One reason Arkansas isn’t sitting atop the SEC standings with a 2-0 conference record is because of the job Texas A&M did against Taylen Green last week.
While he’d been inconsistent throwing the ball, the Razorbacks had at least been able to count on the Boise State transfer impacting the game with his legs, but that didn’t happen in their 21-17 loss to the Aggies at AT&T Stadium.
Green finished with a net gain of only 6 yards on 13 carries. Even if sacks are excluded, he still would have had just 25 yards on 10 carries. The numbers look even worse when you consider Green got 24 of those yards on one try early in the third quarter.
Factoring out the sacks prior to Texas A&M, Green had been averaging 98.3 yards per game and 7.9 yards per carry, so the Aggies clearly bottled him up like no other team had in 2024.
“I think we were able to at least force them the way we wanted to force them,” Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko said afterward. “Force them to people in coverage. Force them to people that were spying them, and at least be able to kind of corral him. I don’t think he got going with his feet at all, which was a huge focus in the game for us.”
Elko’s New Tactic vs. Arkansas
It wasn’t an accident that Texas A&M did what it did against Taylen Green; he was a point of emphasis for the Aggies leading up to the game.
Elko came up with a plan that former Arkansas standout Matt Jones — who knows a thing or two about being a mobile quarterback — described as a “great idea” during Monday’s episode of Halftime, ESPN Arkansas’ midday sports talk show that he co-hosts with Phil Elson.
Elko and his defensive coordinator, Jay Bateman, were “sending those defensive ends a little bit wider because Taylen doesn’t want to run up the middle,” Jones said. “So you have them kind of going a little bit wider out there and as soon as Taylen sees the free runner, he just takes off to one of those sides and then you’re just running him to the sideline.
“As a quarterback, you got to get vertical as quick as you can. You run sideline to sideline, you’re not going to beat anybody in this league.”
Elko’s masterstroke was coupling that with using a spy, which is a relatively common practice against dual-threat quarterbacks. The strategy, fueled by elite defensive talent, gave the Aggies a nearly perfect recipe for taking away the threat of Green’s legs.
Impact on Overall Offense
The other thing that helped Texas A&M was its ability to collapse the middle of the pocket so Taylen Green couldn’t step up to avoid the pressure on the outside.
Right tackle Keyshawn Blackstock got the brunt of the criticism for his apparent struggles against the Aggies, which was also reflected in his abysmal 36.9 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. Sam Pittman, however, saw it differently. He said Monday that Blackstock and left tackle Fernando Carmona actually played better than they had the week before.
The issue, in his eyes, was the front of the pocket consisting of left guard E’Marion Harris, center Addison Nichols and right guard Joshua Braun.
That will certainly be something to watch again in this weekend’s Arkansas vs Tennessee game because while defensive end James Pearce Jr. gets most of the attention for the Vols, they are also loaded at defensive tackle.
Tennessee’s depth chart lists six players, all with an “or” between them, as co-starters at the two defensive tackle spots and each of them are 300-plus pounds. When considering that each of the linemen have played between 48-85 snaps and each of them have PFF grades of at least 63, it’s easy to see why so the Vols’ depth at this position gets so much praise:
| Player | Weight | Snaps | PFF Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bryson Eason | 310 | 85 | 65.4 |
| Omari Thomas | 325 | 75 | 84.6 |
| Omarr Norman-Lott | 315 | 60 | 88.1 |
| Elijah Simmons | 340 | 58 | 74.7 |
| Jaxson Moi | 307 | 53 | 72.5 |
| Daevin Hobbs | 300 | 48 | 63.4 |
If the Volunteers can mimic what Texas A&M did to contain Taylen Green in the run game while also rotating in big defensive tackles to push the front of the pocket, it could be a long day for Arkansas’ offense.
Arkansas vs Tennessee Stat Comparison
| Stat | Arkansas’ Offense (NCAA/SEC rank) | Tennessee’s Defense (NCAA/SEC rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Scoring/Game | 35.8 (33rd / 7th) | 7.0 (t-2nd / t-1st) |
| Total Yards/Game | 495.0 (13th / 4th) | 176.0 (1st / 1st) |
| Yards/Play | 6.50 (34th / 9th) | 3.13 (1st / 1st) |
| Passing Yards/Game | 283.0 (27th / 6th) | 125.3 (4th / 2nd) |
| Completion % | 56.2% (t-114th / 15th) | 57.3% (44th / 6th) |
| Passer Rating | 126.6 (94th / 14th) | 100.4 (14th / 4th) |
| Rushing Yards/Game | 212.0 (21st / 5th) | 50.8 (2nd / 2nd) |
| Rushing Yards/Attempt | 5.22 (39th / 6th) | 1.57 (2nd / 2nd) |
| Third-Down % | 55.4% (t-5th / 1st) | 17.0% (1st / 1st) |
| Sacks/Game | 2.40 (t-95th / 12th) | 1.75 (t-89th / 14th) |
| Turnovers | 9 (t-112th / 15th) | 7 (t-42nd / t-6th) |
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