The Texas A&M Aggies have got to clean up a few things if they want to go on a run in the College Football Playoff. Yes, the offense stepped up just when head coach Mike Elko and company needed them to. Yes, the team is 7-0 for the first time since the mid-1990s. However, the defense was a terrible problem in Saturday’s 45-42 over Arkansas, for the first time in several weeks.
Texas A&M’s run defense could be the end of them if Elko doesn’t fix it
The Aggies gave up 8.4 yards per carry on the ground. They allowed 268 rushing yards on the game. Two different players for Arkansas saw at least 85 yards on the ground in the Aggies victory over the Razorbacks.
The pass defense was a bit of a problem too, but the issues quite often came down to just stopping one key player for Arkansas. Quarterback Taylen Green. Green already came into the contest against Texas A&M ranked firmly inside the top ten in most meaningful metrics of quality quarterback play for the Razorbacks and number one in total offensive yards.
If Green wasn’t piling up the yards (85 rush yards for two touchdowns on the game) on the ground, his threat of doing so was opening up all kinds of problems on the pass defense for A&M tool
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As you can see in the perfect example on the touchdown via embed above, Green was consistently extending plays, rolling out of the pocket and making the Aggies defense pay if they weren’t in the right spot exactly. Still, even after giving up a hugely ugly game of run defense the Aggies are still barely allowing four yards per carry on the year because their run defense has been lights out on other weeks.
The Aggies don’t need to completely change the way they do things, but it’s clear that Mike Elko has to build in some better ways to beat the mobile quarterback. If the A&M defense can do that, Aggies fans need to prepare for a special, deep playoff run this season. That all begins with Cashius Howell creating havoc and the Aggies start linebackers, but it seem they have the right players and tools in place to fix things up.
We’ll be back with more Texas A&M Aggies coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Oct 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
