Texas A&M succeeds at goal of disrupting Mizzou freshman QB Matt Zollers
The Texas A&M defense played with a chip on its shoulder.
Linebacker Daymion Stanford confirmed that postgame Saturday after a 38-17 victory over Missouri at Memorial Stadium. While receiving the No. 3 ranking from the College Football Playoff committee Tuesday, the Aggies used the outside noise about their defense not matching that of Indiana and Ohio State to fuel a dominant performances against the Tigers.
“The whole goal was to disrupt the freshman quarterback,” Stanford said about Matt Zollers. “We did that tonight.”
Texas A&M limited Zollers, who made his first career start, to seven completions for 77 yard on 22 passing attempts. The Aggies forced a fumble on the 19-year-old quarterback near the end of the second quarter. That resulted in a touchdown soon after for their offense, giving them a 14-0 lead at halftime.
Defensive end Cashius Howell, who entered the contest as the SEC sack leader, added another to his ledger in this contest. Sanford logged one as well. Texas A&M also registered two quarterback hurries against the first-time starter.
Missouri finds rushing attack
Although dropping its third game in its past four, the Tigers established their run offense again. Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts both rushed for over 100 yards in Saturday’s loss, marking the first time at least one of the runners eclipsed that mark since Week 5 against Massachusetts. Hardy took 13 carries for 109 yards, while Roberts totaled 110 yards on a game-leading 17 attempts.
“I would say we did an awful job adjusting,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said postgame about seeing more of Roberts than Hardy.
Even with his blunt response, Elko gave praise to his unit for limiting the Missouri offense. The Tigers accounted for a season-low 284 total yards of offense. They also only converted five third downs on 13 attempts, a continued struggle stemming from games against Alabama, Auburn and Vanderbilt.
“I feel like they made some good adjustments,” Missouri left tackle Cayden Green said. “They started to key on what we were doing, call out plays at the line.
“A few times, I think they were starting to get reads on formations and stuff, maybe stances, I don’t know. But like I said, that’s a really good defense. We just have to be better.”