Texas A&M Football: Aggies look to bounce back vs Arkansas

Though significantly less exciting than usual, the Southwest Classic returns to Arlington as Texas A&M football looks to rebound with a win over Arkansas.

On one side sit the Arkansas Razorbacks. They aren’t having the season they were expecting to have, including losses to Colorado State and North Texas. That isn’t exactly what you want as a team in the SEC West that’s looking to compete with the likes of Alabama, Auburn and LSU.

They haven’t settled on a quarterback and as a result their offense is full of question marks. Their defense has been anything but dominant. All in all, this team is driving the struggle bus.

On the other, you have the Aggies. They are sitting at 2-2, but both of those losses have come to top-five teams. That being said, they are out of what would be called acceptable losses and now have to do what Jimbo Fisher came to Aggieland to do, win.

Kellen Mond has grown into a quarterback force to be reckoned with. His receivers and star tight end have made play after play. The defense showed their stuff against Alabama and Clemson. To say that this team has grown exponentially under their new head coach is putting it mildly.

No matter which team you are rooting for, here is how you can watch the game.

Date: Saturday, Sept. 29
Time: 12: 00 pm ET
Location: Arlington, TX
Venue: AT&T Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN | FuboTV

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Point Spread: Texas A&M -21
Over/Under: 60

Keys to Victory

For Arkansas, the biggest key will be to shut down Kellen Mond and the Aggie offense. As they learned against Colorado State, scoring early and often only does so much when you can’t seem to shut down the other team’s offense. If the Razorbacks allow Kellen Mond to be as productive as he wants to be, this will be a long day for those in red and white.

On the flip side, the focus for the Aggies has to be treating Arkansas like any other team they have faced so far this season. A messy game could land them on upset alert in Arlington. They need to settle down and play their game on all sides of the ball. This is the Aggies’ game to lose at this point, but they don’t need to play like it.

Prediction

From the start, this is a big day for the Aggie offense. Trayveon Williams has a field day against a struggling Razorback defense. We will likely see a nice handful of running backs for Texas A&M as they get the ability to test out the entire depth chart. Look for both quarterbacks, if not all three, to find playing time against the Razorbacks as well.

In the battle of the defenses, I don’t see Arkansas getting a leg up. No overtime will be necessary this season, that much is for sure.

Final Score: Texas A&M 42 Arkansas 10