The Texas A&M football team is among the best in the nation in this stat

For the bulk of the 2021 season, the Texas A&M football team didn’t look particularly impressive in any specific statistical category. Through two or three weeks, the Aggies did lead the nation in passing defense, but that quickly crumbled after a tough two-week stretch early in the season.

After that, there wasn’t much to speak of. The defense was obviously great, but the numbers pegged it somewhere floating around the edge of the top-25. Total yardage allowed didn’t jump off of the page and scoring defense was nothing to call home about.

After a series of impressive performances, that changed.

The Texas A&M football team has the second-best scoring defense in the entire country

When looking through the rankings in terms of scoring defense in 2021, you’ll see a handful of elite defensive units. This includes Georgia at the top, who leads by a very wide margin with just 6.56 points allowed per contest.

Other squads among the leaders in the country are some of the best college football teams this year, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Penn State, and Cincinnati. But none of these teams match up with Texas A&M, who ranks second to Georgia.

The Aggies have allowed just 14.67 yards per contest — that’s just over two touchdowns per game. This becomes even more impressive when you consider the fact that A&M isn’t a particularly great team in total defense. They stand just outside of the top-15, allowing 317.8 yards allowed per contest.

The traditional idea of “bend-don’t-break” may not apply to this defense, but that’s what they’re doing on defense.

The college football world wrote off this Aggie team, but with the defense peaking near the end of the season and the offense continuing to improve, this could be a scary squad.

Look at this defense closely and you’ll see just what I mean. Against Auburn, a true top-15 team, Texas A&M forced two turnovers and allowed just 226 yards in the game. For reference, the Tigers are averaging 427.3 yards per game on the season. Mike Elko, Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator, called his best game when it mattered.

The Aggies may not be getting the respect that they deserve, but don’t count them out just quite yet.