The Texas A&M football team secured their fifth win of the year on Saturday against a formidable opponent in the Missouri Tigers. The Aggies dominated the game from start to finish, winning the contest by a large margin of 21 points.
In doing so, they put the college football world on notice — the Alabama game wasn’t a fluke.
And throughout the contest, the Aggies had strong performances from a handful of players that helped them win convincingly. Today, I’m going to go over the three best performances in the Aggies 35-14 Week 7 win over Missouri.
Texas A&M Football, Week 7 Key Performance Honorable Mention: WR Ainias Smith
All things considered, Ainias Smith had somewhat of a quiet game. His three receptions marked his second-lowest total of the season. That said, Smith made his three catches count, reeling two of them in for touchdowns.
The Aggies’ swiss-army knife of a runningback-wide receiver hybrid has been huge for Calzada, quickly becoming the backup quarterback’s top option. Against Missouri on Saturday, he was huge.
Calzada spread the love to different receivers throughout the game, so Smith’s three receptions and 34 yards through the air were a team-high. He continues to be this team’s most consistent player offensively.
That said, I can only give Smith an honorable mention spot because he only had three catches — even if they were all memorable.
Texas A&M Football, Week 7 Key Performance No. 3: RB Isaiah Spiller
To be honest, I thought I’d be talking about Spiller’s key performance more than I have this season so far. It’s not really his fault — the All-SEC Aggie back has arguably had the worst draw of luck this season of anybody on the team. His sidekick in Haynes King only played a single full game, while his offensive line has struggled to stay healthy.
Through six games, Spiller had not yet had a breakout performance. On Saturday, he finally did just that.
The Texas A&M runningback rushed for 168 yards on the night. To find the last time he totaled that many yards, you have to rewind all the way to last year’s Florida game.
The caveat here is that Missouri has the worst rushing defense in college football by a wide margin. Heck, the Aggies put up 283 rushing yards on the Tigers and it didn’t even reach Missouri’s season average in terms of rushing yards allowed (287.2).
Still, Spiller’s performance was impressive.
The best part of Spiller’s performance was that he set the tone early. The Aggie back had 79 rushing yards on the first two drives alone, setting the tone for a Texas A&M football team that would take an early lead and never look back.
Texas A&M Football, Week 7 Key Performance No. 2: DB Antonio Johnson
Before I get into why Antonio Johnson is my number two key player for Texas A&M in their win over Missouri, I have to hand out some other credit first. Since Johnson is the only defensive player to make this list in a strong defensive performance, I’ll mention the other two playmakers on that side of the ball.
The first was DeMarvin Leal who, as usual, was extremely disruptive in the trenches. The Aggie defensive lineman recorded six tackles on the night with a sack and two tackles for loss. He was truly dominant against a solid Mizzou offensive line.
The second was one of the players in this game who recorded an interception in Jaylon Jones. Jones has been gradually improving since stepping on campus last year and recorded his first interception of the season. That said, it landed directly in his hands, so I had to give the nod to Johnson on this slide.
Johnson, in my opinion, put the nail in the coffin in this game early with a late first-quarter interception. The Aggie cornerback got his first career interception after Missouri converted a second and 19 on their own four-yard line into a first down. Any offensive momentum for the Tigers would be killed soon after when Johnson intercepted a pass in Tiger territory.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t amount to anything, as the Aggies would lose six yards and miss a field goal on the ensuing possession. Still — this was a big momentum play for A&M.
Credit should also be given to Leon O’Neal, who provided strong pressure on Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak on the play.
Texas A&M Football, Week 7 Key Performance No. 1: RB Devon Achane
I may not be the most popular guy in the room for this take, but my biggest performer on the day for the Aggies is Devon Achane.
Sure, Spiller had more yards than his backfield counterpart in Achane, but I’d argue that the speedy RB2 had a more impactful night. Here’s why.
For starters, Achane scored two touchdown rushes. One of them was from just a single yard out, but the Aggie runningback carried the drive to that point. Prior to this, Achane had three consecutive runs that netted a total of 22 yards.
Something that Texas A&M football fans may not be used to with Achane is consistency when running the football. Generally speaking, he’ll get stuffed at the line of scrimmage frequently and break a long run at some point in the game. This makes his yards per carry look good, but does not tell the entire story.
That said, Saturday’s win against Missouri was the polar opposite of this. Achane rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns, while his longest rush was only a 20-yarder. He simply chipped away at the Tigers defense all night long and kept the running game going the entire night.
The primary takeaway here should be that Texas A&M has arguably the most dangerous one-two punch at the runningback position of anybody in college football.