Georgia vs. Texas A&M PREVIEW SPECTACULAR

The game is only 6 days away, so I guess it would be a good time to actually take a look at our matchup versus the Aggies. For our earlier game against Auburn, I decided to compare our two teams in one of the only ways possible: our stats versus common opponents. I admitted that this type of analysis was far from foolproof, and the overall results gave the edge to Georgia. Well, we won that game (even though it didn't look like we would in the first quarter), so I'll call that a success.

So let's do the same with the Aggies. A&M only played 2 common opponents with Georgia this season, Arkansas, and Oklahoma State. Let's start with OSU.

Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State (L 31-36)

Offense

Total Yards: 382

Passing: 273

Rushing: 109

Defense

Total Yards allowed: 448

Passing: 279

Rushing: 169

Georgia at Oklahoma State (L 10-24)

Offense

Total Yards: 257

Passing: 162

Rushing: 95

Defense

Total Yards Allowed: 307

Passing: 135

Rushing: 172

At first glance, you see that Georgia lost by 14, while A&M lost by 5. I'd say first glances are deceiving. First, Georgia played AT Oklahoma State, while Texas A&M caught the Cowboys at home. That makes a difference, especially when the UGA-OSU game was the season opener. Second, you may remember that Oklahoma State's star receiver (and likely best player on their team), Dez Bryant, was the primary scorer in their defeat of Georgia. Guess who was ineligible and not playing vs. Texas A&M? Dez Bryant. Even without Bryant, A&M's defense gave up 279 passing yards to the Cowboys, while Georgia only game up 135 through the air. A&M also gave up almost an equal amount of rushing yards as Georgia did. Overall, Georgia's defense held up considerably better against the OSU offense WITH Dez Bryant, compared to A&M's defense vs. a Bryant-less Cowboys squad.

But on the offensive side, A&M had a much better game than the Bulldogs. But you may recall a sick Joe Cox at QB, and an injured and depleted RB group (with Richard Samuel and Carlton Thomas at the lead, amazingly). Even with Samuel and Thomas (instead of our now bread and butter King/Ealey combo) we still put up almost as many rushing yards on the Cowboys as A&M did. I'm also pretty sure the OSU game was perhaps our worst offense performance of the season.

I'd like to give the edge to Georgia here, but for the stats sake, we'll say even.

So let's look at Arkansas.

Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (L 19-47)

Offense

Total Yards: 458

Passing: 345

Rushing: 113

Defense

Total yards allowed: 434

Passing: 271

Rushing: 163

Georgia at Arkansas (W 52-41)

Offense

Total yards: 530

Passing: 375

Rushing: 155

Defense

Total yards allowed: 485

Passing: 408

Rushing: 77

Now this one is interesting. First of all, remember, Georgia played this game AT Arkansas while A&M once again had them at home. Georgia also was still with Samuel as our leading RB. This time Georgia's offense was on fire, while A&M's was good too (yardage wise). Georgia's defense gave up more total yards, but that was almost entirely due to our incredibly weak coverage in the secondary. We only gave up 77 yards on the ground, while A&M gave up 163 to the Hawgs. But to be fair, the Razorbacks didn't really need to pass as much on A&M, because they had a huge lead (30-10) at the end of the first half, and I'm guessing the Hawgs could have run up the score (and yards) even more if they wanted to.

So why did A&M have so many yards on offense in this game with so few points to show for it? At first, you might think it was turnovers. But actually, the Aggies had 2 fumbles in the game (and Arkansas gave them three turnovers). You may remember that Georgia had 3 turnovers at Arkansas (while they had 1), and it's likely that we could have won by more if it weren't for those mistakes. So was it penalties? Nope. A&M did have 8 penalties for 87 yards against Arkansas, and that is bad, but Georgia had 14 for 93 yards and still came out on top (and with a lot more points.

Overall, Georgia's performance against the Hawgs was much more impressive than the Aggies', especially considering the development UGA's offense has gone through, with the emergence of Washaun Ealey and new reliable receivers. According to the stats, in the first game, the Aggie D was not as good as UGA's, but their offense was better. In the second game, technically Georgia's offense put up more yards, but defense gave up more. But stats can be misleading. Almost seems like the two teams could be pretty even. But I think the final scores, where the games were played, and what players were playing paints a better picture of which team performed better against common opponents.