Rebels foil No. 6 LSU on late field goal

BATON ROUGE - No. 6-ranked LSU fought past three first-half interceptions to draw even with Ole Miss in the final minutes. However, the Rebels kicked a 41-yard field goal with two seconds to play to turn back the Tigers, 27-24, on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

LSU (6-2, 3-2 SEC) fell behind 10-0 at halftime, recovered with three touchdowns in an 18-minute span but couldn't get Ole Miss (4-3, 2-3 SEC) off the field on third down to force overtime.

The Rebels converted 11-of-18 third downs including two on its final drive with less than three minutes to play.

"I can tell you that I did a piss-poor job on preparing this football team for playing this game," LSU coach Les Miles said in his fourth press conference laced with profanities and second in as many weeks. "There is way I could prepare this team to put them in a better position, emotionally to play in the kind of stadium that they played in tonight. This one is on me."

Quarterback Zach Mettenberger threw for 274 yards on 19-of-33 passing with a game-tying touchdown. But, it was his career-high three interceptions - two in the Ole Miss end zone - in the first half that prevented the Tigers' high scoring offense at bay.

"I feel like I did some good things tonight but overall I played pretty crappy," Mettenberger said adding to the profanity.

Wide receiver Jarvis Landry caught the game-tying touchdown and had 121 yards receiving on seven catches. Odell Beckham Jr. added 72 yards on five grabs. LSU running back Jeremy Hill had 64 yards rushing, while Kenny Hilliard added 58 on 11 carries. Each scored touchdowns in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Bo Wallace played most of the game at quarterback for the Rebels and had a career night. He completed 30-of-39 passes for 346 yards. His backup, Barry Brunetti had the Rebels only touchdown pass of the game, a 2-yarder to tight end Nicholas Parker that gave Ole Miss a 10-point lead. Ja-Mes Logan and Laquon Treadwell each had seven catches for Ole Miss for 65 and 43 yards, respectively. Donte Moncrief did the most damage with five catches for 107 yards.

Running back Jaylen Walton gashed the Tigers for 105 yards on 18 carries with touchdown runs of 2 and 26 yards.

LSU was outgained 525-388, and had nearly a six-minute deficit in time of possession.

Attendance on a cool night in Oxford was the largest in stadium history, 61,160.

LSU hosts Furman on Saturday night for homecoming.