Salient Stats: Texas A&M vs. Alabama

Well that was disappointing. Texas A&M squandered a 17-10 halftime lead en route to a 26-20 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday. Let’s take a look at the numbers that defined this game.

• 1.5: Combined yards per carry for both teams. Obviously those numbers are impacted by sacks (of which there were 11), but neither team saw great success on the ground, which was kind of what we expected going into this game.
• 3: Straight games allowing the opposing defense to score points. Against Auburn and Arkansas it was defensive touchdowns, against Bama it was a safety (which make it a two-possession game and essentially sealed Bama’s win). The offense has plenty of issues to solve, but giving consistently giving the other team points simply has to stop.
• 13: The number of points Texas A&M scored in FIVE red zone opportunities. Getting inside your opponent’s 20 five times only to turn it over on downs, kick a field goal, score a TD, miss a field goal and then kick another field goal is a great way to lose a game. Gross mismanagement of those chances.\
• 14: Completions for Texas A&M. On a day where running the ball was such tough sledding, you were gonna need a big effort from the passing game, and the Aggies simply did not get it. There’s plenty of blame to go around, be it from receivers not getting open, to Max Johnson holding the ball too long and the offensive line not giving him enough time, but the bottom line is the Aggies failed to do what they needed to do to move the ball and score points.
• 33%: A&M’s third down conversion percentage (they had been averaging 50% conversions on the season so far). Granted that was the same as Alabama’s, but the difference is that Bama made the big plays to counteract a lot of those misses.
• 197: Jermaine Burton receiving yards (along with two touchdowns). He absolutely obliterated our secondary, Josh DeBerry in particular. The Ags’ lack of a quality second corner may continue to plague them all season.

This one hurts. On to the next one.