FOOTBALL 2021: COVID Version Week 4

The Aggies get their toughest game of the season so far in Arlington tomorrow. The opponent is SEC West rival Arkansas, both teams are 3-0, and the game will be played in the 2:30 PM showcase slot on CBS.

Arkansas has been defeated in nine consecutive games since A&M joined the SEC, with five of the A&M wins coming in overtime games. Arkansas got some national attention in their second game when they gave the Texas U longhorns a 40-21 ass-whipping. A&M struggled to get a 10-7 win against Colorado that weekend. Whether Texas U is significantly better than Colorado remains to be seen.

The Aggies have been doing what they need to do to remain unbeaten: nothing spectacular on offense, but very difficult to score against on defense.

A&M is favored by 5.5 points, and College Football News is predicting the Aggies will win without covering the spread. Some of the recent A&M vs Arkansas matches have been shootouts, but tomorrow's game isn't expected to be one of those. Instead of offensive fireworks, the teams will grind out a few scoring drives, and the team making the fewest mistakes wins. CFN expects that team will be A&M in a 23-20 squeaker.  

Update 3:34 PM Saturday: Early second quarter, Arkansas ahead 17-0 on two long TD passes. Texas A&M looks pathetic on both offense and defense, and Calzada doesn't look like he'll be able to come back from 17 points down today. I haven't seen A&M football this rotten since Sumlin's final season, especially the O-Line. If A&M matches the pigs score for score from here on, it's still a blowout loss.

Final update 6:13 PM: Watched the second half now and then. Final score 20-10, which wasn't quite as bad as I expected. For reasons I can't explain, Texas A&M is virtually incapable of achieving consecutive good seasons. Franchione and Sherman never had great seasons. Sumlin had one, his first at A&M, and it was downhill from then on. Jimbo surprised me with his 9-1 record in the weird pandemic-shortened season. After seeing as much of the futility as I could stomach today, I'm not banking on anything comparable in 2021. With Calzada at QB, everybody else on the team needs to be almost perfect. I hope I'm wrong, but I expect A&M will add at least three more losses to this one.