Texas A&M vs Mississippi State Preview
Ahoy. The Pirate and his band of merry bulldogs arrive for a 7 PM battle at Kyle Field. Batten down the hatches, men. By: The Hammer
McKinnley Jackson and this Aggie D-line wrecked Mississippi State last year. We need a similar performance on Saturday. Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
The dust has settled on the ugly loss to Arkansas in Jerry World, and Texas A&M welcomes Mike Leach and the Mississippi State Bulldogs to Kyle Field on Saturday night. Time to put the past behind us and learn from the shortcomings. I don’t feel great about this game though. The Aggies should win, but this offense has put up 10 points per game against power five opponents so far this season, and that won’t be enough to win on Saturday. Plus, I am never comfortable playing a Mike Leach team, no matter how good or bad they look.The guy is a mad scientist and he will always worry me.
I wouldn't call this current Bulldog team good, but they are capable. They have issues, just like A&M, but they have improved from last season. That improvement may not show up in the in column, as I think Mississippi State will probably end up last in the SEC West after their loss to LSU last weekend, but this is a better football team than it was a year ago. Cowboy Will Rogers is playing well at quarterback, they just don’t really have any big play ability thankfully. We saw how Arkansas hit on a few big plays and that was the difference last week. Rogers has been incredibly efficient, completing 75.1% of his passes for 1,454 yards, 11 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions so far this year.
While those numbers look pretty gaudy, he is throwing the ball an absurd amount, averaging over 56 attempts per game. This should play right into A&M’s hands as we have the 3rd best pass defense in the country right now, surrendering an average of 119.5 yards per game and just 4.93 yards per attempt. The Aggie secondary has been salty all season and is the key to this game. We need to hold Mississippi State to a low score, because the Aggie offense is reeling right now. I trust Elko to have a very good game plan and I’m guessing there will be a lot of drop eight zones in there.
This is where the game will be won on Saturday: the trenches. Photo by Craig Bisacre, Texas A&M athletics
On the other side of the ball, the Mississippi State defense is solid and will present a big challenge for the struggling offense. The Bulldogs have the #8 rushing defense in the country, allowing 70.8 yards per game. If A&M continues to struggle running the ball, then the Aggie defense has got to hold Rogers back and keep the team in the game, because without a run game this offense is completely lost. The presumed return of starting guard Layden Robinson should help the offensive line and run game, but I’m still worried about our ground game against this Bulldog front seven. Until I see this team run the ball effectively, and see Jimbo commit to running the ball, I’m afraid it will struggle.
I mean hell, Mississippi State held LSU’s offense to 343 total yards and just got beat on big plays that killed them, but big plays are something A&M has not been able to generate at all. So grinding out drives on this Mississippi State team will be tough. I’m interested to see what Jimbo’s offensive plan here is because he has got to change things up in my opinion.
I’m not exactly sure what that looks like, but if Calzada is going to throw over 30+ times and Jimbo puts the game in his hands, it will be a nail biter of a game that the defense will need to win, just like they did in Denver. This offensive line and Zach Calzada have not been able to execute what Jimbo has wanted thus far, so I hope he tries something different to change things up. Catch Mississippi State off guard. Anything but what we’ve been seeing really.
At the end of the day, I like our defense and playmakers on offense to pull out a win. Granted the playmakers on offense, other than Isaiah Spiller, have been quiet all year, I still know the potential is there. And I really like our defense to hold Mississippi State to a low score. The home crowd should impact Rogers some as well, since he has never played in an environment like this. I’m hoping the defense can feed off that energy and Mike Elko has a plan similar to last years to shut them down. I don’t expect much offensively but I think we can get just enough.
We need this game. Losing here with Alabama looming the next week is not an option. Jimbo knows this. The team knows this. The fans know this. It’s going to be close, it’s going to be physical, but give me the Aggies to pull out a close one.
Texas A&M 17
Mississippi State 13
#BTHOMISSISSIPPISTATE
