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Texas A&M Football: FULL PREVIEW – Mississippi State Bulldogs

By Graham Harmon

Oct 28, 2023; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Zach Arnett paces the sidelines during the second quarter against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 28, 2023; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Zach Arnett paces the sidelines during the second quarter against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports /
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When Texas A&M football is on offense

There are a lot of rumors flying around about the availability of Max Johnson for this Saturday, with several message board posters proclaiming that they find it unlikely he will be playing in this game due to injuries sustained before and during the Ole Miss game. However, Jimbo mentioned in his press conference that he expects Max to play—and while there are many Texas A&M football fans who would opine that Jimbo’s word on injuries isn’t worth much, I will be operating under the assumption that Max will be good to play in this game.

The Bulldogs come into this one with a less-than-impressive defensive resume. They have two outliers on their docket thus far: allowing three points to Arkansas in one of the weirder games I’ve yet seen in this conference slate, and seven points to Southeastern Louisiana. In almost every other contest, the Bulldogs have allowed close to 30 points on defense, including giving up 28 to Western Michigan. Kentucky only scored 17, but they are not exactly an offense that can light it up. LSU, South Carolina, and Alabama all exceeded 3 points per drive against this Bulldog defense, and lowly Auburn notched 2.45 PPD in this matchup. State is slightly better against the run than they are against the pass (allow 90% of opponent averages on a YPC basis and 105% of opponent averages on a YPA basis), so if the OL is able to give Max time, I think we will see similar success to last week.

Of course, Arnett will no doubt bring the pressure against this front—it’s been the recipe now for three years against this offense, and I see no reason why he would switch it up. The onus will then again be on Addazio’s unit to pick up that pressure. The Bulldogs are middle of the road when it comes to creating sacks and TFLs, and have only notched one sack in the past two weeks (including putting up a goose egg against Auburn, who is one of the most susceptible teams in the nation in that respect). They are aggressive up front, though, notching the third-highest opponent-adjusted TFL rate in the conference. If I had to guess, this defensive strategy will look strikingly similar to that of New Mexico. Hopefully, the Aggies will be able to similarly take advantage on offense.