BATON ROUGE, La. — Garrett Nussmeier was in the midst of what the LSU quarterback considered one of the worst games of his career. His last two snaps changed everything.
Nussmeier threw a tying touchdown pass to Aaron Anderson in the final seconds of regulation and hit Kyren Lacy for a 25-yard scoring strike on No. 13 LSU’s first play of overtime, completing a stunning 29-26 comeback victory over No. 9 Mississippi on Saturday night.
“Hopefully, this will be a huge growth moment for me in taking my game to the next level,” Nussmeier said. “I played bad, but we had a chance to win the ball game and I had to focus on that.”
The winning score marked the first time LSU (5-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) led the entire game and fans streamed onto the field to celebrate a triumph that put the Tigers back in the College Football Playoff discussion.
“This league’s wide open and I think we took a huge step,” Nussmeier said. “The Tigers are real. We proved that tonight.”
Nussmeier struggled much of the game and threw two interceptions, but came alive late to finish with 337 yards and three TDs passing. Two of those touchdowns came on the last two snaps he took.
“There were struggles and there were mistakes but we found a way,” Nussmeier said. “We have shown throughout the year that we have a tough team that really cares.”
Jaxson Dart passed for 284 yards and a score, and Ulysses Bently IV ran for a 50-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play for Mississippi (5-2, 1-2), which suffered a serious blow to its hopes for winning a conference crown or earning a CFP bid.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said his postgame message to the team was was: “This sucks guys. I feel for you.”
“I don’t really have a lot of positives for you,” Kiffin added. “It’s easier if you get beat by a couple of scores. This was like, our game. We had the game and let it slip away. To go into the bye 6-1, or whatever it is, in really good shape and get healthy, would have been great. This one will be hard. It will be around forever.”
Ole Miss was one play away from winning in the waning minutes of regulation, but Nussmeier converted on fourth-and-6 with a pass to Mason Taylor to sustain a drive that he capped with a 23-yard TD pass to Anderson with 27 seconds left.
After LSU held Mississippi to a field goal in its opening overtime possession, Nussmeier wasted no time unleashing a decisive strike to Lacy near the right pylon.
Last season in Oxford, the Ole Miss offense gained 706 yards in a 55-49 victory over the Tigers. This year, LSU coach Brian Kelly wanted a more soundly played game by his defense and got it.
LSU sacked Dart six times, intercepted him once, recovered a fumble and had a fourth-down stop at their own 5 while holding the Rebels well below their scoring average of 44 points coming in. Bradyn Swinson had two sacks, giving him seven this season.
“We haven’t said anything about last year, but we had that in the back of our mind as a defense,” said LSU linebacker Whit Weeks, who had a game-high 18 tackles, two for losses, including one sack. “We knew we had to come out here and play way better.”
Ole Miss was threatening to widen a 20-16 lead in the fourth quarter when LSU’s Zy Alexander intercepted Dart’s 35-yard pass in the end zone to help keep the Tigers close enough to rally.
Ole Miss controlled the opening quarter but squandered multiple scoring chances.
Tre Harris dropped a deep pass down the middle in open field. Davis missed a 32-yard field goal and Ole Miss could not cash in on defensive tackle Jamarious Brown’s interception of Nussmeier’s batted pass because the Rebels failed to convert on fourth down.
The Rebels still took a 10-0 lead on Davis’ 49-yard field goal and Bentley’s long, tackle-slipping run.
The Tigers responded with Nussmeier’s 12-yard scoring pass over the middle to tight end Tray’Dez Green.
Harris’ 15-yard touchdown on a leaping, twisting catch in tight coverage made it 17-7. But LSU’s Damian Ramos kicked two field goals in a 29-second span — the second after LSU’s Whit Weeks caused Ole Miss’ Henry Parrish Jr. to fumble — to make it 17-13 at halftime.
THE TAKEAWAY
Mississippi: This was the second time the Rebels fell as favorites. The first came in a 20-17 loss to Kentucky.
LSU: The Tigers proved they can play respectable defense against one of the better offenses in the nation, albeit with two weeks to prepare in this case after having a bye last week.
UNDER SUSPICION
The Tiger Stadium crowd booed repeatedly when Ole Miss players went down with apparent injuries and received treatment from trainers — apparently unwilling to give the benefit of the doubt to a team under suspicion of feigning injuries to give players a breather at critical junctures.
In one instance, defensive end Jared Ivey went down after LSU had marched quickly from its own 25 to the Mississippi 18. Ivey was back on the field when LSU failed on third down and settled for a field goal.
“That was something we knew was going to happen,” Nussmeier said. “We just talked about it and acknowledged it was a thing and just focused on not letting it affect us.”
On Friday, Mississippi issued a statement addressing the fact that its program had been highlighted in national discussions about faking injuries. Ole Miss said it would provide relevant medical information to national officiating coordinator Steve Shaw and that its coaching staff would speak with players to “ensure we conduct ourselves properly.”
UP NEXT
Mississippi: Hosts Oklahoma on Oct. 26.
LSU: At Arkansas on Saturday.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football