LSU rallies to beat feisty Ole Miss team

BATON ROUGE, La. — Odell Beckham’s 89-yard punt return in the fourth quarter breathed much-needed life into LSU, and Jeremy Hill scored on a one-yard touchdown run with 15 seconds left to give the eighth-ranked Tigers a 41-35 victory over Mississippi on Saturday.

The Tigers (9-2, 5-2) maintained barely flickering hopes of getting to the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 1. The Tigers need an Alabama loss to Auburn next week and a Texas A&M victory at Missouri to force a three-way tie.

LSU would win the tiebreaker and face Georgia.

None of that seemed very relevant for most of Saturday, as the Rebels made the Tigers sweat out a win on Senior Day.

Hill’s second touchdown of the game was the fourth of the final quarter, as the teams went back-and-forth.

No play was bigger than Beckham’s punt-return touchdown against Ole Miss, which Billy Cannon famously beat with a fourth-quarter score of the same distance on Halloween night in 1959.

Ole Miss was ahead, 35-28, after a rapid-fire touchdown drive snapped a tie that LSU forged with a well-executed 12-play march.

The team exchanged punts and on the Rebels’ kick, Beckham fielded the ball at the 11, started left, and got a huge block from Jalen Collins that took out two players.

Beckham weaved his way back right, broke two tackles and got to a wall on the right sideline with no Ole Miss players anywhere close.

As Beckham sprinted down the sideline, Jarvis Landry provided an escort, a waving his right arm like a windmill.

Those two final touchdowns finally wiped out a lead the Rebels held most of the day, thanks to quarterback Bo Wallace’s huge day.

Wallace passed for 310 yards and two touchdowns to Donte Moncrief, who hauled in six passes for 161 yards. Wallace also ran for a 58-yard touchdown to get Ole Miss on the board in the first quarter.

LSU countered with another stout passing day from Zach Mettenberger, who completed 22-of-37 for 281 yards. Hill ran for 93 yards.