Auburn’s Matchup With Texas A&M Has Trap Game Written All Over It

Auburn has a ranked matchup coming up with Teand some are sensing that upset season is coming for the Aggies

Mike Elko and the Aggies could be caught flat-footed against Auburn / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers have no more room for error if they want to play in a bowl game this season.

Auburn has to win its last two games, both against top-15 opponents.

The first upset the Tigers need to pull off is against the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies at home on Saturday. 

Matt Stinchcomb of SEC Now discussed what he sees in Auburn that could enable it to get the job done on Saturday.

“I do think they’re playing with a lot more confidence all of a sudden,” Stinchcomb said. “This is a team that has been able to move the football all season long, they just haven’t been able to score points. They’ve started to protect the football a little bit better so that’s a plus.”

After throwing six interceptions, four coming in Auburn’s week two loss against Cal, in the first five games of the season, Payton Thorne has only thrown one in the back half of the season, on the road in Auburn’s win over Kentucky. Thorne will need to keep that trend going in order for his team to pull off the upset.

Since Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012, home-field advantage was not a factor in the series between the Tigers and Aggies.

In their first nine meetings as SEC opponents the road team came out on top eight times. The one outlier was in 2018 when Auburn scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to erase a 10-point deficit and upset No. 20 Texas A&M 28-24.

The momentum shifted in the new decade, however, as the home team has come out on top in the last three meetings.

Another aspect of this game that makes it a hard matchup to predict is its potential to be a trap game. Texas A&M takes on No. 3 Texas for the first time since 2011 next week. There is speculation that Aggies head coach Mike Elko’s focus is already on the Longhorns.

Upsets have been common throughout college football this season, but the next big one could be happening Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.