Five bold predictions for Texas A&M's night game with the Florida Gators

Two days stand between us and Texas A&M's sixth game of the season, and this time it's against the Florida Gators in what's the Aggies' third SEC game of the year. Mike Elko's crew — one of four remaining undefeated Power Four teams — enters this game as more than a touchdown favorite for the third week in a row. But, as we always say, these games are won on the field and not by the betting line.

So with plenty of ways this game could go, let's pick out five bold predictions of what we could see Saturday night.

Texas A&M puts up Miami-like numbers on Florida's run defense

No position group on this Aggie roster is playing better football right now than its ground game, which has posted two straight games of 200-yard performances to go with three touchdowns. It's been incredibly complementary as well, with Le'Veon Moss leading the way with 139 yards against Auburn and Rueben Owens ripping off 142 yards against Mississippi State.

Now these backs are going up against a Florida defense that's allowing just 116.5 rushing yards per game, but that number is a bit misleading. The Gators have faced just one run game that's of the same caliber as Texas A&M — that being Miami — and in that game they surrendered 184 yards and three touchdowns.

That context, baked in with the fact that Florida will be without its best defensive tackle Caleb Banks, makes me confident that the Aggie backs can surpass the 200-yard mark for a third consecutive week.

Marcel Reed ends his turnover streak against an opportunistic defense

Texas A&M's starting quarterback has delivered on more than enough of our expectations for him this season — with 1,405 total yards of offense and 13 total touchdowns under his belt — but there's still room for improvement.

Reed has thrown three interceptions this season, one in each of his last three games, and his overall accuracy has fluctuated to the point that he's completing under 60 percent of his passes. He's also facing a Florida defense that's averaging one interception a game, and is coming off a game in which it picked off Arch Manning twice.

So I'll call for those trends to collide and reverse course: Florida fails to record a turnover through the air, while Marcel gets a far more efficient game under center.

Someone other than Craver & Concepcion lead the Aggies in receiving

The terrific Aggie duo of KC Concepcion and Mario Craver have been brilliant thus far, combining for 54 catches, 958 yards and 10 total touchdowns in what's arguably one of college football's best receiving tandems. While it's fine to ride that path until the wheels fall off, something that may never even happen, I'm curious to see what this passing game will look like when it does come falling down.

Florida has a very talented secondary, led by senior corner Devin Moore, and his counterpart Cormani McClain has stepped up terrifically in the absence of Dijon Johnson — who was lost for the season due to injury. While this isn't Texas A&M's first rodeo with facing talented corners, it presents an opporunity for Concepcion and Craver's impact to be limited.

If we're playing out the result where these two are limited by the Gator corners, I'll call for either Theo Ohrstrom to have a high-volume day from the tight end position or for Rueben Owens to lead the way with some big gains out of the backfield.

The Aggies do what the Longhorns couldn't in disrupting the quarterback

Just as impressive as Texas A&M's emergence running the football has been the defense's growing ability to bring down the quarterback — sacking Blake Shapen and Jackson Arnold a combined nine times since SEC play began.

Florida, on the other hand, is coming off a game against Texas where they allowed zero sacks — the first time that's happened all year. Miami registered four, LSU got three and even Long Island University brought DJ Lagway down once. It's always a great feeling doing something that your in-state rival couldn't, and I'm predicting this vastly talented Aggie pass-rush brings down Lagway at least twice on Saturday.

The Gators hand Texas A&M its first loss of the season

Let the record scratch and the heel turn commence — there might not be a bolder prediction than saying that the Aggies' unblemished season will come to an end at home to a team they're favored to beat by more than a touchdown.

Something just doesn't sit right with me in this game. Whether it's the wounded animal theory that makes me think Florida is ready to throw the kitchen sink at this one, the fact that Texas A&M has yet to be hurt by its penalty issues or that Florida did this exact same thing last year when it plucked off unexpected wins against LSU and Ole Miss, something feels awry when predicting the outcome of this game. The days of undefeated seasons and even 11-1 finishes at the Power Four level feel like a thing of the past and, if that's the case, there's going to be a point where the Aggies trip up.

This game feels like the perfect storm for one of those losses, facing a talented team in desperation mode that seems to have found its stride coming out of its bye week. It was fun to mock Texas when it happened to them, which will make this loss sting even more, but as our final bold prediction of the week I'm predicting the Gators leave the state of Texas in a wreck with an impressive stretch of results.