ARLINGTON, Texas — The final Southwest Classic felt like most of the previous Arkansas vs Texas A&M matchups at AT&T Stadium.
The No. 24 Aggies didn’t take the lead until the fourth quarter and the Razorbacks suffered yet another one-possession loss, falling 21-17.
It was an all-too-familiar feeling for Arkansas football fans, both when it comes to close losses under head coach Sam Pittman and in this particular series.
With the loss, the Razorbacks are now 6-16 in games decided by eight points or less since Pittman took over and have lost 11 of their last 13 such games, beginning with the 2022 season.
Arkansas has also lost 12 of 13 games against Texas A&M since they became conference foes again in 2012, which includes a 1-9 mark inside the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Seven of those losses to the Aggies have been nearly identical to Saturday, coming in heartbreaking fashion with mistakes ultimately costing the Razorbacks.
Here’s a look at the four critical moments of this year’s edition…
1. Arkansas’ Fumble at its Own 10
Perhaps the biggest key to Texas A&M’s success was its defense’s ability to disrupt Arkansas’ offense. In fact, it was the first thing Sam Pittman brought up during his postgame radio interview, saying the Aggies “overwhelmed” them and specifically that their front four “whipped us” in the trenches.
Taylen Green was running for his life for much of the night, even though it resulted in only three sacks. The last of those was the final nail in the coffin, as it was a strip-sack recovered by Texas A&M’s Jaydon Hill with less than 2 minutes remaining.
“It wasn’t like we were turning them loose, it was just we were having a difficult time blocking them,” Pittman said. “Then what happens, especially if you start the game like that, your quarterback gets happy feet and sometimes validated and sometimes probably not, maybe try to get the ball out of his hand faster.”
However, more critical than that was a play that didn’t even go down as a sack. It wasn’t even officially one of Texas A&M’s 10 tackles for loss.
With a chance to go up two scores, Green and Ja’Quinden Jackson were hit in the backfield as they were running a read-option. Defensive end Shemar Stewart got to them at their mesh point and knocked the ball out. Scooby Williams fell on it and the Aggies scored two plays later to tie it up at 14-14.
That play was the result of the Aggies’ game plan to harass Green and not let him beat them with his legs. They did just that by holding him to only 6 net yards on 13 carries. Even without the sacks, he gained only 25 yards on 10 runs — well below his season averages of 81.3 yards per game and 5.5 yards per carry.
“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. “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.”
2. Backup DL in for Arkansas on Go-Ahead Drive
Despite the fumble essentially giving Texas A&M seven points, Arkansas still held a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter.
However, on the drive immediately following Kyle Ramsey’s 45-yard field goal that put them up, the Razorbacks allowed the Aggies to march 75 yards and score the go-ahead touchdown. It was their first lead of the day and came with 9:00 remaining.
The most egregious part of that series were Arkansas’ personnel decisions. Even though it was arguably the most critical drive of the game, the Razorbacks had their backup defensive line on the field for the first seven plays.
It wasn’t until the Aggies had a first-and-goal at the 5 that Arkansas put its starters back on the field, but by then it was too late. Marcel Reed found Tre Watson for what proved to be the game-winning score.
“We felt like the fresh guys were going to play better,” Pittman said. “I’ll have to look at the tape to see exactly how those guys played or if we (didn’t) fit at linebacker or the safeties didn’t fit. But in hindsight, I wish we’d have stopped them, and we obviously felt like the guys we had in the game were capable of doing it.”
The decision to go with backups definitely backfired on at least one play, as Danny Saili hit Texas A&M running back Le’Veon Moss at or behind the line of scrimmage on third-and-4, but couldn’t get him on the ground. Instead, he bounced free for a 23-yard gain.
Playing Saili was especially peculiar because coming into the day, the junior had played only three total defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and those were in the opener against UAPB.
It was also interesting to see Landon Jackson out of the game. The preseason All-SEC selection notched a couple of tackles and was credited with a sack on the previous drive. That was part of a breakout performance by Jackson, who finished with a team-high 8 tackles, including 3 tackles for loss and 2 sacks, his first of the season.
Defensive end Nico Davillier and defensive tackles Eric Gregory, Cam Ball and Ian Geffrard were all on the sideline, as well. The backups who accounted for the first seven snaps of the drive included defensive ends Anton Juncaj, Quincy Rhodes Jr. and Charlie Collins, as well as defensive tackles Keivie Rose and Saili.
3. Allowing Texas A&M to Flip the Field (Again)
The former SWC rivals played an old-school style of game in that field position was a key part of the story.
Arkansas’ average starting field position was its own 17, compared to Texas A&M starting at its own 34 on average. That latter mark was skewed by the Razorbacks’ fumble that gave the Aggies the ball at the 10, but even without that possession, their average start was the 29.
Five of the Razorbacks’ 13 drives started at or inside their own 10, with another three at or inside the 20. Only one drive had a better starting field position than the 25.
“That was definitely a big struggle for us,” wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa said. “It felt like every drive we had almost we started within the 10-yard line. It almost feels like you’re fighting an uphill battle at that point. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the execution. No matter where you start on the field, as an offense we’ve got to be able to execute and put into motion what we had planned the entire week.”
It looked like Arkansas had finally flipped the field late in the fourth quarter when Devin Bale booted a perfect punt that landed inside the 5 and bounced out of bounds inside the 1. With 5:35 left, the Razorbacks were in great position to potentially get a safety or at least get their best field position for a game-winning drive.
Instead, Marcel Reed rolled to his right and hit Jabre Barber for a 10-yard gain that got the Aggies out of their own end zone and then, after an offsides penalty gave them another 5 yards, Le’Veon Moss ripped off a 30-yard run. A pointless face mask penalty on TJ Metcalf tacked on 15 more yards at the end of the play.
The Razorbacks eventually forced a punt, but all the ground Texas A&M had covered allowed Tyler White to pin them at the 10. That meant they needed to cover 90 yards with 2:44 left, which they failed to do.
White was spectacular for the Aggies, averaging 43.1 yards on his nine punts with seven pinned inside the 20.
“Tyler can punt the ball a mile if he wanted to every single punt, but I thought he did a really good job today, hitting with great hang,” Elko said. “They weren’t able to get the return game going at all. When he had to pin down inside the 20, we kept them in play and kept the field position flipped that way we wanted to. Not only was he effective as a punter, but he punted the right way for us to control field position.”
4. Critical Missed Tackle on Texas A&M’s 1st TD
Outside of the 75-yard drive against their backup defensive line, the Razorbacks were really solid on defense. Texas A&M also scored after the aforementioned fumble that gave it a short field.
The only other touchdown Arkansas allowed was on the second drive of the game and was the result of a missed tackle. The Aggies may have still scored, but would have needed to cover an additional 30-plus yards had cornerback Kee’yon Stewart gotten Noah Thomas on the ground. Instead, it was a 58-yard touchdown.
“I thought we tackled pretty good today,” Pittman said. “We had one out there on the edge and the guy goes however far he went. But guys are going to miss tackles. I felt like we’ve done better the last two weeks than we did certainly against UAB and I believe we’ll continue to do that.”
It’s worth mentioning that Stewart was making his first start of the season, getting the nod over Jaheim Singletary – and the only reason either of them have been starting is because Jaylon Braxton has missed three straight games with tendinitis.
More coverage from Arkansas’ loss to Texas A&M here:
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Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman speaks after the Arkansas vs Texas A&M game:
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