Ole Miss pressured the Auburn quarterback 27 times on Saturday.
Twenty-seven. Against Texas a week ago it was 13. Against Missouri it was 14. At Florida, the low point of the season, it was six. This defense has not been within ten pressures of that number all year, and it produced it in a 45-15 win over an SEC opponent at Vaught-Hemingway.
Three of those pressures were sacks. Two of the three belonged to Suntarine Perkins, which brings us to the part of this column that is an apology.
The apology
This space has written some version of the same sentence about Suntarine Perkins for a month. He graded 48.3 against Missouri, last on the defense. He graded 63.3 against Texas. The season tab had him at eight pressures on 82 pass-rush snaps, and this column called that a usage question and then kept calling it one.
On Saturday he rushed the passer 21 times and generated four pressures, including two sacks — two of the three Ole Miss recorded as a team. He graded 68.7 overall. And his coverage grade was 77.8, the best of any front-seven player on the field.
One game does not settle a season-long trend, and the honest version of this is that his run-defense grade was 54.9, which is still the lowest among the regulars in the front. But the specific complaint this column made — that he does not produce when he rushes — is the exact thing he did produce. The record should say so as plainly as it said the other thing.
Where 27 pressures came from
| Pass rush | Snaps | Rushes | Pressures | Sacks | Overall | Pass rush |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blake Purchase | 43 | 35 | 4 | 0 | 70.0 | 60.3 |
| Suntarine Perkins | 38 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 68.7 | 62.5 |
| Tah’j Butler | 54 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 75.3 | 77.6 |
| Kam Franklin | 44 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 66.9 | 60.5 |
| Keaton Thomas | 70 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 72.6 | 52.0 |
| Will Echoles | 47 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 63.9 | 64.8 |
| Landon Barnes | 18 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 71.2 | 58.6 |
| Jamarious Brown | 22 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 72.4 | 54.8 |
| Jonathan Maldonado | 24 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 63.8 | 61.6 |
| Jehiem Oatis | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 51.3 | 55.9 |
| Team | 77 | — | 27 | 3 | — | — |
Twenty-three of the 27 were hurries, which is the honest caveat on the headline number — this was a defense that got there late and often rather than one that lived in the backfield. But getting there late 23 times is still a quarterback throwing uncomfortably all afternoon, and Auburn scored 15 points.
Will Echoles is the one to watch. Thirty-seven pass-rush snaps, the most on the team, and three pressures. Against Texas he had 25 rushes and zero. That is movement in the right direction from a standing start, but a player taking the most rush snaps on the roster should not be fourth in production.
And Tah’j Butler, who rushed only 11 times, generated three pressures and a sack with a 77.6 pass-rush grade — the best mark on the defense. Fifty-four snaps, 75.3 overall, second-best on the field among everyone who played real volume. He has quietly become the most complete player in that front seven.
Ten missed tackles, by ten different people
Ole Miss missed ten tackles. That is down from twelve against Texas, which is a modest improvement and not the interesting part.
The interesting part is that ten different players missed one apiece. Nobody missed two.
Against Texas, Sharif Denson missed three and Luke Ferrelli missed three — half the total between two men. That is a defect you can point at. Ten misses spread across ten players over 77 snaps is not a defect, it is the ordinary friction of playing football, and it is the first week this season the tackling chart has looked like that.
| Second level | Snaps | Cov snaps | Misses | Overall | Tackling | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaylon Braxton | 70 | 51 | 0 | 74.0 | 80.7 | 73.2 |
| Keaton Thomas | 70 | 40 | 1 | 72.6 | 73.2 | 72.2 |
| Antonio Kite | 68 | 48 | 1 | 62.9 | 80.9 | 62.6 |
| Sharif Denson | 67 | 50 | 1 | 56.3 | 53.8 | 52.6 |
| Nick Cull | 64 | 44 | 1 | 68.2 | 46.9 | 68.5 |
| Joenel Aguero | 58 | 42 | 0 | 53.2 | 81.4 | 51.5 |
| Tah’j Butler | 54 | 31 | 1 | 75.3 | 58.7 | 68.5 |
| Anthony Robinson III | 18 | 12 | 1 | 71.5 | 28.9 | 81.2 |
| Luke Ferrelli | 16 | 9 | 0 | 71.5 | 75.8 | 60.5 |
| Jalyn Crawford | 4 | 4 | 0 | 64.0 | 77.0 | 63.5 |
Two snap counts in that table are the real news.
Nick Cull played 64 snaps. He played 29 against Texas, 34 against Missouri, and this column has argued for three straight weeks that he should be on the field more. He was on the field more. He graded 68.2, twelfth on the defense, with one missed tackle and a 46.9 tackling grade.
That is the honest result and it is worth sitting with. The argument was that his per-snap production on 35 percent of the defense deserved a bigger share. He got the bigger share and he was good, not transformative. Both of those things are true, and a column that demands something should report what happened when it got it.
Jalyn Crawford played four snaps. A week after the best cornerback performance of the Ole Miss season — two interceptions, a 21.4 passer rating allowed, the first Rebel with two picks in a game since 2023 — he was on the field for four. Luke Ferrelli went from 52 snaps to 16 in the same week. Neither drop has an explanation in this report, and both are worth an answer at the Monday podium.
Coverage: one corner is carrying it and one is not
| Coverage | Targets | Catches | Yards | Rating allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaylon Braxton | 3 | 1 | -1 | 42.4 |
| Antonio Kite | 7 | 5 | 55 | 133.9 |
| Nick Cull | 5 | 3 | 23 | 71.3 |
| Sharif Denson | 3 | 3 | 51 | 118.8 |
| Joenel Aguero | 2 | 2 | 31 | 118.8 |
| Team | 39 | 29 | 249 | 99.2 |
Jaylon Braxton was targeted three times, allowed one catch, and that catch lost a yard. A 42.4 rating allowed on 70 snaps is the quietest excellent game anybody had on Saturday.
Antonio Kite gave up five of seven for 55 and a 133.9 rating. That is his second straight week in that neighborhood — he allowed a 151.5 rating against Texas. His tackling grade was 80.9, third-best in the secondary, so this is specifically a coverage problem and not a general one. Two weeks does not make a trend, but it is now a pattern worth naming.
The team allowed a 99.2 rating on 39 targets with no interceptions. Against a team that scored 15, that is the number that says this was won in the pass rush rather than the back end.
The offense ran it again, and Chambliss had his best day of the year
Eighty-six offensive snaps: 48 runs, 38 passes.
A week ago in Austin it was 27 runs and 59 passes. That is a complete inversion in seven days, and it came without Kewan Lacy, who did not play.
| Backfield | Snaps | Carries | Overall | Run grade | Pass blk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makhi Frazier | 42 | 17 | 63.3 | 65.2 | 34.0 |
| Shekai Mills-Knight | 36 | 16 | 73.7 | 73.9 | 76.6 |
| JT Lindsey | 4 | 3 | 55.1 | 56.4 | — |
| Joshua Dye | 4 | 0 | 52.9 | — | 0.0 |
Shekai Mills-Knight took 36 snaps and 16 carries in what amounts to his introduction, and he out-graded Makhi Frazier on both of the things a back gets graded on — 73.9 running against 65.2, and 76.6 in pass protection against 34.0. Frazier played more. Mills-Knight played better.
Frazier’s 34.0 pass-blocking grade is the thing to fix. Joshua Dye’s 0.0 on his lone pass-block snap is the second straight week this column has had to write a number like that about him.
| Offensive line | Snaps | Overall | Pass blk | Run blk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terez Davis (LT) | 82 | 69.8 | 80.5 | 63.6 |
| Brycen Sanders (C) | 82 | 64.6 | 84.6 | 59.3 |
| Delano Townsend (LG) | 82 | 57.0 | 61.2 | 54.9 |
| Patrick Kutas (RG) | 80 | 74.7 | 81.7 | 73.4 |
| Connor Howes (RG) | 52 | 68.4 | 33.3 | 75.8 |
| Tommy Kinsler IV (RT) | 30 | 64.5 | 69.6 | 61.8 |
Terez Davis came back and played 82 snaps at left tackle with an 80.5 pass-blocking grade. That is the good news and it was expected.
The strange news is Connor Howes. Last week, filling in at left tackle, he posted an 84.6 pass-blocking grade — the best on the offense, and this column led with it. Back at right guard with Davis healthy, he graded 33.3 in pass protection. His run blocking went the other way, 60.0 to 75.8.
One week at each spot is not enough to conclude anything. But it is enough to ask the question out loud: the best pass-blocking game anyone on this line has played this season was Connor Howes at tackle, and he is not playing tackle.
Patrick Kutas was the best lineman on the field — 74.7 overall, 81.7 pass blocking, 73.4 run blocking, the only member of the group above 70 in both columns.
Chambliss, and the receiver who still cannot get on the field
Trinidad Chambliss graded 85.7. That is his best game of the season by a comfortable margin, and it is the highest single-game offensive grade any Ole Miss player has posted this year.
Both halves of his game were there: 77.8 passing on 38 dropbacks, and 79.7 rushing on seven carries. A week after 52 attempts and three interceptions in Austin, he threw it 38 times and was the best player on the field.
| Receivers & tight ends | Snaps | Routes | Overall | Receiving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horatio Fields | 68 | 32 | 67.8 | 67.4 |
| Deuce Alexander | 60 | 27 | 57.6 | 59.7 |
| Caleb Odom | 59 | 22 | 67.3 | 66.7 |
| Luke Hasz | 59 | 18 | 63.9 | 68.5 |
| Caleb Cunningham | 26 | 14 | 74.7 | 76.7 |
| Michael Smith | 24 | 7 | 44.3 | 52.5 |
| Traylon Ray | 17 | 10 | 63.4 | 63.2 |
| Darrell Gill Jr. | 9 | 2 | 57.3 | 57.4 |
Caleb Cunningham played 26 snaps and graded 74.7, fourth on the entire offense and best among the receivers. He played 16 against Texas and 34 against Missouri, and he has the best season receiving grade on the roster.
This is the fourth consecutive week this column has written a paragraph like that one. He grades out at or near the top of the receiver room every single time he is on the field, and every single week he is on the field for less than a third of the snaps.
What carries to Georgia
- The pass rush is real now, and it is not one player. Seven different Rebels generated two or more pressures. Against Florida in September the whole team managed six pressures total.
- Suntarine Perkins answered the specific criticism. Two of the three sacks, four pressures on 21 rushes, and the best coverage grade in the front seven. The run-defense grade is still the open question.
- The tackling chart has stopped concentrating. Ten misses by ten players is a different thing from twelve misses with half belonging to two men.
- Three snap counts need explaining before Saturday. Jalyn Crawford at four, Luke Ferrelli at 16, and Caleb Cunningham at 26 are all players who earned more than they got.
- Connor Howes at tackle is an unanswered question. 84.6 pass blocking there, 33.3 at guard, one week apart.
Ole Miss is 6-2. Georgia comes to Oxford on Saturday. A defense that generated 27 pressures and a quarterback who graded 85.7 is a reasonable set of things to bring into that week.
Photo: Suntarine Perkins, October 31, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
Snap counts and grades via Pro Football Focus. Ole Miss charted 30 players on offense and 34 on defense against Auburn.