeling of a heavyweight fight.
Auburn dealt with penalty yards in mass, 145 to be exact, while Ole Miss battled its way back after each and every Tigers score. Despite its imperfect blueprint, the game was everything we looked for. It even set up the kind of finish we crave.
After Cameron Artis-Payne found the end zone for the Tigers in the fourth quarter, putting his team up 35-31, Ole Miss mounted a response, the latest in a run of many for the night. The drive was coming together brilliantly, the tension was remarkable, and then everything changed on one unassuming screen pass.
If you’re looking for the play itself, you won’t find it here. If you watched the game, you know precisely why. One replay was more than enough; none would have been ideal.
Laquon Treadwell’s 19-yard reception with under two minutes remaining looked as though it would put Ole Miss ahead yet again. As Treadwell athletically maneuvered past the Auburn defense, however, he was grabbed from behind and came down awkwardly as he crossed the goal line.
The ball came out and Auburn recovered, although the call was ruled a touchdown as Treadwell hit the ground in pain. As replays were shown, two things became apparent for the Ole Miss faithful: a) Treadwell didn’t cross the goal line before fumbling, thus giving Auburn the ball, and b) his season was over.
His lower leg crumbled in a way no body part should ever move. As the review took place, players gathered around the freakish talent before he was carted off. When Treadwell was finally being carried away on the cart, the officials announced the fumble.
You will find few football moments more gut-wrenching than this—the timing nearly as punishing as the event itself.
Auburn took over, and although Ole Miss got the ball back in good field position with under a minute remaining, it was unable to move the ball much at all. The clock hit zero, and Auburn prevailed 35-31.
As a result, the Tigers’ College Football Playoff hopes are more than just alive. They are in prime position for a final stretch run, although meaningful games still remain. For Ole Miss, the outlook isn’t nearly as favorable. To re-enter this playoff conversation, the Rebels will require a minor football miracle.
Following the game, Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze—even without full knowledge of the injury—provided an update on one of the nation’s premier offensive talents.
"He definitely has a fracture," Freeze told Hugh Kellenberger of The Clarion-Ledger on Treadwell. "It was obvious, even to me. I don't know anything other than that. I can't tell you all the details of it."
His season appears to be over, and Ole Miss will have to reshuffle its expectations entirely. Having covered the full spectrum of football emotions in a calendar month, following its perception-altering win over Alabama in Oxford, the surreal scene feels like ancient history now.
The latest loss, regardless of how it occurred, shouldn’t take anything away from what the Rebels have accomplished up until this point. It also shouldn’t put a damper on what could still be one of the most successful years in the history of the program.
Ole Miss has proved to be much more than a good story, and various moments that could have gone its way in the past 120 minutes simply did not. There is optimism to be found in all of this, even now, although you can’t help but wonder what might have been.
This is a different kind of disappointment, one that reaches beyond the usual talking points. It starts with the health of one of the nation’s brightest stars, although the impact on the postseason and the bigger picture is undeniable. In many ways, these are intertwined.
In one play—roughly 15 or so seconds—the landscape shifted. And as it did, college football reminded us of the kind of heartbreak it's capable of.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
