Tennessee-Florida, Alabama-Ole Miss, Texas A&M-Mississippi St., Auburn-LSU all in Week 6 Vegas SEC Predictions
Vegas SEC Predictions Week 6
No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies at No. 12 Mississippi State Bulldogs
Line: Mississippi State by 2.5
Here’s a game between two teams that we had no idea how good they could be at the beginning of the year but have each come through with signature wins early in the season to prove that they are legitimate. Now, one of them has to come through again while the other one is going to raise questions about being a pretender. But which one will it be?
Kevin Sumlin’s Texas A&M Aggies need to simply do what they’ve done en route to their 5-0 start with Kenny Hill and the offense. Only this time, unlike Arkansas, it has to get to a hot start earlier. The Aggies have raised a few eyebrows after struggling with Arkansas last week and South Carolina revealing itself to be an overrated win, so now they have to prove themselves once again. The Bulldogs have shown they can be weak in the secondary at times, so Sumlin wants to exploit that. However, the offense has to get the early lead to keep Mississippi State from running the ball. The Aggies showed last week they could have trouble stopping the run, so continuously putting up points and building an early lead to take the Starkville crowd out of it is crucial.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, need to keep doing what they’ve been doing as well to beat the Aggies: Dak Prescott, more Dak Prescott, and then Josh Robinson. They need to establish the running game early, like Arkansas did, to build a lead over Texas A&M. To do that, Prescott will have to be himself and make very nice, efficient throws in the Dan Mullen spread offense when needed in order to open up some running lanes and keep that inconsistent Texas A&M defense honest. If Prescott does what he’s supposed to, the Bulldogs should be fine getting the running game going. Then, it’s up to the defense to get stops, and it has got to look better than it did at the end of the LSU game, when a quarterback change almost allowed a comeback of epic proportions.
Prediction
Expect a shootout. This will be a very exciting game with the balanced Mississippi State spread against an amazing passing but still very good rushing offense in Texas A&M. The difference will be Kenny Hill against that Bulldogs secondary in Starkville. The Texas A&M rush defense proved it is capable of showing up. That’s not the case yet for the Mississippi State secondary, and Hill will torch this team for another 400-yard 4 touchdown passing game.
Texas A&M: 45 Mississippi State: 38