The Texas A&M football team had a tough challenge for their Week 7 contest. The Aggies had to avoid a potential trap game against a feisty Missouri team that had a threatening offense. Texas A&M was ready for the task.
The Aggies marched into Columbia, Missouri, and asserted their dominance against a less talented SEC team. Texas A&M would defeat the Missouri Tigers by 21 points, 35 to 14.
In this contest, Jimbo Fisher’s squad gave Aggie fans a lot to look forward to. Today, I’m going to go over the three biggest takeaways from Texas A&M’s comfortable win over Missouri.
Takeaway No. 1: The Texas A&M football team’s win over Alabama wasn’t a fluke
One of the biggest worries surrounding this Aggie football team was a worry that Texas A&M couldn’t keep up the level of play that we saw against ‘Bama last week. You can deny it all you want — this is a team that had only proven itself in a single game all year long.
On Saturday, Fisher’s squad marched onto Missouri’s home field and proved that they were an upper-tier SEC team.
The Aggies outgained the Tigers 433 to 328 in a game that was never really in question. A&M played well in all phases of the game.
The primary takeaway from this game should be that the Texas A&M football team is here to stay — their win against Alabama wasn’t a one-time thing. After failing to prove themselves against other Power Five teams like Colorado, Arkansas, and Mississippi State, A&M now has two straight convincing wins in the past two weeks.
Takeaway No. 2: The Texas A&M football team’s runningback duo can be dominant
Okay, before I get too high on the Aggies’ rushing attack, it’s worth noting that Mizzou has arguably the worst rushing defense in college football. Actually, you can take the “arguably” out of that sentence — through Week 6, the Tigers allowed 287.2 yards per contest. That’s the worst in the country by nearly 20 yards.
Still, it’s promising to see both of your runningbacks perform at a high level. In the Aggies’ contest against Mizzou, they racked up 283 yards, 168 to Spiller, and 124 to Achane. This also includes -17 yards to Zach Calzada.
This included 3 rushing touchdowns in total, one of which was done by Spiller and two of which were done by Achane.
This isn’t the type of rushing performance that you’ll be bragging about throughout the week, but it’s a great confidence-builder for your backs. Look for Spiller and Achane to use this confidence moving forward, as A&M will need to establish the run to dominate against tougher SEC opponents.
Takeaway No. 3: The Texas A&M football defense is still really good
After a really bad second half defensively against Alabama, there were serious questions about the Aggies’ defense. They had allowed a passing barrage against Mississippi State a week prior, creating questions about a Texas A&M passing defense that was dominant in the Aggies’ first few contests.
The Aggies had a test on Saturday against a Missouri offense that was in the top-25 in the country in terms of yards per game. They passed the test.
Mizzou wasn’t really able to do much right offensively against Texas A&M. Their star quarterback Connor Bazelak struggled to throw the ball, tossing two interceptions without throwing a touchdown pass.
The Tigers’ star runningback in Tyler Badie only managed 3.1 yards per carry and 68 total on the the night. In total, this Aggie defense created two turnovers and allowed just 98 total rushing yards.
You can say all that you want about Mizzou’s defense — they’ve had a strong offensive attack all year long. On Saturday, Texas A&M learned how strong offense can benefit strong defense, playing cohesive football on each side.
This was the Aggies’ first complete game against a Power Five opponent and can function as a building block moving forward.