Three Turning Points from Texas A&M Football vs. Arkansas

Texas A&M football turns defense to offense

This is kind of an easy one to pick out. Late in the second half, the Aggie defense had begun to tighten up, and yards had dried up for Arkansas accordingly. The Razorback coaching staff doubtless could feel the offense begin to struggle, and were trying to figure out how to spark the Hogs on to a scoring drive or two. A third down play was stuffed, and Arkansas faced a 4th and 6 just behind midfield—obvious punting situation, with only just under 3 minutes to play in the half.

That’s when a strange series of events began. The punt got off, and Ainias Smith signaled fair catch back in A&M territory. However, there was a flag—Jacoby Mathews had jumped offsides for the Aggies. Arkansas accepted the penalty to make it 4th and 1, and sent out the punting unit once more. A few moments later, however, they called a timeout, clearly to rethink whether or not to try and convert on a one-yard play. They eventually decided in favor of trying, sending Jefferson and the Arkansas offense back out onto the field. The ensuing handoff to Rocket Sanders, however, went nowhere, and the Aggies took over in plus territory.

The A&M offense answered the bell here, moving quickly down the field to score before halftime. Max Johnson connected on a short pass to fullback Earnest Crownover to move the score to 17-6 ahead of the break. I’m not sure if the Aggies would have been able to do that on such a long field ahead had the punt call been upheld, though they definitely were moving well in the first half. The point stands, though, that the defense holding up in that situation was directly responsible for a score that the Aggies definitely needed ahead of the odd eventualities that the second half was yet to bring.