10 Things for Tuesday, sponsored by Ekdahl Nelson Real Estate

Alabama is 122rd nationally in sacks allowed and 116th in tackles for loss allowed. A&M is 2nd nationally in sacks and 1st in tackles for loss. This is the most lopsided stat I’ve ever seen in this series in A&M’s favor, and the Aggies absolutely must exploit it.

Alabama’s offense, due to its limitations, has become the classic Nick Saban run-heavy/throw it deep scheme of a decade ago. But that doesn’t mean it’s not effective. Alabama may be 103rd in passing offense, but they’re 17th in yards per completion at 14.4. And it’s a near certainty that they’ll try to go after A&M deep after watching the Miami tape (and KJ Jefferson’s big throw at the end of last week’s game).

One area that could really bite A&M if it doesn’t improve is penalties. The Aggies are 108th in the nation in penalties taken and have been flagged 37 times already. Most of those are procedural penalties — false starts and offsides. They’re not going to get any help from the officials this weekend, so they’ve got to get that under control.

Another area of concern has to be turnovers. One of A&M’s turnovers against Arkansas was legit, the first fumble by Max Johnson. The pick-six and the second fumble were just sloppiness and a lack of communication. A&M is -4 in turnover margin. Alabama is +4. This is the biggest advantage Alabama has on paper, and A&M cannot help them out.

Even though Alabama’s win over Mississippi State was their best offensive performance of the year, it still wasn’t incredibly impressive. They had a pick-six and scored 13 points on drives that started on Mississippi State’s 34 or closer. So the Bulldogs, being generous hosts, helped Alabama to 20 of their 41 points.

During yesterday’s press conference, A&M coach Jimbo Fisher mentioned a bunch of players for Alabama. And he mentioned them all by name. In most pressers, a coach will discuss a couple of players, mostly by their uniform numbers, or maybe a couple by name. He knew all of them. That makes me think A&M’s coaches have been looking at the Alabama film for quite a while in advance of this week.

The last two games may help A&M this weekend against Alabama, because they’ve already had to spy two quarterbacks who like to run. Jalen Milroe is a totally different animal in terms of speed, but the idea of being patient and staying where you need to be has already been drilled into guys like Edgerrin Cooper and Taurean York.

This seems like a Le’Veon Moss kind of game to me. There’s not much time or opportunities for opponents to dance around or go east-west against Alabama. Moss is A&M’s power back and he goes north-south without any delay. He’s been A&M’s best back over the past month and needs to be the guy this Saturday.

Last year, Fadil Diggs led the Aggies with 3 sacks. Through five games, three players already have three or more — Shemar Turner (3.5), Edgerrin Cooper (3) and Walter Nolen (3). Diggs, oddly enough, does not have a sack yet, though he has 3 tackles for loss

Nolen may be on his way to an All-American season because opponents have picked their poison. Fellow DT McKinnley Jackson (10 tackles, 3.5 TFL, 2 sacks) is drawing more double teams, which leaves Nolen in 1-on-1 matchups. That has been a problem for opponents so far, as Nolen already has 20 tackles, 6.5 TFL and those 3 sacks.