Missouri Football Vs Texas A&m: Scouting Report, Score Prediction For Week 6 Game

Texas A&M has been a troublesome opponent for Mizzou in recent seasons.

But the Tigers have recently entered the business of busting slumps.

No. 16/14-ranked Missouri football will take on Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 10, in Columbia, where the Tigers have the chance to claim a second straight high-profile home SEC win. The game is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. and will air on ABC.

Mizzou (4-1, 1-1 SEC) ran down previously top-10 Florida last Saturday on Faurot Field, getting the Tigers’ year back on track with perhaps the most complete performance of Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure in town.

Standing in the way of a second straight home SEC win: Texas A&M (3-2, 1-2), which has had MU’s number in the past two years under head coach Mike Elko.

Can Mizzou end that run and reach the midpoint of the season with all of its major goals still on the table?

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Here’s what Mizzou fans need to know about the Aggies, from their starting quarterback to their top playmakers, as well as a score prediction for the Week 6 game:

Preseason top-10 Texas A&M is 3-2. What caused the slow start?

Wedged between comfortable wins over Missouri State, Arizona State and, most recently, Arkansas, Texas A&M suffered a home loss to Kentucky and was thumped 35-6 by LSU on the road.

Offensive struggles were the consistent crutch in the two losses. Quarterback Marcel Reed threw a couple of picks against Kentucky and didn't find a second scoring drive until the fourth quarter. 

The Aggies’ ‘Offensive Expected Points Added per Drive’ against LSU, which measures scoring expectation, was -2.04, per Hudl IQ. The LSU offense’s ‘Offensive EPA per Drive’ in that game was 0.91. The Tigers were better off with the ball in the Aggies’ hands. 

Texas A&M ranks 13th in the SEC with 356.2 yards of total offense per game and 15th in the conference with 188.8 passing yards per game.

It’s been a slow start to the year in the Aggies’ first season without offensive coordinator Collin Klein, who is now the head coach at Kansas State.

How does Mizzou keep Texas A&M offense quiet?

Reed has been one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the SEC so far this season, facing 54 total pressures through five games. Among SEC starters, he has the second-fewest passing yards while pressured, per Pro Football Focus.

That’s because when the pressure arrives, Reed’s most valuable recovery mechanism is his legs. Only South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers scrambles more than Reed in the SEC. If the pressure gets past him, Reed can and will move the chains on the ground. 

The Tigers have to keep Reed contained in the pocket, which means a different gameplan for stopping the run than what Mizzou did to stop Florida.

“He likes to dink and dunk. Takes shots every once in a while, but he's good with his feet,” MU safety Santana Banner said. “If we don't contain him in the pocket, he can bleed us for a couple yards and make the game more of a struggle than it needs to be.”

More: Now for something different: How should Mizzou defend mobile Marcel Reed?

Where has Mizzou struggled against Texas A&M?

Mike Elko has been responsible for two of Mizzou’s worst performances in the past two years. Texas A&M won its games over MU in 2024 and 2025 by a combined 52 points. In both games, Mizzou’s offense has been essentially a non-factor.

Last year was understandable. Matt Zollers was thrown to the wolves in his first collegiate start, and Missouri ended up getting hit behind the line of scrimmage seven times as it was held to 284 yards of total offense.

The 2024 game was just a straight-up shellacking. The Aggies finished with six sacks and held MU to 254 yards of total offense.

After last season’s game, Mizzou left tackle Cayden Green said that the Texas A&M defense “called out plays at the line,” indicating the Tigers had tendencies they were tipping off. 

“Obviously we've got to do a better job with some of our signaling and communication,” Eli Drinkwitz said last year, “and obviously we’ve got to go back and check our tendencies.”

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The Aggies had one of the nation’s most disruptive defenses last season with 43 sacks, which was tied for fourth in the country. Mizzou has been much better at protecting the quarterback this year, as Austin Simmons has been sacked five times — the second-fewest among SEC starters.

That’s going to be a massive key to watch. The Aggies have won on that side of the ball in the last two years.

Score prediction: Missouri 24, Texas A&M 18

Maybe this is reactionary to Mizzou’s lights-out performance against Florida. The Tigers, after all, haven’t come close to beating Elko’s Aggies in the past two years.

But if Missouri looks anything like it did last Saturday in Columbia, it is going to win. 

That’s a tough performance to replicate. The Aggies are more than capable of making Mizzou have to scrap and grind out a result. 

MU has looked like the better team so far this season, so we’re ignoring the recent series history and going with the Tigers to get a second straight home SEC win.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football vs Texas A&M: Scouting report, score prediction for Week 6 game