Convincing Enough? Ags beat Auburn 31-20
Texas A&M vs Auburn recap and reaction. By: The Hammer
What a great team win. This is the best football team we have had since Johnny Manziel was on campus, and I would argue that the team is overall better right now. Johnny covered up a lot of deficiencies, and the current team has precious little deficiencies to speak of. I can’t say enough about how proud I am of this team and how fun they have been to watch. Regardless of what people say about A&M’s playoff chances, we are 7-1 in December. Since losing to Alabama, the Aggies have won six straight games, starting with a win over #4 Florida and followed by five straight SEC wins by a double-digit margin.
Photo: Craig Bisacre, Texas A&M Athletics
The Aggies are winning and winning comfortably. If you have been a fan for as long as I have, you know this is not normal. Texas A&M is not supposed to beat five straight SEC teams by double digits, especially when two of those teams are named Auburn and LSU. Just ask other SEC fans. Plus, we are winning by beating our opponents into submission with physicality. Jimbo has changed the culture and the team is learning how to win in multiple ways. This is a great time to be an Aggie, especially considering the Ags have not played a meaningful game in early December since the Big 12 championship game in 1998. Yeah, I get it is not a conference title game and we’re only playing in December due to COVID-19 but let’s enjoy it. Here we are playing very impactful games down the stretch.
This group of seniors started their college career with the worst collapse in modern college football when the Aggies gave up a 34 point second-half lead and lost to UCLA. That same group is now leading the number #5 team in the country, and are fighting their tails off for a College Football Playoff berth. Quite the turnaround and it’s a testament to their hard work, dedication, and the work of Jimbo Fisher.
After last week's 20-7 victory over LSU, the narrative spewing from national media talking heads was that the win was not “impressive” or “convincing” enough. I talked about this last week so I don't want to get back into the LSU performance, but I’m interested to hear what these “experts” will say after the 31-20 win against Auburn in Jordan-Hare. Stats do not lie:
Texas A&M Auburn
1st downs: 29 16
3rd down efficiency: 7-11 4-10
Total yards: 509 340
Passing yards: 196 144
Comp-Att: 18-23 15-24
Rushing yards: 313 196
Yards per rush: 6.7 6.5
Time off possession: 38 min 22 min
Is this convincing enough? Are five straight double digit wins against SEC teams convincing enough? Normally I would not just regurgitate stats onto the page but to try and quell this “not convincing” garbage it helps to display how much better the Aggies were on Saturday. Better in every facet of the game except for penalties, but only tallying four in the game is not a concern. Again, Texas A&M has won six straight games, and been pretty damn convincing in all of them, including Florida where we ran all over their defensive front. Does that mean we deserve to be in the playoff? I don’t know. Maybe. But stop the trash rhetoric that the Aggies aren't winning convincingly enough because that is not even close to true, especially when you compare it to other teams like Florida or Ohio State, who have had plenty of “close” or “unconvincing” wins themselves.
This is a game that A&M would have lost in previous years. A sleepy 11 am kickoff on the road when they are expected to win? Yeah, sounds like a perfect recipe for a let down. Almost had that Mississippi State 2016 feel to it. And the game felt like that for a while. A&M wasn’t finishing drives, Bo Nix was running wild and Auburn was in it. The way A&M was playing and moving the ball offensively made me confident we would pull it out. Give credit to Auburn for hanging tough and having a 20-14 lead going into the fourth quarter. But when it came to nut cuttin’ time, the Aggies stepped up.
Texas A&M scored 17 unanswered points to finish out the game and come away with the win. The defense was a bit off, especially early on with the missed tackles, but when we needed them they forced two straight three and outs and shut out the Tigers in the fourth quarter. Before Jimbo arrived, a 20-14 deficit in the fourth quarter on the road is not a game A&M would win. Yesterday, I expected the Aggies to find a way to win.
The offense moved the ball so well all day, I knew if we could get some stops we’d win. Kellen Mond responded after a poor performance last week and was efficient all day, even in the run game where he ran for 60 yards. The biggest story offensively is clearly the offensive line and run game. We pushed Auburn around all day and ran in it down their throats. Isaiah Spiller led the way with 120 yards, freshman Achane added 99, Mond had 60 and even Ainias had 36. It was a team effort in the run game and Auburn had no hope to stop it. The offensive line absolutely bullied Auburn from whistle to whistle.
My favorite play of the day was when Ainias Smith, who had just caught a 38 yard pass on the prior play, lined up at tailback in the I formation with Isaiah Spiller at fullback. Jimbo threw out this formation for the first time all year and had Chase Lane come in motion to fake a jet sweep before handing it off to Smith who followed Spiller to paydirt from four yards out. I loved it. Spiller getting down and dirty from the fullback position and Smith finishing off a great drive to really put the game away. Having never seen that formation before, I’m sure the Auburn defense was confused. A great play call and set up by Jimbo.
Photo: Butch Dill, AP Photo
On the defensive side, I can’t say any one player stood out in particular and had a great game. But in today’s college football if you only give up 20 points, pat yourself on the back on a job well done. Bo Nix gave the Aggies trouble with his legs and made A&M pay for not wrapping up. This was probably the worst A&M has been all year against the run, but they came up big when it mattered. And Nix couldn’t throw on the Aggies. Part of that is probably Nix’s lack of accuracy (see missed TD pass in first half) but some credit is due to the Aggie secondary for good coverage all afternoon. It’s not like Nix was missing wide open receivers all game, the coverage was very sound, especially considering Demani Richardson was not out there.
If you want to nitpick, the Aggies need to tackle better and are still lacking in the wide receiver department. The passing game consists of Jalen Wydermyer and Ainias Smith. Those two are both exceptional players but neither are true wide receivers. Smith is a swiss army knife playing all over the field and Wydermyer is a true tight end. Not the Kyle Pitts kind of tight end who actually plays receiver, Wydermyer is a real tight end. That guy is down in a three point stance a ton, and he blocks very well in the run game.
Overall, most of what we thought would happen ended up happening. The offense returned to form, Kellen was sharp and the defense played well again. I predicted a 34-21 victory in the preview, so I’m basically a genius. As much as I want to pat myself on the back, it doesn't take a genius to see how that matchup would play out. This late in the year, we know these teams. We know their strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, etc. So as long as the execution was good, it was not hard to see how this game would go. With that said, still a great win for the Ags again, starting to sound like a broken record. This has been an awesome year and I just hope we finish strong, no matter what happens in the CFP rankings or what the committee says. Win out, go 9-1 and let the chips fall where they may.
#BTHOOleMiss
