Texas A&M's game against Miami this weekend is by far the best of the early CFP slate, with all eyes set to be on College Station for this showdown. The Aggies and Canes are battling for a spot in Dallas against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFP quarterfinal— not exactly a reward, but it gets you one step closer to a national championship.
Ahead of this game, there's been no shortage of matchup breakdowns for these two. The Aggies and Canes are similar teams in many ways— but the Ags may have an edge here that no one is talking about.
Texas A&M could have matchup edge in screen game vs Miami Hurricanes
Reed ranks third in the country in yards per attempt on screen passes, picking up 8.6 YPA on such plays— that trails only Maddux Madsen and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza. With Concepcion and Craver on the outside, that should really be no surprise— the Aggies' infusion of talent on the outside this year has been quite a boon.
Combine that explosivity at the receiver position with the Aggies' excellent offensive line, who has done a great job getting out on these screen plays, and you can see why the Ags have been so successful when they choose to deploy this aspect of the offense. Using it as an extension of the run game has been highly effective for the Ags thus far this year.
Miami, however, has done a decent job in shutting those plays down, allowing only 5 YPA on screens for the year— 4.7 YPA since ACC play started— however, in their two losses, they allowed over 6 YPA on such plays. Testing Miami on the boundary will be key to keeping a lighter box— which the Aggies can exploit with the hopeful return of Le'Veon Moss— and then beating them on deep routes if they elect to go man-to-man.
The key obviously then becomes whether Reed can connect on downfield passes, where he's been inconsistent this year— but has come a long way over the last few games. The Aggies' ability to keep defenses in conflict like this has really neutralized a lot of personnel advantages that other teams may have on paper— see the pass defense of LSU, for example.
This is a big matchup to keep your eye on early. I wouldn't be surprised to see a heavy dose of these screens (especially to a newly-healthy Craver) on early drives in Saturday's game— with how important it will be for the Aggies to get up on the Canes early, they'll be coming out of the gates with no holds barred.