3 Reasons Texas A&M Football Pulls Off the Upset Against LSU

Texas A&M Football Boasts Best Front 7 LSU has Seen

For all the hubbub that Jayden Daniels has received—and there’s been a lot of it!—he hasn’t yet faced a front seven quite like this one. The Aggies notch 3.64 sacks per game and 8.55 TFLs per game; on 12% of dropbacks they are sacking the QB and on 14.35% of all plays they are notching TFLs. This LSU team, though, has been stellar at preventing TFLs (if not sacks). This is a true strength on strength matchup here in the front seven.

The high watermark for the Aggies this season as concerns TFLs was the two-game stretch of Auburn and Arkansas, where they had a 23.44% and 26.79% TFL rate, respectively. I think a big key to this game in this respect, given how LSU plays, will be Josh DeBerry. DeBerry, while he has had some coverage issues in his time in Maroon and White, is like a heat-seeking missile on short passes and screen plays. LSU is a team that, while they do push it down the field, likes to get the ball to their dynamic receivers in space; DeBerry specializes against such plays and has been very effective against them in his time in College Station.

That said, this will be a tough task for the Aggies. Stuffing the run game will be key here, but that will be a big ask against a squad with such a dynamic rushing QB. The defensive line and linebackers for the Aggies have the ability to square up with anyone in the country. They’ll have to do their part in knocking the Tigers off-schedule if they are to come out of this one with the win.