Aggies move up to No. 7 beforeweek off
Defense stellar vs. Mississippi St. as Arkansas looms
STARKVILLE, Miss. — TexasA&Mdefensive tackle Jayden Peevy’s eyes widened and his grip on the football tightened with the Mississippi State end zone in clear sight. Peevy had a late start on playing organized football back home in Bellaire, so he’s never scored a touchdown on any level.
“I was that close, man,” Peevy said with a smile of his scoop and near score Saturday in the Aggies’ 2814 doubling up of the Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium. “I need to pick my legs up next time.”
Peevy’s self-criticism after an impressive shoestring tackle by an Mississippi State offensive lineman was par for the course on Saturday, as the Aggies adopted a no-nonsense response even in the minutes following their first win in Starkville in eight years.
“There ain’t no bye week, it’s a work week,” A&M coach Jimbo Fisher
said of the 3-1Aggies having this Saturday off following four consecutive games to start the season.“We’ve got to get better, and we’ve got to clean up things.”
Following two subpar defensive offerings — one in a loss at No. 2 Alabama and the other in a win against then-No. 4 Florida — A&M played its best game of the season on that side of the ball, stifling Mississippi State coachMike Leach’s of
fense fromstart to finish.
For instance, Peevy’s flash of almost glory occurred after A&M linebacker Buddy Johnson knocked the ball loose fromperpetually flustered Bulldogs quarterback K. J. Costello early in the third quarter, and Peevy picked it up and scooted 19 yards to the Mississippi State 8-yard line.
Two plays later, A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, who primarily relied on
running back Isaiah Spiller (114yards rushing) and a veteran offensive line to grind away against a good Bulldogs defense, connected with receiver Ainias Smith on a 6-yard touchdown toss to lift A&M to a 28-7 advantage.
Following their doubledigit victory, and first in Starkville since Johnny Manziel was quarterbacking A&Min 2012, the Aggies climbed from No. 11 to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll, their highest ranking in Fisher’s three seasons.
The week prior, A&M advanced 10 spots following its 41-38 upset of the Gators, so in a little more than a week’s time, the Aggies jumped 14 spots and are nowin the mix for their first four-team College Football Playoff berth with six regular season games to go.
Just don’t remind them of as much, as the players have adopted Fisher’s plain-speaking approach.
“I don’t think anyone is looking at the schedule right now,” senior offensive lineman Carson Green said. “We’re 0-0.”
Should they sneak a peek at the lineup, the Aggies will discover they no longer have any ranked teams left on their schedule. Future road opponents Auburn and Tennessee dropped from the top 25 following losses over the weekend.
Following their Saturday off, the Aggies host Arkansas and newcoachSamPittman on Halloween night in what will be the most hyped meeting of the old Southwest Conference foes in years.
Pittman, who last served as Georgia’s offensive line
coach, was a much lesstrumpeted hire than Leach and Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin, but he’s already beaten both, and Arkansas is 2-2 after failing to win an SEC game the past two seasons under then-coach Chad Morris.
A&M used a three-man rush and dropped eight in coverage to smother Leach’s air raid offense, still sacking Mississippi State quarterbacks a season-high six times along theway, and the Bulldogs’ minus-2 rushing yards were fewest by an A&M opponent since Wyoming went negative-3 yards in 2004.
“It’s very encouraging to me that we’re 3-1 right now,” Fisher said, “because we’ve got a lot of room to improve.”