Ole Miss’ own stupidity erases Georgia consequences of terrible targeting call

Coaching matters. While Ole Miss is doing a fantastic job with its makeshift staff during its College Football Playoff run, Pete Golding's team gave us one of the worst clock management scenarios we have ever seen. After being gifted additional yardage late in the second quarter on a questionable targeting call, they failed to realize how many timeouts they had, causing them to miss out on points.

It all started with JaCorey Thomas' weak targeting call that was upheld on this big hit on Cayden Lee.

Three plays later, Trinidad Chambliss hit Dae'Quan Wright in the middle of the field ... with no timeouts.

This series of events prevented another long field-goal try off the sure-footed Lucas Carneiro for Ole Miss. It was the latest of a series of miscues made by Ole Miss in all three phases to allow Georgia to entering halftime with a 21-12 lead. Georgia got the ball to start the second half, but could not take advantage of the first possession of the second half. Still, Ole Miss could have made it a 21-15 game!

These are the type of plays where you wonder who had eyes on this for the Ole Miss offensive attack.

Ole Miss does not take advantage of questionable Georgia targeting call

For how close of a game the previous matchup was, every possession has to count. Although not all of them this time around have ended in points, when you have an opportunity to get them, you have to take advantage. Again, Ole Miss has a fantastic team, arguably the best in close to 75 years. However, Georgia has played in games like this before, and it has served them in so many ways here.

Overall, these are the type of miscues that Georgia will make the opposition commit under Kirby Smart. Situational football is where he has developed a new strength in recent years. His team is so well-coached. While Ole Miss has a well-coached team too, there are levels to this. Once again, this is a consequence to Lane Kiffin deciding to leave and take the LSU job before their season was over...

Ultimately, Ole Miss and Georgia continue to give each other their best punches on seemingly every play. What the Rebels became under Kiffin is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe it can continue under Golding, more likely to evolve in most instances... Conversely, what the Dawgs have become under Smart is nothing short of dynastic. He has built up Georgia into a perennial national title contender.

As long as Georgia continues to keep its head about it, the Bulldogs can advance to the Fiesta Bowl.