Asphyxiation & Meltdown (A&M)

It's been almost 10 years since Texas A&M kicked off with a preseason Top 10 ranking.  All it took was a fortnight for them to drop out of the Top 20, after yet another second half meltdown; this time at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks, a one time South West Conference rival.


One week after watching a 17 point half-time lead disappear against Oklahoma State, the Aggies seemed determined to put that performance behind them with 5 first half touchdowns (all rushing), racing to a 35-17 lead before the interval against their future SEC division foe.  Once again, they came out flat in the second period, getting outscored 25-3.


For a while, the Aggies seemed to be in control of the game, running the ball at will against an Arkansas defense that couldn't stop the run even if they tried.  As a team, A&M totaled 381 yards on the ground; Christine Michael ran for 230 yards and 3 TDs on 32 carries, Cyrus Gray had 95 yards and 2 TDs on 17 carries, while QB Ryan Tannehill pitched in with 56 yards on 5 carries.  On any day, if you passed those stats onto someone, they'd probably tell you that the Aggies won.  However, despite getting gushed for all those yards, Arkansas came up big when it mattered the most, stopping Michael for no gain on a rush attempt on 4th & 2 late in the game.


A&M had been faced with "4th & short" situations during the 3rd quarter.  With the Razorbacks still reeling, A&M opted to punt rather than go for the kill.  The decision to punt on both occasions gave Arkansas some confidence that they could stop the Aggies, which is what they eventually did.  The momentum started to swing in their favor and next thing you know, Arkansas comes out on top.

Weeden (l) and Wilson both combined to torch the
Aggies for 948 yards through the air.

The running theme during these two losses has been the porosity of the Aggies pass defense.  Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden passed for 438 yards, while Arkansas' Tyler Wilson went bananas, passing for 510 yards.  Along with the 900+ yards, both QBs combined for 5 touchdowns and no interceptions.  You'd figure that maybe the Aggies would make the necessary adjustments, seeing that there was nothing unpredictable about what Arkansas or Oklahoma State was doing, but whatever they did probably didn't work.  With a lot of "pass happy" schools on the Aggies remaining schedule, you can be sure that those teams will be taking notes and studying some film.


It has been 16 years since Texas A&M beat a team from the SEC, but with them moving on to that conference, they may not have to wait any longer.