FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas — Texas A&M pulled out a 45-33 road win over Arkansas on Saturday night to improve to 4-1, 1-1 in SEC play. Let's look at some of the key performances and hand out some helmet stickers:
A&M offensive line: This group was stellar on Saturday. They paved the way for 523 offensive yards, including 262 rushing. They helped A&M dominate the second half and anchored two scoring drives that consisted of all running plays. They protected quarterback Johnny Manziel well, allowing only one sack, which was more of a result of an extended scramble than it was protection. Trey Williams, Tra Carson, Ben Malena and Brandon Williams combined for 203 rushing yards behind the front five. After having some mistakes and penalties last week, the quintet of Jake Matthews, Jarvis Harrison, Mike Matthews, Germain Ifedi and Cedric Ogbuehi cleaned those things up and put together a strong effort.
Deshazor Everett: The junior defensive back is establishing himself as the best player on this A&M defense, and he came up with the biggest defensive play on Saturday night, a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown on Arkansas' first drive of the second half. It helped A&M extend their lead to 31-20 when the Razorbacks could have gone down field and taking their first lead. He has done whatever defensive coordinator Mark Snyder and secondary coach Marcel Yates have asked of him, and his move to safety is helping the back end of the defense immensely.
Mike Evans: He caught a 51-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage and caught two first-half touchdowns, including a jump ball in the end zone where he came up limping. The injury didn't keep him out of action long though; Evans came back to play the remainder of the game and even appeared on special teams. Last season he toughed out many a game with a hamstring injury, so it shouldn't be surprising that he didn't stay off the field long. He finished with six catches for 116 yards.
