Salient Stats: Texas A&M 33, Florida 20

The numbers that tell the tale of the Ags’ win at The Swamp

When you’ve lost 10 straight road games, literally any win will do. But Texas A&M did more than that, establishing themselves as the superior team from the outset and coasting to a dominant 33-20 win over Florida at The Swamp on Saturday.

Here are the stats that best illustrate how the game played out, and what we should take away from it.

Salient Stats

0: Offensive turnovers for the second straight game. The best way to not give the game away is to not give the football away. After two costly interceptions in the Notre Dame loss, it was good to see the Aggies once again play turnover-free football.

2.1: Yards per rushing attempt for the Gators. If there was one perceived weakness for the A&M defense coming into this game, it was the run defense, particularly the proclivity to give up chunk plays. But they put that notion to bed, at least for one game, as Florida ran 25 times for a paltry 52 yards. The Gators did have some success late through the air, but beware how much time you put into garbage time stats.

10: Where Texas A&M’s road losing streak ended. While that streak did not belong to Elko as head coach, it was certainly something all Aggies were glad to see come to an end. With a relatively favorable road slate the rest of the way (Mississippi State, South Carolina, Auburn), could the Ags actually go undefeated on the road in 2024? That would certainly be a way to definitively defeat that narrative.

13: Penalties on the Aggies. If there was one negative to take away, it was this one. In many instances the team was able to overcome these penalties, but that won’t always be the case against stiffer competition. You want aggressive play, but not at the cost of this many mistakes. But Mike Elko knows that better than anyone, and I’d expect this to be something that improves in the coming weeks.

22:55: A&M’s time of possession IN THE FIRST HALF. While the second half featured some quick-scoring strikes, including a 63-yard pass to Cyrus Allen and a pick-six from Bryce Anderson, the Aggies absolutely dominated possession in the first half, and that’s a big part of what allowed them to control this game. If this drive chart doesn’t warm your football heart, I don’t know what will.

$26.7 million: Billy Napier’s buyout. While we were all impressed with the showing for A&M, Florida also just did not have the look of an SEC-caliber team. And for that program, that’s unacceptable. Whether it’s now or later this season, it certainly feels like this game may have sealed Napier’s fate in Gainesville. In fact, it may be happening sooner than later.

50%: Randy Bond’s field goal percentage for the day. Bond looked great on two attempts in the first half, but then missed both of his fourth quarter attempts (including one that missed pretty badly). In this game, all it did was make the final score appear slightly closer than it should have, but there will be games where a miss could make the difference. Let’s hope he’s just getting the bad ones out of his system while they’re meaningless.

64.7%: Completion percentage for QB Marcel Reed. He was not asked to win this game through the air, but Reed looked more than competent when he was throwing the ball. Everyone will remember the long touchdown throws to Theo Melin-Ohrstrom and Cyrus Allen (as they should), but Reed’s ability to buy time in the pocket and find open receivers on third downs was equally impressive.

310: A&M rushing yards. Suffice to say, if you rack up 300 yards on the ground, you likely dominated the game. The Ags have done so for each of the past two weeks (the first time they’ve accomplished that feat since 2012), and in each of the last two weeks, their rushing total has actually surpassed their opponents’ total yards. Let’s keep doing that.

Great win. #BTHObowlinggreen!