Where: Kyle Field, College Station, Texas

When: 6:45 PM central time Saturday, November 16

Weather: Cloudy with temperatures in the 70s

TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Aaron Murray, Ashley ShahAhmadi)

State of New Mexico: QB Deuce Hogan (shoulder) is out for the year.

Texas A&M: Nickel Tyreek Chappell (ACL) is out this year.

Pass: Parker Awad, 40-93 (43%), 518 yards, 4 TD, 3 INT

Marucci, 43-93 (46.2%), 439 yards, 3 TD, 5 INT

Nunez, 9-24, 61 yards, 1 INT

Rushing: McGowan, 121 carries, 626 yards (5.2 YPC), 3 TD

Washington, 108 carries, 524 yards (4.9 YPC), 6 TD

Marucci, 32 carries, 135 yards (4.2 YPC), 1 TD

Received: Price, 23 catches, 238 yards (10.1 YPC), 1 TD

Johnson, 15 catches, 237 yards (15.8 YPC), 1 TD

McGowan, 14 catches, 136 yards (9.7 YPC), 1 TD

Tackles: York, 54

Brooks, 36

Lee, 33

Approach to loss: Scourton, 12.5

Turner, 5.5

Three players with 4.5

To fail: Scourton, 5

Howell and Turner, 2

Four players with 1.5

Interceptions: Ratcliffe, 3

Mayes, 2

Six players with 1

Forced fumbles: Six players with 1

Fumble Recovery: Three players with 1

Pretty simple: run the ball, control the clock and keep A&M’s offense off the field.

The Aggies have a solid running attack, led by McGowan, the former Oklahoma running back who hadn’t played in three years before returning to NMSU this season. Washington, a transfer from Buffalo, provides a solid 1-2 punch to McGowan. The offensive line is blocked pretty well for them.

Other than that, they were an absolute disaster offensively. None of the four quarterbacks they have played have a completion percentage above 50% and the starter, Deuce Hogan, was lost early in the year. A&M coach Mike Elko was generous when he said NMSU was still trying to figure things out at quarterback.

NMSU has virtually no passing game on the field because even when they try to avoid throwing, they cannot resist a pass rush. Marucci, the most mobile quarterback, appears to have emerged as the starter and played most of the game against Western Kentucky two weeks ago.

If the inability to seriously throw the ball wasn’t bad enough, NMSU is turning the ball over at an alarming rate. They’ve been shut down 11 times and thrown the ball away nine more times, so they’re averaging more than two goals per game. Either way, it’s going to be really hard for them to do much against the A&M defense, but if they continue that trend, it’s going to be really, really bad.

Here’s an idea: tackle.

Seriously, tackling should be priority one in this game. If the Aggie defense takes away NMSU’s running game at the line of scrimmage, this will be a rushing loss. A&M’s offensive defense should be able to overwhelm NMSU when they try to throw, which the visiting Aggies will try to avoid at all costs.

Chances are the Aggies will have eight men in the box and man coverage on NMSU’s receivers almost all the time. When NSMU pitches, expect them to blitz heavily. The Aggies want to get negative plays and turnovers and get their opponent off the field as quickly as possible.

A&M’s season stats were heavily skewed by two disastrous performances and this is a chance to get things back on track. If they do the basics right and wash away the horror of the South Carolina game, they should be able to do that.