Ole Miss vs. Florida: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

The No. 25 Florida Gators may have already turned the corner in head coach Jim McElwain's first season. They earned their biggest win in three years after upsetting the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels 38-10 at home Saturday night.

Quarterback Will Grier was marvelous from start to finish, with the bulk of his work coming in the first half. The Gators didn't need him to throw much after halftime. He finished the game 24-of-29 for 271 yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone.

Kelvin Taylor provided 83 yards on the ground to help Florida maintain its lead in the second half.

The Florida defense was also exceptional, forcing four turnovers and keeping Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly to 259 yards despite his throwing 40 times. Jaylen Walton and Jordan Wilkins, Ole Miss' two leading rushers on the year, gained just 34 yards on the ground combined.

Although both Michigan State and Ohio State were ranked higher in the Week 5 edition of the Associated Press Top 25, you could have made a strong argument before Saturday's contest that Ole Miss was the best team in the country.

"This is a heck of an Ole Miss team," McElwain said before the game, per Jesse Simonton of the Miami Herald. "They're very good. They're highly rated. They've got great players, and they've done a great job in recruiting and getting some of the top players in the country."

When the Rebels toppled the Alabama Crimson Tide in September, they got up on head coach Nick Saban's team early. Ole Miss led 17-3 for a stretch in the second quarter of that game and took a 17-10 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

On Saturday, Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze and his players took on the role of Alabama, staring at a 13-0 deficit after the first quarter.

Demarcus Robinson opened the scoring with a 36-yard touchdown reception five minutes, 42 seconds into the game. Grier floated his pass perfectly over the top of the Ole Miss secondary and into the arms of the junior wideout. Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel was more impressed with the way Grier stayed in the pocket in the face of a heavy rush:

Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee thinks Robinson is the kind of player Florida has sorely lacked in recent years:

Just two plays after the touchdown, the Rebels shot themselves in the foot and gave the ball right back to their opponents. Walton fumbled on his own 28-yard line, and Bryan Cox recovered for the Gators.

Grier needed only five plays before he found tight end Jake McGee from two yards out, per Florida's official Twitter account:

Jorge Powell missed the point-after attempt, but any Gators fan would've been satisfied with an early 13-0 lead.

Ole Miss should've gotten on the board after working the ball into the red zone in the second quarter. The Rebels advanced to the Florida 18-yard line but lost two yards on first down and were unable to move the chains. They settled for a 29-yard field-goal attempt from Gary Wunderlich, but his kick sailed wide right.

With a little over seven minutes remaining in the first half, Grier hit Brandon Powell on a simple slant pass over the middle, and Powell did the rest of the work. He caught the pass and ran 77 yards to the end zone, putting Florida ahead by three scores, 19-0. The Gators attempted to go for two points but failed to convert.

Former Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was elated to see his alma mater distance itself from Ole Miss:

The Florida Alumni Association provided this humorous approximation of how the Gators were operating offensively:

Putting an exclamation point on its first-half performance, Florida got one more touchdown 27 seconds before halftime. Grier earned his fourth passing TD of the game after hitting Antonio Callaway on what was almost an exact replica of Powell's earlier touchdown.

Callaway moved from right to left as he crossed the middle of the field en route to the corner of the end zone.

To put into perspective how big a hill the Rebels had to climb in the second half, teams that had been down by at least 13 points at the half were 3-154 this year, per the ESPN broadcast (via CBS Sports' Jon Solomon).

Field goals weren't going to cut it for Ole Miss, but that's all the offense could get for much of the second half against the stingy Florida defense. Wunderlich finally got his team on the board with three points in the third quarter.

His field goal was canceled out by two from Powell, who added insurance for the Gators in the fourth quarter. And if the result was still in doubt inside the final seven minutes, Jordan Cronkrite sealed the deal with a one-yard touchdown run to help make it a 38-3 game.

Kelly and Markell Pack connected for a seven-yard touchdown pass with 4:11 remaining, but the result was all but decided by then. SB Nation's Red Cup Rebellion thought Kelly received little in the way of support Saturday:

While Gators fans have every reason to be optimistic following Saturday's win, they should remain realistic. Ole Miss was flying high last year after starting the season 7-0 but then finished 2-3 through its final five games.

Florida should beat the Missouri Tigers next week but has a major test Oct. 17, when it will travel to Death Valley to play the LSU Tigers. A matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs after that doesn't look as tricky now, but the Bulldogs probably aren't as bad as they looked against Alabama on Saturday.

If the Gators remain unbeaten heading into November, then the SEC title and College Football Playoff discussions can begin.

While a defeat isn't a CFP eliminator for Ole Miss, the Rebels will need to be perfect the rest of the way in order to finish in the top four at the end of the year. They'll play Texas A&M, LSU and Mississippi State—and potentially the SEC Championship Game—so finishing with one loss could have Ole Miss in line for a playoff spot.

Post-Game Reaction

"That was sure a lot of fun," said McElwain after the game, per Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. "I'm sure Ole Miss thought they were going to come in here and beat our butts, but our guys took it to 'em."

Florida's performance was all the more impressive considering how many players—Grier included—were stricken with the flu, per Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated:

Credit Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze, who maintained his sense of humor following the defeat, per the Orlando Sentinel's Matt Murschel:

While McElwain spoke highly of his quarterback, he ensured the credit for the victory was spread around to the rest of the team, per Scott Carter of GatorZone.com:

Freeze was blunt in his assessment of the defeat.

"They beat us in every facet of the game," he said, per Mark Long of the Associated Press (via the Charlotte Observer). "We didn't play with the intensity that we needed to and we didn't take care of the football. We had a solid plan, but we didn't execute it."