3 takeaways from Texas A&M's win over Arkansas in Dallas
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko said as he was walking off the field that Saturday’s 21-17 win over Arkansas was a step for his program. They’ve been taking steps to get to where they want to be. It wasn’t a pretty game. It wasn’t an efficient game. In fact, the Aggies were even outgained on the day. But they made plays in the fourth quarter to win.
The Aggies moved to 4-1 with the victory. Arkansas dropped to 3-2.
Here are 3 takeaways from the afternoon.
Mistakes bury Arkansas
Is there a more volatile team in the SEC? Auburn says hello, but Arkansas has a tremendous argument. The Razorbacks scored on their first drive of the game, making it look easy on a 3-play, 75-yard drive to snatch an early 7-0 lead. They went 75 yards on their third drive to go up 14-7.
From the second quarter on, it was mistake after mistake after mistake. The Razorbacks fumbled the ball away on their opening drive of the second quarter. Then came a pair of 3-and-outs. Then Taylen Green was picked off on the team’s final possession of the first half. Arkansas turned it over on downs to open the third quarter — the Hogs took a timeout, called a fake field goal, and got stuffed.
A strip sack from Texas A&M edge Nic Scourton effectively ended the game late in the fourth quarter. Arkansas had a chance to lead a game-winning drive. On first-and-10 from the 34, Scourton chased Green down and knocked the ball loose.
Arkansas outgained the Aggies 385-300. Against FBS opponents this season, Arkansas is 1-2 when outgaining its opponent and 1-0 when being outgained. Penalties were an issue, with the Razorbacks flagged 10 times for 75 yards. Arkansas ended the game with 3 giveaways and no takeaways.
Run game figures it out at the right time
Through the first 3 quarters, A&M had just 46 rushing yards on 26 carries. In the fourth quarter alone, the Aggies had 84 yards on 9 attempts.
“Le’Veon Moss showed up in the fourth quarter the way we needed him to,” coach Mike Elko said on the field after the game.
Moss had runs of 15, 23, and 30 yards in the fourth. He finished the game with 13 carries for 117 yards. The scamper for 30 yards came in the final 5 minutes and flipped the field at a crucial juncture. A defender tried to drag him down by his facemask and added another 15 yards onto the end of the run.
It was the best game of the season for Moss, who was held in check in the opener but has been remarkably efficient since.
Scourton and Stewart have a day
Through the opening stretch of the season, Texas A&M had shown flashes of what it could be as a havoc-creating, pass-rushing defense, but the Aggies hadn’t quite lived up to the potential many saw for them. With Shemart Stewart and Nic Scourton on the defensive line, this looked like a front that could have its way with offensive lines on any given day.
That absolutely happened on Saturday. Stewart forced the first takeaway of the game by just smashing through the mesh point on a read option play between Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green and tailback Ja’Quinden Jackson. He finished with 4 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. Scourton had 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and a pass breakup.
As a whole, the defense held Green under wraps all day. He’d been a staple in the Arkansas run game through their first 4 and had rushed for at least 80 yards in 3 games already. Texas A&M held him to 12 rushing yards on 12 carries. Remove the sacks from the equation and he still only managed 25 rushing yards.
The defensive line won its matchup, and that helped the Aggies win the game.
Arkansas was very good at beating Arkansas once again.
Great game, but one team just wanted to lose it more.
Spot on. Arky just beats themselves vs A&M. Even when they look good you just know something silly is about to happen.
These two teams were as equally matched as they come. Amazing how they seemed almost interchangeable, except for their unis.
Green is a liability!! What a turnover machine!! A&M OWNS Arkansas! Tennessee going to embarrass the Hogs!!
Maybe Tennessee is going to embarrass the Hogs, but maybe not. Arkansas may embarrass themselves before Tennessee can get around to it. I can just as easily see Arkansas taking the Vols right down to the wire, before they find a way to lose. Either way, Hogs end up losing.
This article could have stopped with takeaway number one. I’m a lifelong Arkansas fan, but really, is there a more head-scratchingly stupid team in all of college football? this game was like death by a thousand cuts – the stupid penalties that had us regaining the same yardage over and over again instead of moving down the field; allowing A&M’s defensive front run straight into the backfield unblocked for most of the first half.
I’m glad the Jerry-world series is over. This game was just like so many of them over the past twelve years. And the stupid team only won one of them. Congrats A&M, you played cleaner than we did. You earned the W just like we earned the L.
Arkansas football: almost every time, we almost win.
Congrats, Aggies.
Any hope for 6 wins and a bowl game were dashed today and hopefully this loss sealed Pittmans fate. Pittmans bad coaching is spreading to the other coaches. Petrino gave up on the running game and he’s stayed too long with Green plus the DC put in backups after we win up 17-14 and A&M drive the field and scored. We need a new younger coach with some fire.
Do you think they might take the easy way out and promote Petrino?
Arky and A&M have to take a backseat to Auburn for inventing ways to lose a game.
They’re all 3 equally good at it. Smh
Pittman is a likeable guy. When he first signed with arkansas I was against it. He showed he actually wanted to be the coach then picked up a few wins. I started to come around to him being coach. I thought surely with an offensive line coach as the head coach, they would be able to block. I was wrong. Arkansas not being to block up front is getting them killed. Running an RPO against a blitz, without the ability to pick it up, just isn’t working. Bobby comes in as offensive coordinator. Yay!!! Back to winning. No. That came with another issue. A starting QB that only had a few months to learn and get comfortable running a complicated offense. He has been lost on reading the RPO. Arkansas is running passing plays that take time to develop. With no pass blocking and a QB that can’t read the RPO, they should simplify the offense. Straight up handing the ball off. No RPO. Passing plays should be shorter routes where Green can get rid of the ball faster. He and the offensive line are just not ready for what they are asking of him.
Petrino should help Arkansas, but the change will not occur overnight.
If A&M is going to continue to win, Weigman must get healthy and return. Reed’s passing is too inaccurate to allow wins against the remaining schedule. Yes, he is a great runner. But a running quarterback who cannot pass will not do in the SEC.
If Weigman remains unable to play, then Henderson must be given a shot. He completed 68% of his passes last season and is a very good runner (albeit not as elusive as Reed). I do not understand why he was not put in the game yesterday. I hope Elko does not prove as stubborn as Fisher with regard to not benching starters.
Perhaps A&M should consider moving Reed to running back. With Owens out for the season, A&M does not have a back who is elusive and possesses breakaway speed (assuming that Bussey continues to play receiver rather than be put in the backfield).
Arkansas put up a great fight (as usual), but A&M’s defense won the game. Hard for any team to survive three turnovers.
Reed’s inaccuracy is a big problem. DBs on both sides were getting away with mugging the WRs,but when you get a flag picked up because a pass was nowhere close, that’s a big problem.
Reed has more wins. Reed works better with klien. Reed plays and we keep getting Ws. Accuracy will improve, one of the incomplete was a huge pass interference. One of the completions was standing in his own end zone. Dude is a game changer and opens up the offense. He had 3 tds. As receivers and o line continue to improve so will Reed.
Reed does not have more wins the Conner and the offense has looked awful the past two week and Marcel has generally played bad both games where Conner has had one bad game in three years. Also we saw how much better the offense looked when they both played with the first team against McNeese. The receivers are not good enough to consistently separate and Marcel can’t fit the ball into tight windows like weigman can there’s a reason he’s constistently graded so high as a passer on pff
Weigman has 1 SEC win, maybe 2 if you count Auburn where Max Johnson played for 3 quarters of the game.
Reed adds the big play element. He had 3tds yesterday. 2 through the air and one with his legs. There is room for improvement, but I believe the improvements are happening.
Anyone who thinks that Reed is a better QB thank CW needs to reevaluate how they look at football.
In no world does that make sense. CW has proven he’s a better QB, Reed has done good in his current situation but he is very inaccurate, misses too many reads (a few sacks he took Saturday, there were wide open receivers down field), and he’s in no way a deep threat. He only had 1 pass completion where the ball traveled more than 20 yards in the air. (That was a blown coverage during the UF game and C. Allen was wide open)
ARK basically packed the LOS and dared Reed to throw it and he couldn’t. Keep in mind, the secondary is ARK’s weakest position on defence. A healthy CW gives you a deep ball, more consistency in the passing game which causes the Lb and Secondary to stay back, which opens up the run game more. Reed does not give you that.
To the “Reed works better in Klein’s offence” people, did you ever consider that our playbook is extremely limited with Reed because he can’t throw? We don’t know what Klein’s offence looks like because we’re operating with a limited playbook. He’s only going to call the plays that Reed can handle.
Weigman has not proven once he can throw down field.
Weigman has a 47% completion rate this year.
Reed’s completion rate is poor. Period. A 50% completion rate will not beat a good opponent. To say he is a good passer is simply insane. His accuracy beyond about ten yards is simply abysmal. His ratings are getting worse with every start. Gigem Gazette shows the numbers. Look at them.
Reed is too quick to bail out. He panicked in the Arkansas game several times.
Look at the McNeese game where both played against the same opponent on the same day. Weigman led the team to touchdowns all every one of the five drives he quarterbacked.
Weigman – 11/14 (two of the incompletions were drops that hit the receiver in the hands). 79% completion rate. Did not even play two full quarters. Touchdowns on all five drives.
Reed – 5/11. 45% completion rate.
College quarterbacks seldom make major improvements in accuracy.
Reed has had far better protection than Weigman was afforded. Last year Weigman, up until he was injured, was the most pressured quarterback in college ball. {This speaks of how bad the offensive line was, given the opponents.} Yet he still completed 69% of his passes. He is accurate on the long ball, not just the short throws.
The receivers are doing just fine. They are getting open. Reed just can’t get the ball to them. Several touchdown opportunities have been missed in the last two games alone because Reed’s pass was not in the same zip code.
He is a great runner and competitor.