Game Preview: Texas A&M's Offense vs. Auburn's Defense
AggieYell.com’s breakdown of the matchup between No. 9 Texas A&M (3-0) and Auburn (3-1, 0-1 SEC) begins with a look at the Aggie offense against the Auburn defense.
Where, when, weather and TV
Where: Kyle Field, College Station Texas
When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 2:30 p.m. central
Weather: Mostly sunny, humid, high around 90 degrees
TV: ESPN (Joe Tessitore, play-by-play; Jesse Palmer, analyst; Katie George, sideline)
Texas A&M’s offensive depth chart
QB: #10, Marcel Reed; RS-So.; 6-1, 185
#16, Miles O’Neill; RS-Fr.; 6-5, 220
RB: #8, Le’Veon Moss; Sr.; 5’11, 210
#4, Rueben Owens; RS-So.; 5-11, 215 OR
#5, Amari Daniels; Sr.; 5-8, 197
TE: #17, Theo Melin Ohrstrom; RS-Jr.; 6-6, 257
#87, Nate Boerkircher; Gr.-TR.; 6-4, 250
WR (X): #3, Ashton Bethel-Roman; RS-Fr.; 6, 185
#2, Terry Bussey; So.; 5-10, 195
WR (SLOT): #1, Mario Craver; So.; 5-9, 165
#0, Izaiah Williams; RS-Fr.; 5-11, 185
WR (Z): #7, KC Concepcion; Jr.-TR.; 5-11, 190
#18, TK Norman; Fr.; 6, 182
LT: #60, Trey Zuhn; Sr.; 6-6, 319 OR #76, Rueben Fatheree; Gr.; 6-7, 330
#79, Lamont Rogers; Fr.; 6-6, 337
LG: #71, Chase Bisontis; Jr.; 6-5, 315
#52, Blake Ivy; RS-Fr.; 6-3, 336
C: #54, Mark Nabou; RS-So.; 6-4, 330
#61, Koli Faaiu; RS-Sr.-TR.; 6-3, 333
RG: #55, Ar’maj Reed-Adams; Gr.-TR.; 6-5, 325
#77, Tyler Thomas; Fr.; 6-4, 329
RT: #78, Dametrious Crownover; Gr.; 6-7, 336
#70, Robert Bourdon; RS-Fr.; 6-6, 315
Auburn defensive depth chart
DT: #91, Zykeivous Walker; Sr.; 6-4, 296 OR #47, Malik Blocton; So.; 6-3, 300 OR #96, Malik Autry; Fr.; 6-5, 330 OR #98, James Ash; Sr.; 6-3, 302
NT: #97, Bobby Jamison-Travis; Sr.; 6-4, 322 OR #35, Dallas Walker IV; Sr.; 6-3, 362 OR #92, Jay Hardy; Sr.; 6-3, 317 OR #95, Jourdin Crawford; Fr.; 6, 337
DE: #15, Keldric Faulk; Jr.; 6-6, 285 OR #10, Amaris Williams; So.; 6-2, 260 OR #44, Darrion Smith; Fr.; 6-2, 271 OR #41, Jared Smith; Fr.; 6-6, 260
BUCK: #24, Keyron Crawford; Sr.; 6-4, 255 OR #3, Chris Murray; Sr.; 6-3, 256 OR #18, JJ Faulk; Fr.; 6-3, 244
SAM: #6, Demarcus Riddick; So.; 6-2, 228 OR #16, Bryce Deas; Fr.; 6-1, 210
MIKE: #0, Robert Woodyard Jr.; Jr.; 6, 241 OR #43, Caleb Wheatland; Sr.; 6-1, 231
WILL: #17, Deebo Atkins; So.; 6, 210 OR #9, Elijah Melendez; Fr.; 6, 210
STAR: #19, Sylvester Smith; So.; 6, 195 OR #28, Kensley Louidor-Faustin; So.; 5-11, 183 OR #21, Anquon Feagans; Fr.; 6, 191
FS: #1, Champ Anthony; Jr.; 5-11, 188 OR #5, Jahquez Robinson; Sr.; 6-2, 205 OR #29, Taye Seymore; Jr.; 5-11, 200
BS: #8, Kaleb Harris; So.; 6-1, 201 OR #25, Eric Winters; Fr.; 6, 219
CB: #4, Kayin Lee; Jr.; 5-11, 180 OR #14, Rayshawn Pleasant; Jr.; 5-11, 200 OR #22 Donovan Starr; Fr.;
5-11, 182
CB: #23, Jay Crawford; So.; 5-11, 181 OR #13, Raion Strader; Jr.; 6, 185 OR #12, Blake Woodby; Fr.; 5-11, 180
Injuries
Texas A&M: No reported injuries.
Auburn: DE Amaris Williams is questionable; CB Jay Crawford and S Kaleb Harris are probable.
Texas A&M offensive statistical leaders
Passing: Reed, 58-99 (58.6%), 869 yards, 9 TD, 1 INT
O’Neill, 4-7, 101 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: Moss, 33 carries, 168 yards (5.1 YPC), 4 TD
Reed, 25 carries, 142 yards (5.7 YPC), 1 TD
Owens, 15 carries, 82 yards (5.5 YPC)
Receiving: Craver, 20 catches, 443 yards (22.2 YPC), 4 TD
Concepcion, 13 catches, 227 yards (17.5 YPC), 3 TD
Bussey, 7 catches, 87 yards (12.4 YPC), 1 TD
Auburn defensive statistical leaders
Tackles: Atkins, 19
Keyron Crawford, 18
Three players with 14
Tackles for loss: Keyron Crawford, 5
Three players with 4
Sacks: Keyron Crawford, 3
Three players with 2
Interceptions: Keyron Crawford, 1
Forced fumbles: Keyron Crawford and Smith, 1
Fumble recoveries: Keyron Crawford, Blockton and Atkins, 1
Auburn players to watch
BUCK Keyron Crawford: As you can see from the stats, he leads Auburn in just about everything. He’s not off to an All-SEC start, he’s off to an All-American start. He plays a role similar to A&M’s Jack, where he can stand up and be a blitzer or drop into coverage. And yes, he’s the defensive end who would go out and cover a receiver (though I did not see that against Oklahoma). The Aggies need to watch where he goes on every play.
LB Deebo Atkins: The Houston product spent his first season at LSU and didn’t play much, but he’s been very effective since arriving at Auburn. He leads the team in tackles, has 4 tackles for loss and a pair of sacks. DJ Durkin is using him in a similar fashion to how he used Edgerrin Cooper several years ago, as an attacking linebacker working on the outside.
CB Jay Crawford: The Tigers have a lot of Crawfords and they’re all good. Crawford is on this list for two reasons: he’s Auburn’s best corner and he may not play Saturday. The Auburn secondary isn’t good as it is, but losing him basically means KC Concepcion on a backup in Raion Strader. Concepcion is tough enough as it is; having a backup on him would be a massive advantage for A&M.
DE Keldric Faulk: A preseason first team All-SEC pick, Faulk had 30 tackles and 7 sacks last year. He’s already got a pair of sacks this season, and he’s the defensive end A&M will have to watch in terms of him getting after Marcel Reed.
Head to head: Texas A&M’s offense vs. Auburn’s defense
| Category | Texas A&M | National/SEC rank | Auburn | National/SEC rank |
| Scoring offense/defense | 42.3 PPG | 20th/7th | 16.5 PPG | 32nd/8th |
| Total offense/defense | 480.3 YPG | 20th/6th | 291 YPG | 35th/9th |
| Rushing offense/defense | 179 YPG | 74th/11th | 58.3 YPG | 5th/1st |
| Passing offense/defense | 323.3 YPG | 16th/5th | 232.8 YPG | 90th/14th |
| First downs/allowed | 71 | 84th/13th | 65 | 54th/12th |
| 3rd down conversion %/3rd down defense | 34.3% | 110th/14th | 28.1% | 26th/8th |
| Red zone conversion %/Red zone defense | 100% | 1st nationally | 78.6% | 45th/6th |
| Sacks allowed per game/Team sacks | .67/game | 12th/3rd | 3/game | 17th/3rd |
| Tackles for loss allowed per game/Tackles for loss | 3 | 9th/2nd | 8/game | 14th/3rd |
| Turnovers | 2 | 16th/3rd | 4 | 74th/9th |
| Turnover +/- | Even | 61st/9th | +3 | 27th/4th |
| Time of possession | 29:09 | 90th/12th | 31:48 | 38th/7th |
What A&M wants to do
Be balanced, but exploit Auburn’s weak secondary. Being 90th nationally is bad enough, but the two Power 4 quarterbacks the Tigers have faced have thrown for a combined 690 yards — and one of them had an injured thumb on his throwing hand for most of the game.
As far as the running game goes, this will be A&M’s toughest challenge by far. Auburn has only given up 58.3 YPG rushing, which does come with a caveat: Baylor, Ball State and yes, Oklahoma have trouble running against anyone. OU was 100th in the nation in rushing before they lost their leading rusher, QB John Mateer. The only team that has had any real success running the ball against anyone else is South Alabama, and they’re the only team to break 100 total yards (140, on 42 carries). Auburn is huge up front and is tough to move. Former Aggie defensive tackle Dallas Walker doesn’t start, but he does play and he’s up to a whopping 362 pounds.
But, even with the offense picking up huge chunks through the air against Notre Dame, the Aggies still ran the ball 32 times for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns (all by Moss in the second quarter). A&M thinks they can run on just about anyone and they won’t shy away from it.
Still, the Aggies know that Auburn’s secondary hasn’t been good and, even if Jay Crawford plays, he won’t be 100%. Isaiah Sategna exploited the Tigers secondary for career highs in receptions (9) and yards (127), and he’s not on the level of Concepcion, Craver or Bussey. A&M has been picking up yards in chunks against all of its opponents because they’ve been aggressive, and that probably isn’t going to change Saturday. They’re going to look to run, but they likely won’t be afraid to push the action with the passing game.
How Auburn may counter
It’s DJ Durkin’s defense. He’s going to attack. That’s what he does. And the results Auburn has seen so far show that — very high rates of sacks and tackles for loss and a secondary getting burned because they’re frequently in man coverage.
Durkin wants to funnel the running game into the middle, where he thinks his defense will have an advantage. So Keyron Crawford and Deebo Atkins will likely blitz a lot off the edges on run downs to try to limit the A&M backs to short gains. So far, it’s been very effective; the longest run allowed by Auburn this year is 18 yards.
In passing situations, you know Durkin will blitz. He’ll bring multiple players from multiple spots, but largely it’ll be Atkins or Crawford. We also know he likes to play his safeties up, so play action may be something the Aggies want to look at.
Durkin wants A&M in 3rd down situations because they’ve been terrible converting them thus far. But the Aggies have also been extremely successful moving the ball before they get to third down, so Durkin will have to balance his aggressive style up front with the need to protect his defensive backs against the best group of receivers the Tigers have seen to date.
