Lack of holding calls against Texas A&M football's opponents has drawn Aggie fans' ire after blatant missed call that led to A&M loss
There's really no doubt that Texas A&M football's best unit on their team is their defensive line. Prospective high-round picks like Nic Scourton, Shemar Stewart, and others litter the defensive front for the Aggies, which has been a strength for quite some time.
Due to that fact, it's really no surprise that the Aggies generate a large amount of tackles for loss—though the sack numbers are down, that's more of a stylistic choice by Mike Elko. The Aggies' TFL rate is one of the best in the nation thanks to their defensive front.
However, even with such a ferocious unit, there's something amiss. It was thrust into the spotlight in a bit of an ugly way against Auburn during overtime against the Tigers; on a swing pass on 1st down, the Auburn receiver ran outside the numbers while a blocker practically tackled Cashius Howell to prevent him from getting to the play.
No flag came in, and the Tigers ended up scoring.
In the next OT period, the Aggies had a holding call go against them that completely threw off their whole possession. Bond was forced to kick a long field goal to keep the game alive, which he did, but the Aggies would end up losing in the fourth OT period.
This—along with other poor officiating from the crew—has put SEC refereeing under the spotlight after this weekend. But the missed call against Auburn on Howell in particular drew the attention of Aggie fans, bringing to light an extremely unexpected statistic.
The Aggies have not seen an opponent called for offensive holding since they played Bowling Green.
Feel free to check the play-by-play data from ESPN. There has not been a single offensive holding call against an A&M opponent since game four of the season.
Given the strength of this unit for the Aggies, that's pretty staggering. That includes the games against Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi State, LSU, South Carolina (the Gamecocks were called once, but the Ags declined it based on the situation), New Mexico State, and Auburn. Outside of the one declined call, the crews refereeing these games would say that offensive holding was not committed against the Aggies a single time.
Except, we know it was. We saw it against Howell, and we've seen it many other times.
I'm not proposing some grand conspiracy against the Aggies or anything. There were bad calls and no-calls that went against the Tigers in the Auburn game as well. I'm simply pointing out that it appears to be the case that SEC refereeing crews are less inclined to call holding against opponents of the Aggies for whatever reason.
It's a well-worn maxim that holding could be called on every play, if the referees felt like it; obviously, they do not do that. So maybe they are more likely to overlook it when the reputation of a team's defensive line is like that of A&M; after all, what are opponents supposed to do?
I'm obviously exaggerating a bit, but with how punitive the penalty is for an offense, these can be game-changing calls. With a huge game coming up, A&M fans are hoping this penalty, often so arbitrarily adjudicated, doesn't come back to bite them again—whether by ticky-tack calls on one end, or no-calls on the other.