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Ole Miss was among the favorites to make this year’s College Football Playoff largely due to returning quarterback Jaxson Dart and head coach Lane Kiffin dominating the transfer portal. After just seven weeks of the season, however, the Rebels suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in after falling to 5-2 on the season following a stunning loss at LSU.

Stunning may not feel like the proper word to describe an Ole Miss team losing to a Top 15 LSU team in a night game in Tiger Stadium, but in this case, stunning is perfectly fitting.

Ole Miss did not trail the Tigers until they scored on their first play in overtime to earn a 29-26 win. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier completed just 22-of-51 passes and threw two interceptions, but somehow made just enough plays to lead his team to the upset victory.

The first quarter was incredibly unkind to the Rebels. 

READ: Ole Miss Is Now Having To Play The Game Of ‘What If’ After Never Trailing Against LSU Until The Final Play

Ole Miss wide receiver Tre Harris dropped a sure-thing touchdown, the Rebels missed a 32-yard field goal in the opening frame, and the team didn’t score a point after creating a turnover on the LSU 13-yard line. 

The Rebels should have led the Tigers by double digits after the first quarter, but instead, the first frame ended in a scoreless tie.

To put it simply, Ole Miss let LSU hang around, which far more often than not leads to a Tiger win under a drunken moon in Death Valley.

All off a sudden opposing teams look up at the scoreboard, it reads 0:00, and you’re stunningly on the losing side.

That’s how Dart felt after the game, as he admitted multiple times during his postgame press conference that “I don’t understand how we lost.”

“That first half, we just didn’t put points up,” a demoralized-looking Dart told reporters. “We had a bunch of momentum, I don’t know, just trying to think through it.”

Dart’s message mirrored what Kiffin said during multiple in-game interviews.

Following the first quarter, one Ole Miss dominated, Kiffin explained that he loved where the game was at in terms of momentum and the Rebels’ playing style. He said the same exact thing as he headed into the locker room for halftime.

Then, 30 minutes later, he was coaching a two-loss football team.