Season Is Where It Is: Now Focus Shifts to Texas A&M Game

LSU game is over, Razorbacks at 2-2, needing win over Texas A&M with new quarterback

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Sep 24, 2023 6:41 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas can't sit around worrying about "what could have been" at LSU because they have to deal with Texas A&M in less than a week, again on the road in Arlington, Texas, with more questions ... again.

About the only thing accomplished in a week was cut down on holding, but somebody has to figure out how to get the offensive line to wait for the ball to be snapped. Oh, and now they have to prepare for the Aggies' newest defender, who didn't grade particularly well, but had good position.

Okay, the last part is a little jab at A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, who wandered on the field too far, misread a fumble recovery by Auburn and ended up being in the perfect position to tackle the Tigers' Eugene Asante. It could be argued he gave up the only touchdown Auburn could get against an Aggies' defense that is suddenly starting to play up to expectations.

“Our defense never blinked,” Fisher said. The Aggies held the Tigers to just 200 yards of total offense. In an SEC game, that's some good defense and the Razorbacks won't figure it out until November if Auburn's bad offense or running into a good defense. They'll find out that last part Saturday morning.

On offense, backup quarterback Max Johnson will likely be the starter after Connor Weigman and word out of College Station is x-rays after his apparent ankle injury, according to a report from All Aggies. Don't get too excited because he's 1-1 in games against the Hogs.

Plus, Johnson did that at LSU and he's not bothered with coming in on short notice. The Hogs may have bigger problems on offense if they don't get their offensive line settled down long enough to run a play without drawing a host of yellow flags. How they get that solved only the coaches have an idea about.

Nobody's talking about the Hogs' defense the last two weeks. All those mistakes on offense kinda made that easy to overlook, but there are some interesting things to note. The Hogs have scored 31 points the last two weeks, which you would normally thing would be enough to win a game. Somehow, they lost both of them and no turnovers were returned for scores.

You can talk momentum and all that other stuff, but that's dodging realities. The defense's job is to come in and get it back or at least stop the opponent from gaining anything when the offense struggles.

The Hogs and Aggies will kick off at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, at 11 a.m. It will be broadcast on the SEC Network and fuboTV.