Cutting down on mistakes, opening up the playbook with trick plays

After four games of the Ole Miss 2011 football season, a lack of offense has become a recurring theme.
On Saturday, Ole Miss managed only 183 total yards of offense and a measly eight first downs against Georgia in a 27-13 loss. The Rebels scored only one offensive touchdown, a 38-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Randall Mackey to freshman wide receiver Donte Moncrief on a trick play.
Even when Ole Miss managed to move the football, penalties and mental mistakes eliminated any chance of consistently putting points on the board. Penalties brought back two touchdowns by sophomore running back Jeff Scott, one on a swing pass and another on a punt return late in the game.
“You can’t have a penalty,” Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt said. “We can’t stop ourselves and all the same things we have been talking about. Thirteen points isn’t good enough, bottom line.”
Both Mackey and junior Zack Stoudt played Saturday at quarterback, and they struggled, as they completed 12 of 30 passes for 149 yards combined.
The lack of a running game and inconsistency in the passing game caused Ole Miss to go three-and-out six times Saturday, including four of the game’s first five drives, something that Nutt said is really hurting the team.
“The thing that hurts us the most is the three-and-outs,” Nutt said. “It’s so quick to get back to the sideline and put our defense right back on the field. There were some very achievable first downs that we’re just missing some balls, a little high, a little right. You’ve got to be able to hit those.”
After the game, Stoudt said he was surprised that the offense was still struggling to move the ball and said mistakes are the main culprit.
“We practiced great again this week, practiced great last week and we’ve just got to put it together in the game,” he said. “We just shoot ourselves in the foot.
“Dropping balls, a few things like that,” Stoudt continued, “missing protections, missing passes, missing catches.”
With the struggles moving the ball with a traditional offense, Ole Miss unleashed a number of trick plays in order to try to generate some offense. Nutt said after the loss to Georgia that the trickery would continue in an effort to try to give his team the best chance to win.
“We’re going to keep opening them up,” he said. “We’re going to keep opening up a bag of them. Whether it be an onside kick, a fake field goal, whatever it may be to try and give our guys the best chance to win.”
Nutt said the trick plays and different formations allow the Rebels to consistently get the ball in the hands of playmakers like Scott and freshman wide receiver/defensive back Nickolas Brassell.
“I just want to keep people off balance, and that’s the best way to do it,” he said. “Mix things up with a reverse here and a screen there. The razzle-dazzle with the wildcat formation where we flip it back to Randall and you catch everybody playing run and get an easy touchdown, I think we’ve got to continue to do things like that.”
As the Rebels head west to Fresno State this weekend, Ole Miss has to continue to find creative ways to score points until the offense gets back on track.