Texas A&M Football: Defense Will Determine the Outcome of the A&M-OSU Contest

The media loves offense, but defense wins championships. When you turn on your television and watch the highlights from the weekend's games, you see Denard Robinson throwing a long touchdown pass to beat Notre Dame.

You do not see highlights of Alabama making nine third down stops against Penn State. In big games, the best defense normally determines who the winner is, and it will be the same on Saturday at Kyle Field in the top 10 showdown between No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 8 Texas A&M.

When the high-powered offenses of Oregon and Auburn met in the BCS title game in January, Auburn won the game mainly because they held Oregon to 2.3 yards per rush attempt. Top Oklahoma just traveled to Tallahassee and beat the then fifth ranked Florida State Seminoles 23-10 mainly because they only gave up 27 yards on the ground.

Everything else being equal, whoever controls the line of scrimmage on defense on Saturday at Kyle Field will come out victorious.

Both schools enter the game with senior gunslingers at QB, and an All-American candidate at wide receiver. Texas A&M has Ryan Tannehill and Jeff Fuller, while OSU counters with Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon. The Aggies feature Cyrus Gray in the backfield while the Pokes counter with Joseph Randle.

Both schools even feature a complementary wide receiver who wears the No. 25 in Ryan Swope for the Ags and Josh Cooper for the Cowboys.

Both schools have elite return men on special teams in Coryell Judie for the A&M and Justin Gilbert for OSU.

The schools are as evenly matched as their rankings suggest. The difference will be on the defensive side of the ball.

It is impossible to compare defenses for 2011 since Oklahoma State has played an extra game, and the quality of the non-conference opponents each team has faced is unknown at this time.

A look at the last 10 games played by each team allows a better perspective on the performance of each defense.

In the last 10 games A&M played including their bowl game, the Aggies have allowed 355.8 total yards per game. The Aggies defense has allowed 142.1 yards per game rushing to the tune of 3.70 yards per carry.

In the last 10 games Oklahoma State has played including their bowl game, the Cowboys have allowed 413.8 total yards per game. OSU has held opponents to 150.5 yards per game on the ground and 3.87 yards per carry.

It appears the Aggies definitely have the advantage on defense particularly in pass defense. Run defense appears to be a wash.

The Ags should have the defensive advantage in this game especially in front of the home crowd with 90,000 Aggies screaming while OSU is on offense. 

In a game where defense wins championships, the Ags defense should be enough to carry them to victory against Oklahoma State on Saturday.