FAYETTEVILLE - Texas A&M decided to keep the ball on the ground for most of the second half against Arkansas on a rainy Saturday night at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Why, after Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel had passed for 204 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, did the Aggies turn to that strategy?
Because they could.
Arkansas couldn’t slow the Aggies’ running game.
Stopping the Run
A look at the game-by-game rushing statistics for Arkansas’ opponents:
OPP. RUSH-YDS TD YPC YPG SEC/NCAA RANK
La.-Lafayette 32-85 1 2.7 85 3/23
Samford 25-114 2 4.6 98.5 2/25
Southern Miss 31-119 0 3.8 105.3 2/20
Rutgers 36-54 0 1.5 92.5 2/13
Texas A&M 44-262 3 6.0 126.4 5/36
Texas A&M rushed for 150 yardsin the second half, more than any team had had against the Razorbacks in a full game this season, and finished with 262 yards on the ground.
Arkansas had not allowed that many rushing yards since No. 1 LSU piled up 286 yards in its 41-17 victory over the No. 3 Hogs on Nov. 25, 2011, in Baton Rouge.
Asked Monday if the Texas A&M running attack was his biggest defensive disappointment from Saturday’s loss, Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said “100 percent.”
Texas A&M’s ability to run on 29 of its 36 second-half snaps also sent a message to No. 18 Florida, which plays host to the Razorbacks on Saturday in Gainesville. Fla.
The Gators ran for 246 yards in their 24-7 victory at Kentucky last week. Tailback Matt Jones had his best game of the season with 176 yards and 1 touchdown on 28 carries.
“We were able to build a little momentum in the run game last week,” Florida quarterback Tyler Murphy said. “Hopefully it will carry over this week to Arkansas.”
Florida ranks 36th nationally in rushing with 211 yards per game, 15 places behind Arkansas, which has the nation’s 21 st-ranked rushing team (237 yards per game). The Razorbacks, who ranked 19th in run defense in 2012, had been in the top 25 in the category all season before being shredded by the Aggies.
“There was more run-fit issues, and I think a guy or two honestly trying to do more than his job,” Arkansas defensive line coach Charlie Partridge said.
Texas A&M had 10 runs of 10 yards or longer, and five of them came on the Aggies’ two touchdown drives in the second half.
“They ran the ball really good,” Arkansas linebacker Jarrett Lake said. “They had three really great backs they just kept rotating, and they kept making plays.”
Arkansas fell to 36th in the nation, fifth in the SEC, in rush defense after its average jumped by 34 yards per game, up to 126.4 per game, after the A&M game.
Defensive end Chris Smith,whose half-sack with Deatrich Wise accounted for his only tackle against the Aggies, said the Razorbacks knew Texas A&M wanted to run.
“I think we got mixed up in our alignments and things of that nature,” Smith said. “So we’ve just got to clean that up for next week.”
Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash said Texas A&M’s success with the run game had more to do with the Razorbacks.
“We repped all those plays multiple times throughout the week and we were good,” Ash said. “We either didn’t align right, didn’t fit right or had poor tackling that led to some of the plays there.
“I’ll give A&M credit.They were able to run the ball effectively, but it was more about our mishaps than it was necessarily what they did.”
Bielema said players were getting too eager to make plays rather than staying with their gap and their assignment.
“I’ve studied and coached defense my entire life,” Bielema said. “If one guy gets out of the hole that he’s supposed to be in, they all find it. They all find that hole.
“There were times on Saturday night where we’re lined up and we could see from the sideline the guy wasn’t getting in the right gap or didn’t have the right alignment, and I’ll be danged if they didn’t hit that hole. … That’s just what good offenses do.”
Manziel scrambled for 49 yards in the first half to lead the Aggies in rushing, but the A&M coaches dialed Manziel back in the second half as Trey Williams, Tra Carson, Ben Malena and Brandon Williams carved up the Hogs.
Among those four, only Malena failed to average at least 4.5 yards per carry. Trey Williams averaged 9.2 yards per carry and scored on a 17-yard draw play that put the Aggies ahead 38-27 late in the third quarter. His score came at the end of a nine-play drive on which Texas A&M stayed exclusively on the ground, racking up an average of 7.5 yards per carry and five first downs and facing only one third-down snap.
In the fourth quarter, the Aggies launched a seven-play drive, all on the ground, that averaged 8 yards per snap and ended on Malena’s 1-yard score for a 45-33 lead.
“It was very tough,” Lake said, “because that’s one thing we stress as a defense is stopping the run.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/02/2013