Here are some immediate thoughts on Vanderbilt's 33-7 loss at Ole Miss.

This was never remotely interesting and the outcome was never in doubt.

Sure, Ole Miss was a 25-point favorite, and sure, given the discrepancies in talent and speed, being competitive late in this game was always a tough needle to thread. But couldn't the Commodores at least have made a game of it for a half?

Ole Miss was up 10-0 in the blink of an eye. The sequence: Jaxson Dart escaped pressure and hit Dayton Wade for a 39-yard throw to the Vandy 25, which set up Quinshon Judkins’s 18-yard scoring run 99 seconds in. After a second-down sack, Ole Miss’s Zamari Walton tipped a Ken Seals pass to Trey Washington, who returned it to the Vandy 11 before the ‘Dores forced a 27-yard field goal at the 10:34 mark.

It was 26-0 at half, with the Rebels holding a 301-82 edge in total offense.

Vanderbilt played musical chairs with quarterbacks and that's not fair to Seals.

In a sport where loyalty for little return is non-existent, Seals has given Vanderbilt more than almost anyone would, enduring all the drama of 2020, playing through injuries (and losing his job) in 2021, and then going over 600 days without taking a snap all before regaining his job in one of the more feel-good stories of this Vanderbilt season.

Seals started his fourth-straight game on Saturday. And while he wasn't making everyone forget Jay Cutler, he was about the least of the team's problems, compiling six touchdowns and two interceptions and throwing for over 200 yards in all of his previous starts. And maybe more than that, he provided steady leadership on a team that could use it.

On Saturday night, Seals got repaid for all that by getting benched in the middle of the second quarter for Walter Taylor. Sure, Seals wasn't great, and threw a pick he shouldn't have, but again, the blocking was so bad that nobody was succeeding in that spot.

Maybe the defense was, that you didn't want to get Seals killed, and that Taylor's a bigger guy, but that's a good way to hurt Taylor's confidence, too.

Maybe the defense was that Taylor was more mobile, but Taylor isn't reminding anyone of Mike Wright. If that's the strategy, maybe more thought should have gone into keeping Wright.

I'm not sure what was accomplished with all this. This isn't based on any information, but in a locker room where I think Seals has people's respect, it probably did more harm than good.

The game was long over before Vanderbilt abandoned any sense of predictability.

Vanderbilt had six first-half drives and started each with a run. This despite the fact the team trailed 7-0 before it touched the ball. Two were Taylor runs.

I get that you've got to have a run-pass balance. But when you're facing a team that averages nearly 40 points a game and banking on a rushing attack that's getting 2.7 yards a carry in Southeastern Conference games, it's hard to fathom how that's a winning strategy. Again, there were protection issues and I get that, but there's also no better way to get a quarterback killed than to continually put him in second- and third-and-long, which is exactly what it did.

There’s no excuse for the offense to be this uncompetitive, and by calling first downs the way it did, that's exactly what Vanderbilt got.

Vanderbilt's biggest goal this week, if not wining the game, should have to provide hope in something, It failed to do even a little bit of that.

A scan of message boards and social media should tell you all you need to know. And the fact the team had two weeks off to prepare for this only made it worse.

Langston Patterson was the night's bright spot.

Patterson had two huge plays to keep Ole Miss out of the end zone in the first quarter, and another late in the half. With the Rebels cramming it down Vandy’s throat, Patterson tracked down Judkins from the back side and tackled him from a loss of 1 at the VU 3. A couple of plays later, he sacked Dart for a 24-yard loss and forced a fumble, after which teammate Yilanan Outtara saw the ball go between his hands in an attempt at a potential scoop-and-score.

In the half’s final minute, Patterson dropped back in coverage and picked Dart at the Vandy 15.