NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for 448 yards and three touchdowns, with Jonathan Mingo catching 247 yards of those passes, as the Rebels scored 35 unanswered points to beat Vanderbilt, 52-28 at FirstBank Stadium on Saturday.

The Rebels scored 21 points in the first 8:30 of the second half to take a commanding lead.

Ole Miss trailed at half, but Zach Evans scored on a 24-yard run around the left side to give the Rebels a 24-20 advantage, their first since a 3-0 first-quarter lead.

After a Commodore fumble on the ensuing drive, the Rebels' Quinshon Judkins added a 6-yard TD run on the next snap.

After a quick Vanderbilt punt, Dart found Mingo wide open down the middle of the field for a 71-yard catch-and-run score.

The Rebels took the ball to start the game and drove 64 yards in 13 plays, with Jonathan Cruz’s field goal accounting for the game’s first points.

Vandy countered with a 23-yard Joseph Bulovas field goal following an 11-play, 56-yard drive.

Vandy took the lead after Swann hit Jayden McGowan with a swing pass around the line of scrimmage, and McGowan out-ran the Rebel secondary for a 40-yard touchdown to give the ‘Dores a lead.

After De’Rickey Wright picked Dart on an ill-advised throw and returned it to the Rebel 44, setting up a Bulovas field goal. Dart bounced back and hit Jordan Watkins for a 61-yard score on the Rebels’ next drive with 10:26 left before half.

Davis added a 5-yard scoring run with 1:32 left in the half. But that left the Rebels enough time for a 62-yard touchdown drive punctuated by Judkins’ 3-yard TD run, making it 20-17 at half.

Mingo added a 72-yard touchdown catch-and-run in the fourth quarter.

Vandy's Will Sheppard hauled in a 9-yard score with 4:03 left, with Ben Bresnahan hauling in a 2-point pass from Swann.

Ole Miss's Matt Jones added a 1-yard scoring run with 18 seconds left.

There were plenty of things to like before Ole Miss took control. Swann looked the part of a Southeastern Conference quarterback, while McGowan, on his touchdown, won the kind of footrace the Commodores need to win if they're going to compete in their own league. Davis may not be a breakaway back but Vandy's workhorse back certainly had a quality game. Wright's first-half pick was big, too.

The better team took control in the second half, but that doesn't mean there aren't things to build on.

Everything Vanderbilt feared about its pass defense bit the Commodores today. Taking nothing away from Dart here, but Vanderbilt made it way, way too easy thanks to the combination of zero pass rush and coverages that looked designed to give up short throws, combined with a complete failure to cover deep balls.

Twice in the first half, Dart burned the Commodores over the middle, with Dart hitting Watkins for 61 and a score and another, a 48-yard heave to the 3 again over the middle. And the throw to Mingo to for the mid-third-quarter TD may have been as easy as any of them.

The 72-yard score to Mingo was of a different sort--Jeremy Lucien had short coverage and got picked off by another Ole Miss offensive player, springing Mingo for an easy score after Anfernee Orji missed a tackle.

It looked like a replay of last year--Vanderbilt had no one Ole Miss needs to be scared to block, and not nearly enough speed in the back seven to be competitive in the open field.

The offensive line's play to start the second half also didn't help. A barrage of third-quarter holding penalties led to quick series and punts that gave the Rebels the ball at the time the defense wasn't stopping anybody.

It goes in the books as a Swann fumble, but that turnover was on Davis. Swann threw what was ruled a lateral to Davis early in the third quarter, and Davis, thinking it was an incomplete pass, let the ball go to give Ole Miss an easy fumble recovery at the Vandy 6. It looked like a lateral live (replays were less clear that it was) but either way, it was close enough that a veteran like Davis should have chased it down. Ole Miss scored a touchdown on the next play, going up 30-20, and it was over from there.

There seemed to be no sense of urgency once Ole Miss took the lead. The Commodores were content to huddle and mostly run the ball as the Rebels added to the lead every time they got the ball.

The Commodores made a change at one starting corner and and at left tackle. BJ Anderson took a starting job back, this time, replacing Tyson Russell, who’d held the starting job since the first week of fall camp. Meanwhile, Junior Uzebu started ahead of Gunnar Hansen at left tackle.

Swann made a big-time play to keep Vandy’s first TD drive alive. On third-and-4 from midfield, with Ole Miss getting some back-side pressure, Swann ran right and waited for Sheppard to come back for the ball, hitting his receiver with a 9-yard dart for a first down. It showed a lot of poise, arm strength, awareness and accuracy on the same throw and there are several starting SEC quarterbacks who can’t make that play. If you’re wondering why the staff gave Swann the job, that play right there was a good example of why.

Vandy threw in Mike Wright for some packages late in the second quarter and wound up with a touchdown. I question whether that was the right call, but it had a good outcome; Wright ran three times for 13 yards and the drive ended with a Davis touchdown run on fourth-and-3 from the Rebel 5 .

Vanderbilt rolled the dice on fourth-and-2 from Ole Miss territory and got it. Swann found Sheppard with a short throw and an early conversion helped keep an eventual scoring drive alive.

Vanderbilt entered this one very healthy. There were no unexpected absences; Daevion Davis is still out, Miles Capers, Bradley Mann and Taco Wright are out for the year and other than that, Chase Gillespie was the only scholarship player of note not dressed. (Gillespie is now the fourth-team tailback, and perhaps redshirting since he’s played four games.)