5 Good Numbers and 5 Bad Numbers from Texas A&M Football vs Tennessee

10 Key Numbers From Texas A&M Football vs. Tennessee

The theme for this article is “the defense for Texas A&M football did more than enough.” “The Bad” section will be stats that are to the effect of “how did you put up this mark and still lose?” while “The Good” section will be things that are just plain impressive. Just letting you know up front! Stats are from cfbstats.com, collegefootballdata.com, and my own calculations off of those numbers. Here are some stats that jumped out:

The bad for Texas A&M football

1.40: Defensive points per drive allowed by Texas A&M football. This was the first loss by an SEC team this year when allowing 1.4 points per drive or fewer to their opponent (31-1 overall).

1.18: Points per drive gained by the Aggies. SEC teams are 0-4 this season when at or below this mark.

4.5: YPA allowed by Texas A&M football. This was the second loss by an SEC team this year when allowing 4.5 YPA or fewer to their opponent, with Florida’s loss to Kentucky being the other occurrence (13-1 overall).

4.73: YPC allowed to Tennessee. This is the highest of the year by Texas A&M football, and only the 12th time in the conference thus far in 2023 where a team allowed a higher YPC than YPA.

33%: Rushing success rate for Tennessee. This was their lowest mark since a 31% rushing success rate against Florida.

The good for Texas A&M football

0: Rushing touchdowns allowed by Texas A&M football. This continues a streak of shutting out opponents from scoring on the ground that has been active since they allowed one rushing TD to New Mexico in game one. Since then, no one has scored a touchdown on the ground versus the Aggies.

66%: Percentage of average YPA allowed to the Volunteers. The Aggies held the passing game in check for the Big Orange most of the day and didn’t allow any big passes downfield.

80%: Percentage of average YPC allowed to the Vols. Even as much as they were able to tear up the Aggies on the ground, A&M still stopped them from reaching their average when it comes to yards per carry.

3: Sacks by the Aggies against Tennessee. That seems rather pedestrian given what the Ags have done in other games, until you consider the fact that Tennessee had only allowed 6 sacks all year headed into that game.

8: TFLs by Texas A&M football against Tennessee. Again, seems rather pedestrian, until you consider that Tennessee had allowed only 15 TFLs before this game on 351 plays (4.27% TFL rate). The Aggies got 8 TFLs on 71 plays (11.27% TFL rate). That’s a 164% increase over Tennessee’s normal rate!