Salient Stats: Texas A&M 34, Arkansas 7

At least for one week, Aggies football made us feel something again as they handled hapless Arkansas with ease, cruising to a 34-7 victory on Saturday night at Kyle Field. It’s hard to know how much this changes about rest of season outlook, but let’s see what the stats tell us.

Salient Stats

• 2.6:1: A&M’s run to pass ratio in this game. With a struggling Marcel Reed and sloppy weather, leaning heavily on the run game made a ton of sense, and OL Holmon Wiggins took full advantage of it. Granted, those numbers are even further skewed by the fact that Reed ran 9 times (most of which were not designed runs), but regardless, it’s good to see the offense adapting to the game and what works.
• 6: Tackles for loss by the A&M defense, matching their season high against Missouri State.
• 6: Tackles by S Tawfiq Byard (tied for the team lead). Byard was a highly touted Colorado transfer this offseason, but injury kept him off the field early this year. Inserted in the second half, his presence was felt almost immediately. Wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him earn more playing time.
• 11: Carries by KJ Edwards. His workload continues to increase, and his six yards per carry and two touchdowns illustrates why. The freshman is pretty clearly the best ball carrier on this A&M roster.
• +16:16: The Aggies’ time of possession advantage. If they were looking to control the clock and take the air out of the game, mission accomplished. This was the most stress-free A&M/Arkansas game in over a decade and I enjoyed every second of this snooze-fest.
• 53.5: Average field goal yardage by A&M K David Olano. Flat out, A&M’s kicking game is no longer just reliable, he appears to be a flat-out weapon. Enjoy this senior while you can, because he just might be kicking on Sundays this time next year.

• 54: Yard catch by Texas A&M sophomore TE Kiotti Armsgrong. He got open, made a man miss and nearly took it all the way into the end zone for a TD. The TE position has been a bit of a black hole for the Aggies this season from a pass-catching perspective, so Armstrong emerging as a legit option could do a lot for this offense.
• 90.7: Marcel Reed’s QBR in this game, by far his best performance of the season (ranked No. 23 nationally). It’s the first time Reed has been ranked in the top half of FBS quarterbacks in any week this season, so even if it is just Arkansas, there’s reason for hope that this could be a sign of better days ahead for the Aggie signal caller.
• 214: Total yards for Arkansas. This was Arkansas’ worst offensive output of the season, in both yards and points, having gained 300+ yards in every other game. It’s easy to write this game off as “Arkansas is just bad,” because they are, but A&M’s defensive performance also deserves some credit here.
• 231: Texas A&M rushing yards. Any time you had more rushing yards than the other team had total yards, that’s a darn good day. The irony is that A&M and Arkansas had the exact same yards per carry numbers (4.7), but Arkansas’ was skewed by one or two chunk plays rather than having a consistently effective run game.
• 108,657: I know attendance smack is generally lame, but coming off of two lopsided losses and with atrocious weather leading up to the game, A&M fans packing the stadium like they did is truly impressive. Props to the 12th Man

#BTHOmizzou