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3 Reasons Texas A&M Football Gets Sweet Vindication Against Ole Miss

By Graham Harmon

Oct 28, 2023; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver Ainias Smith (0) warms up before the game against South Carolina Gamecocks at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 28, 2023; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver Ainias Smith (0) warms up before the game against South Carolina Gamecocks at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-USA TODAY Sports /
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Texas A&M Football Displays Toughness and Execution in Red Zone

On one end, here, I’m relying on stats. On the other end, I’m calling out my x-factor for this game. Let’s start with the former: in conference games this year, the great majority of Ole Miss’s touchdowns—12 out of 19—have come on the ground. In red zone situations, the majority of the Rebels’ scores have come on the ground as well—10 to 6. It’s also worth noting that half of the red zone passing touchdowns came in their game against LSU, and they have scored one each against Arkansas, Auburn, and Vandy.

So what does this mean? The Rebels are heavily reliant on their rushing attack to convert in the red zone. The problem this presents for them is that the Aggies have allowed a grand total of 2 rushing touchdowns all year, and only one of those came from within the red zone. It should also be noted, on the subject of big plays allowed, the Rebels have only scored one passing touchdown from outside the red zone in conference play (again coming versus LSU), meaning they don’t exactly have a penchant for the big-play touchdown. If the Rebels are forced to convert opportunities in the red zone, their best pitch may be taken from them with how this Aggie rush defense is playing.

On the other side of things, the Aggies will need to work hard for touchdowns in the red zone. The Rebs rank 79th in the nation for touchdown percentage allowed in the red zone, but the Aggies are one of the worst teams at getting red zone touchdowns. This is an area where I’ll be looking at guys like Noah Thomas, a true jump ball merchant, and Le’Veon Moss, who has proven he can get the tough yards. Specifically, though, the Aggies will need to get some second half touchdowns—though they’ve been robbed of two by officiating (one against Arkansas at the end of the game and on Max Wright’s catch against the Gamecocks last week), Texas A&M football is officially without a second half touchdown in each of the last four games.