Texas A&M football opponent first look: A&M must avoid Starkvile setback against MSU

Texas A&M football opponent first look: MIssissippi State should be easy win, but Aggies cannot overlook Starkville road trip

If you want to bum out a Texas A&M football fan, there are a few games that you can bring up to do so. Chief among those is the Aggies' 2016 trip to Starkville, Mississippi.

In that game, the no. 4-ranked Aggies entered the fray against a horrid Mississippi State team, quarterbacked by Nick Fitzgerald, and completely flopped. It didn't help that Trevor Knight exited with injury in that game, but there's no way that the A&M defense should have performed as poorly as they did in that one.

Point being, no matter how high the Aggies are riding, you can't overlook trips to Starkville. As inconsequential as Mississippi State has been to most SEC West title races over the past decade, when A&M plays them on the road, they've actually been quite the bellwether for how the Aggies' seasons have gone.

So now we once again have a seemingly-ascendant, highly-ranked Aggie team rolling into Starkvegas against a pretty bad Mississippi State team. And while confidence is relatively high among the fanbase, there's that gnawing doubt in the back of everyone's mind thanks to these previous performances.

Could the Bulldogs actually pull off the upset? It's not out of the question, but the path there seems tough to discern. Jeff Lebby's group has begun to round into form a little more now than they had previously; they're hitting on more of their big, explosive plays than they previously did, making them much more of a threat to score at this point in the season than they were at the beginning.

Of course, the biggest concern with the Bulldogs is their defense. In four games against P4 competition, State has allowed less than a 57% success rate once: against Arizona State, who managed 49%. They allowed 53% success to Toledo.

They're horrid at creating havoc plays, having notched only five sacks all season. They create TFLs on only 5.59% of defensive snaps; the next-lowest mark in the conference is Arkansas at 8.04%.

They can't stop teams from scoring. Opponents have averaged 4.56 points for every possession that crosses the Bulldogs' 40-yard line - again, the worst mark in the conference.

So suffice it to say that the Aggies should be able to control the game when they're on offense. Really, the only hope the Bulldogs have is to turn A&M over with regularity - but the Aggies have only one TO since game one.

I think the Aggie defense is up to the challenge here as well. This will be the most dominant front the Bulldogs have yet seen, and I think they'll stifle Lebby's offense well. The offense for the Aggies, on the other hand, should control the game, and we may see another early exit for Weigman with the game well in hand in the fourth quarter.

I'll stick with my previous prediction of 44-17. State may hit a few shots late, but I'm thinking we see another thorough destruction by the Aggies.