Dog day: Crude celebration costly as Ole Miss loses Egg Bowl by 1 point

Elijah Moore's celebration against Arkansas earlier this season was typical, but a crude jubiliation pantomine Saturday cost Ole Miss a chance to send the Egg Bowl into overtime.

Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Elijah Moore's celebration against Arkansas earlier this season was typical, but a crude jubiliation pantomine Saturday cost Ole Miss a chance to send the Egg Bowl into overtime.

It was a bad time to let the dogs out.

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With a chance to tie its biggest rival, Ole Miss laid an egg Saturday. Undoubtedly, Rebels' football coach Matt Luke will keep the leash tighter on his players in the future.

Luke Logan missed a 35-yard extra-point attempt Saturday, moments after Ole Miss receiver Elijah Moore was penalized after his late touchdown catch for crawling and pretending to urinate like a dog. The missed extra point allowed the Mississippi State Bulldogs to escape with a 21-20 victory in the 116th Egg Bowl, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.

Moore caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Matt Corral with four seconds remaining in regulation. However, Moore's celebration, where he crawled on all fours and lifted a leg to simulate a dog -- turned what should have been a chip-shot extra-point attempt from Logan into a 35-yard try as the Rebels were penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"I'm just disappointed," Luke told reporters. "That's not who we are. We've been a disciplined team all year. That's just disappointing."

"I think everybody was excited we scored a touchdown," Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee told the Clarion-Ledger. "When you're excited and make a big play, I think you celebrate a little bit. They just didn't call it our way."

Logan said he would have attempted a game-tying extra point even if no penalty had been called, the newspaper reported.

Moore's celebration mirrored similar antics in the 2017 Egg Bowl, CBS Sports reported. In that game, D.K. Metcalf struck a similar pose against the Bulldogs. Ole Miss won that game. This year's antics proved to be more costly.

Neither Corral nor Moore were available to comment after the game, according to the Clarion-Ledger.

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