Texas A&M just took Mississippi State to the woodshed with a dominant 31-9 win— and that 22 points was even selling the level of destruction a little bit short.
The Aggies completely demolished the Bulldogs, more than doubling them up in yardage and running for almost 300 yards. State converted one third down on ten attempts, furthering a really notable stat that the Aggies began to pile up against Auburn last week.
Here are the takeaways for Texas A&M fans from this huge win over Mississippi State.
Texas A&M vs Mississippi State takeaways: Defense can carry the day
This was the second straight week where the Aggie defense looked absolutely elite. They shut down Auburn to an astonishing degree, and nearly matched that with what they did to this Mississippi State squad.
The Bulldogs averaged 2.5 yards per carry in this game, a little over half of what their average was coming into the contest. That was a big reason that the Aggies were able to control this game so easily: they were winning up front on both lines of scrimmage, but it was especially evident when the Ags were on defense.
The pass rush was completely dominant as well: Texas A&M racked up another four sacks on the day, with three of them being contributed by Cashius Howell. They also notched 9 tackles for loss overall on 51 total plays faced, which is a sky-high 17.6% TFL rate.
Even with Bryce Anderson and Scooby Williams not out there, the A&M defense made life tough on the Bulldogs. This is a hugely encouraging result on that side of the ball— and that makes two of those in a row.