Reason No. 3: The Texas A&M football team’s offensive strengths match up well against Auburn’s defensive strengths
Auburn has a good defense — that’s no secret. But when you look at their passing defense and rushing defense specifically, either unit jumps off of the page.
The Tigers’ rushing defense is its best unit at 36th in the nation (127 YPG), which isn’t as great as you’d expect. The Aggies’ rushing attack, on the other hand, ranks 41st in the nation with 188 yards per game. Neither of these numbers are particularly impressive, but they’re the best we’ve got for both teams.
That said, when you look at the last three games for Texas A&M, their rushing yardage total looks like this:
- vs. Alabama: 285 yards
- @ Missouri: 283 yards
- vs. South Carolina: 290 yards
Here are Auburn’s past three games as a rushing defense.
- vs. Georgia: 201 yards
- @ Arkansas: 232 yards
- vs. Ole Miss: 157 yards
Something has to give between the Aggies’ offensive strengths and Auburn’s defensive strengths — I’ll give the edge to Texas A&M right now. So far, opposing teams haven’t figured out a way to stop both Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane at the same time.
I don’t think Auburn will be that team. Texas A&M should be able to run all over Auburn.