Mississippi 27, LSU 24
OXFORD, Miss. -- Andrew Ritter kicked a 41-yard field goal with two seconds left to lift Mississippi to a 27-24 upset of No. 6 LSU on Saturday night.
Ole Miss (4-3 overall, 2-3 SEC) lost a 17-point lead when LSU's Zach Mettenberger threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jarvis Landry to tie the score at 24 with 3:19 left. But the Rebels responded by driving to the winning kick.
Bob Wallace completed 30-of-39 passes for 346 yards for the Rebels.
A week after an impressive clamp-down performance against Florida, LSU (6,2 3-2) was lethargic and out of sync in the first half.
Mettenberger threw three interceptions in the first 30 minutes -- two in the end zone -- and one of the most prolific offenses in the SEC managed only 178 total yards against a Rebels defense in tatters because of injuries.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss peppered the LSU defense for 234 yards, most of that on two drives that gobbled up 152 yards and 10:43 of clock and yielded the only points of the half.
Wallace dissected the LSU defense, hitting 16-of-23 passes for 200 first-half yards, with 71 coming on a 69-yard drive to a field goal in the second quarter.
The Tigers gouged Ole Miss at times on the ground, alternating between Jeremy Hill and Kenny Hilliard for the most part. Hilliard ran for 44 yards and Hill 38 against a Rebels defense missing six starters.
But LSU never dented the scoreboard, in large part because Mettenberger suffered through a third consecutive lackluster half. He connected on 7-of-11 passes -- only one true incompletion -- but overthrew Odell Beckham on all three picks.
The first interception snuffed out a promising drive when Chief Brown closed in on a double team and snared a ball intended for Beckham on a deep post route.
After falling behind 10-0 on Barry Brunetti's 3-yard pass to Nicholas Parker, LSU was driving and got to the Ole Miss 20. But Cody Prewitt picked off a ball headed toward Beckham near the back of the end zone.
Moments later, as the Tigers tried to get their offense revving to close out the half, Charles Sawyer hauled in a ball that sailed over Beckham's head on another deep post pass.
Ritter got Ole Miss on the board with a 28-yard field goal late in the first quarter to cap a series that used 17 plays. The Rebels -- Wallace in particular -- methodically pecked away at the Tigers with short passes and converted three third downs in a row before stalling from the 5-yard-line.
NOTES: LSU and Ole Miss were playing on the earliest calendar date since squaring off Oct. 3, 1999. ... The three interceptions in the first half surpasses Mettenberger's season total of two picks in 174 attempts coming in. ... With 100 all-purpose yards in the first half, Beckham passed former Tigers greats Dalton Hilliard and Patrick Peterson on the season chart for all-purpose yards. Beckham is now in seventh place.
