Commodores Late Comeback Falls Short Against Rebels; Ole Miss Defeats Vanderbilt; 45-38 9/21/02

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Eli Manning threw for a career-high 386 yards and two touchdowns, and Ronald McClendon's 23-yard touchdown run late in the fourth sealed Mississippi's 45-38 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Ole Miss (3-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) beat Vanderbilt (1-3, 0-2) for the ninth time in the last 10 meetings but blew a 38-17 fourth-quarter lead. Kwane Doster and Norval McKenzie each ran for more than 100 yards to lead the Commodores, who scored touchdowns on three straight possessions to tie the game at 38 with 6:51 left on a 3-yard run by Matthew Tant.

The Rebels answered, marching to the Commodores' 23, with Manning completing all five of his passes on the drive. On second down, McClendon took a handoff up the middle, spun away from a tackler at the line and raced in for a touchdown to put Ole Miss up 45-38 with 3:12 left.

Vanderbilt's last drive reached the Ole Miss 27, but Cory Robinson hit Cutler from behind to force a fumble that was recovered by the Rebels with 15 seconds left. The teams combined for 957 total yards, and the Commodores lost their 11th straight SEC game. Manning was 6-for-8 for 232 yards in the third quarter as the teams moved up and down the field with ease. Manning finished 24-for-41 and extended his streak of games with a touchdown pass to 16. He also became the first Ole Miss quarterback to have consecutive 300-yard games and set the school mark of career 300-yard games with four. Manning's father, Archie, was one of the players with three 300-yard passing games.

The Commodores pulled to 16-10 on a field goal when the Rebels broke their first big play. Chris Collins got behind the Vanderbilt secondary and Manning lofted a pass to the wide-open receiver, who went 79 yards for the score. It took Vanderbilt less than two minutes to make it close again as Jay Cutler hit M.J. Garrett for a 49-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 23-17. On the Rebels' next play from scrimmage, Manning went deep. He found Mike Espy, who was streaking down the middle with a step on the defender, for a 78-yard touchdown to make it 30-17.

Manning kept the hot hand on the Rebels' next possession, going 3-for-3 for67 yards. Vashon Pearson capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run, his second of the game. Pearson caught a 2-point conversion to make it 38-17 Doster had 101 yards rushing and a touchdown, and 95-yard kickoff return that set up Vanderbilt's first fourth-quarter touchdown.

Cutler threw for 207 yards and two touchdowns, and his 1-yard TD sneak with 9:13 left cut the Ole Miss lead to 38-31. The Rebels lost two starters to serious injuries in the first half. Tight end Doug Ziegler broke his left leg and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. He is out for the season. Outside linebacker Lanier Goethie broke his left foot and will also most likely miss the rest of the year.