Texas A&M vs Arkansas Line

Written by Steve Janus

This Saturday the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies will face off against the No. 18 Arkansas Razorbacks at Cowboy Stadium in what is known as the Southwest Classic. Both of these teams will be looking to rebound from their first loss of the season. Texas A&M fell 29-30 to Oklahoma State, a game in which they led 20-3 at the half. The Razorbacks kept it close early against Alabama, but in the end were blown out 38-14. This will be the third straight meeting between the two schools. Arkansas has won each of the first two games, including a 24-17 win last season.

Taking a look at the week 5 college football lines, oddsmakers currently have Texas A&M favored by 3-points over Arkansas with the total set at 62.5 points.

Texas A&M:

It will be interesting to see how the Aggies respond after that heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma State last week. Texas A&M had been looking forward to that game for some time and have to feel like they should have won that game. Mistakes were what killed Texas A&M, as they had four turnovers and 10 penalties.

Starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill hadn’t done a whole lot wrong in the first two games of the season, but threw three costly interceptions against Oklahoma State. If it wasn’t for the turnovers, Tannehill would have been one of the stars of the game, as he completed 28 of 47 for 309 yards and two touchdowns and was also the leading rusher with 69 yards and a touchdown on just seven rushing attempts.

A lot of the pressure was put on Tannehill because of the inability of the Aggies to move the ball on the ground with the same success they had in the first two games of the season. Senior running back Cyrus Gray had rushed for 233 yards and four touchdowns against Southern Methodist and Idaho, but had just 35 yards on 13 attempts against the Cowboys.

The Aggies two star wide outs had a pretty good days work against Oklahoma State, as Ryan Swope caught a team-best seven passes for 105 yards, while Jeff Fuller hauled in six passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns.

The Razorbacks defense had looked very sharp in their first three games, but really struggled last week against the Crimson Tide. They allowed Alabama to pile on 397 yards of total offense, 197 of which came on the ground. If the Aggies can have that same kind of success running the ball, they should be able to put themselves in a great situation to win this game on the road.

Arkansas:

This week’s game will really tell us a lot about how good this Arkansas team is. While they can’t be happy with the way they played against the Crimson Tide, every SEC team figures to have their hands full when they go on the road to play Alabama. This team should be fueled by the fact that they are listed as an underdog against a team they have beat each of the past two seasons.

Junior quarterback Tyler Wilson has done a pretty solid job stepping into the starting role for the departed Ryan Mallett. While he had just 185 yards on 22 of 35 passing against Alabama, he threw two touchdowns and just one interception despite playing from behind for most of the game. Wilson has completed 70% of his passes for 1,007 yards and seven touchdowns in four games and is going up against a Texas A&M secondary that was torched for 438 yards and two touchdowns last week.

Ronnie Wingo Jr leads the team with 260 yards to go along with two scores, while Kody Walker has powered his way to five touchdowns. Neither was a factor in last week’s loss to Alabama, as the Razorbacks had just 17 rushing yards for the game. The duo will face another outstanding run defense this week, as the Aggies come in allowing just 60.3 yards per game on the ground. Texas A&M held Oklahoma State’s Joseph Randall to just 83 yards after he had rushed for at least 120 yards in each of his first three games.

Betting Trends:

Texas A&M is 16-5 ATS in their last 21 games after allowing more than 280 yards passing in their previous game

Arkansas is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 vs. Big 12.

Be sure to check out what Steve Janus has picked to win in week 5 of college football. The expert college football handicapper cashed in a 6-1 premium card in week 4!

Other Resources:

Razor Bloggers – has several score predictions on the game.
SEC Football Blogger – taking Arkansas in the upset.
Holy Turf – Talks about how A&M needs to get back to running the ball if they are going to beat Arkansas.

Comments

Got something to say?