The Texas A&M football team posted yet another impressive win on Saturday. The Aggies defeated the Missouri Tigers, 38-17, to advance to 9-0 on the season. Texas A&M remains tied for first in the SEC, with a 6-0 conference mark.
The Aggies proved with this win that they are one of the best teams in the country. Texas A&M had another strong day on offense, rolling up 464 total yards.
Aggies coach Mike Elko saw room for improvement in the game, despite leading 14-0 at halftime.
“I challenged them at halftime,” Elko said, per ESPN. “I challenged both sides of the ball — only one side of the ball responded — that we had to go out and control the line of scrimmage better.”
Despite those grumblings, Elko certainly has to be happy with what he has seen overall. Texas A&M football fans should be, too. Here are a few reasons why the Aggies are truly a national title favorite.
Texas A&M has won on the road this season
The Aggies have arguably the best resumé of any college football team this season, in terms of College Football Playoff rankings. Following the win over Missouri, Texas A&M now owns three road wins over teams in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll.
The marquee win at this point came arguably on Saturday against Missouri. Texas A&M also defeated Notre Dame in South Bend earlier this year. That win looks even better in recent weeks, as Notre Dame has rattled off seven consecutive victories since then.
Elko does acknowledge that his team is doing some great things right now.
“From a CEO perspective, obviously I believe this is what this program is capable of,” Elko said. “I think that's why we're here. We're here because we believe the ceiling of this program is really high. It's why we took the job. It's why we came here as a family. … This is kind of what everyone has been talking about with this program for a long time. So for nine games we've lived up to it, and we've got to go finish.”
Not only have the Aggies won on the road, they have been doing it a lot lately. Texas A&M just completed a three-game road trip with wins over Arkansas, LSU and now Missouri. That takes a lot of stamina to win consistently like that, and the squad has done it.
There's another reason why the Aggies have what it takes to win it all.
Texas A&M's defense is playing well right now
While Coach Elko was frustrated at times with his defense against Missouri, the Aggies held the Tigers to just 77 passing yards. That type of defense is good enough to stop just about anybody in the country.
Missouri freshman quarterback Matt Zollers was constantly on the run Saturday. The Tigers quarterback completed just seven of his 22 pass attempts. Zollers also lost a fumble that led to an Aggies touchdown. It was a brilliant display of the Texas A&M pass rush.
Coach Elko has preached defense this season, and his team seems to be responding. Against Notre Dame, the Aggies allowed 293 passing yards. The performance against Missouri was a vast improvement.
Elko has also been preaching about finishing games. That message seems to be resonating with his players.
“Finish,” Aggies running back Rueben Owens said. “That was the word for spring. For fall camp. Finish. Last year we didn't finish, so all week it was finish, finish, finish.”
The Aggies have three games remaining in their regular season. Texas A&M plays South Carolina, Samford and finally Texas. Time will tell if Texas A&M can run the table heading into the postseason.
