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A game-by-game look at Bo Wallace and his two alter egos, Dr. Bo and Mr. Pick.
I struggled throughout this game trying to figure out how I thought Bo Wallace was playing. His numbers were decent and he made a couple good plays. But, overall I wasn’t that impressed with his play. It could be this whole “Dr. Bo” moniker that just works against him when he plays a overall decent game. Nothing really wrong (minus a late fumble that proved costly), but nothing really amazing (minus the 59-yard run).
I’ve written before that maybe the best Bo is actually the Bo where he doesn’t try and do to much, focuses on short to mid-range passes and let his receivers do the work of getting downfield after the catch. I still believe that is the case, and you could see the focus of the throwing game remained in that general zone for the game. Wallace did start out the game looking deep, which very easily could have been the play called (and not you know, a total disregard for what was called, throwing the ball into double coverage to end the game, but I digress) but he just looked like he was forcing things.
Wallace never really did seem to get comfortable, and the Auburn defensive line surely had a lot to do with that as they disrupted the Ole Miss offense forcing Wallace to tuck and run on a number of occasions. He had a few solid runs, but the offense works much better when he is throwing, not running.
By no means did Wallace play poorly, nor did he cause the Rebels to lose, I just didn’t walk away from the game thinking that he played as well as he could have.
I am going to cop out and withhold a true “Dr. Bo or Mr. Pick ruling” this week. I think Wallace played good enough to win the game, and they very well could have, if not for the gruesome injury to Laquon Treadwell on a would-be scoring play. But I also don’t think he ever took the game over and put his stamp on it.
It will be very interesting to see how Wallace and the Rebels will move forward the rest of the season. They should be able to sleepwalk through next week’s game against Presbyterian and get a win. Then they go to Arkansas for what could be a tough test before finally facing Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
If Wallace is able to shine in that last two games guiding the Rebels to a 10-2 regular season record, despite which moniker you want to use, that would be a very successful season for this Ole Miss team.
Worked for the internet in Los Angeles before being lured back to Florida by SEC football and the promise of a bourbon bar. When he's not internetting or watching football, he's probably out giving himself 4-footers on the golf course.
