OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Jaxson Dart threw for 311 yards, Mississippi’s No. 18 defense produced nine sacks and the Rebels used a strong third quarter to beat Oklahoma 26-14 on Saturday.

The Sooners led 14-10 at halftime before the Rebels (6-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) scored two touchdowns in the third quarter behind Dart and tight end Caden Prieskorn, who had five catches for 71 yards.

Oklahoma (4-4, 1-4), in its first game since firing offensive coordinator Seth Littrell last Sunday, was productive in the run game in the first half but had trouble getting out of the gate on the back end. The Sooners didn’t cross the 50 in the second half until midway through the fourth quarter.

That drive reached the Ole Miss 13 but ended with three straight sacks by quarterback Jackson Arnold and a turnover on downs.

Arnold, the Sooners’ starting quarterback, made his first start early in the season since being benched in favor of rookie Michael Hawkins Jr. in Week 5.

With Littrell out, Joe Jon Finley, who was tight ends coach at Ole Miss in 2020, Lane Kiffin’s first season with the Rebels, took over.

Dart’s 24-yard pass to Prieskorn and a 1-yard run by defensive lineman and short-yardage specialist JJ Pegues, both in the third quarter, were the scores that made the difference. The Rebels were without injured star Tre Harris, who entered the game as the best receiver in the country.

“We told them before when Tre didn’t want to play, ‘Hey, this has to be a big tight end game,'” Kiffin said. “We gave it to them on the first play(s) of the game. We worked on it. It was nice to see that we were in the middle of the field.”

Facing the pressure of a two-score deficit, the Sooners were forced to abandon a running game that was productive in the first half as OU rushed for 125 yards.

Ole Miss began the day ranked No. 1 nationally against the run with 66.6 yards per play allowed. OU had 22 rushing yards in the second half.

“We couldn’t get anything going in the second half against a good, experienced defense, and their explosive offensive plays were a blast,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said.

Key players remain out for Ole Miss, but the return of defensive end Princely Umanmielen was huge, Kiffin said. Umanmielen had three tackles and two sacks and was a disruptive force at other times.

Ole Miss finished with 380 yards to Oklahoma’s 329 yards.

The end was a very different feeling for the rebels.

“That’s why you train and they play. “It wasn’t a good feeling going into a game where everyone thinks we should win because the spread is a certain way, everyone thinks you’re supposed to knock off an SEC team,” Kiffin said .

THE TAKEAWAY

Ole Miss: Defensive tackle Walter Nolen, the Rebels’ highest-rated transfer, limped off the field late in the first half and made the decision not to play in the second, Kiffin said.

Oklahoma: Arnold threw two touchdowns with no interceptions and hurt the Rebels with smart decisions in the early running game. He went 22-for-31 for 182 yards passing.

IMPLICATIONS ON THE SURVEY

The Rebels could finish in the top 15 and rekindle the playoff spirit they lacked after their loss at LSU.

NEXT

Oklahoma: Maine Saturday afternoon.

Ole Miss: Saturday morning at Arkansas.

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