Appalachian State at Texas A&M Prediction for Week 2

Appalachian State Mountaineers

My goodness, what an impressive offensive effort the Mountaineers had in the fourth quarter of their Week 1 loss to North Carolina. They scored 40 in that one quarter alone, and almost came away with the victory. I guess that also tell you how many points the Tar Heels put up on their defense as well. It was a wild back and forth contest that saw North Carolina eek out a 63-61 victory, but the offense for the Mountaineers certainly was churning on all cylinders. They put up a whopping 659 yards of offense, and everything was clicking just right for them late in the game.

This, as you can clearly see, is an explosive offense that has fantastic running back depth, and a veteran QB that can beat you with both his arm and legs. Chase Brice threw for 361 yards and six scores against the Tar Heels' horrendous defense, and even though the Aggies will be an entirely different challenge, this offense can certainly test them.

I expect much more of the same from the Mountaineers in this game in terms of how they will operate. They will spread the ball around and hand it off to some great backs behind a good offensive line. It will be all about keeping up with Texas A&M, much like North Carolina.

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Texas A&M Aggies

The Aggies are not North Carolina. They are far superior to anything that the Mountaineers saw when facing the Tar Heels, especially the offensive and defensive lines. Texas A&M should be able to control both sides of the line, just like they did in their 31-0 crushing of Sam Houston in Week 1. The defense held a very high-scoring offense to to fewer than 200 yards, and made stop after stop on third-down plays. The defensive line owned the backfield, and that very well could happen again here against an overmatched offensive line of the Mountaineers.

Not to mention how much better overall as a team Texas A&M is, they have the guys on defense to give this great offense of Appalachian State fits, and they can do something that the Tar Heels simply cannot: they can tackle. They will stop the run and make Brice win this game for the mountaineers, and I'm not so sure that will happen when the running game is non-existent. Appalachian State needs to run the ball effectively to be able to successfully run their offense, and this is not the game to do that in.

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Appalachian State at Texas A&M Prediction

The simple fact is, this will be a massive step up in class for the Mountaineers. They most likely won't have the explosive deep plays to go to as they had against North Carolina, and they will have to methodically drive down the field if they want to score points. Texas A&M is going to control the ball like they usually do, and while they don't have the explosive offense of North Carolina, they still should put up 30+.

Aggies QB Haynes King should have an efficient performance, and I fully expect the Aggies to get the win here. However, the line for this game is just a bit too high for me. Getting 18 points with Appalachian State feels like a bit too much to me, and I think they can keep it from being a complete blowout.

I'll take the Mountaineers +18.

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