College Station, Texas ? Prior to his team playing against Kansas, coach Dennis Franchione said if an opponent can’t stop Texas A&M’s running game, he likes the idea of bloodying their nose with it until they do.

Since then, it’s been the Aggies banging their heads against the wall with no success, for at least three quarters.

With defenses stopping the run in recent weeks, A&M is searching for ways to get back on track heading into Saturday’s game at No. 7 Missouri.

“We need to do something because enough is enough,” Aggies offensive lineman Kirk Elder said. “We need to start getting it done offensively. Our defense has played really well the last two games, but we put them in a hole because they’re out there all the time.”

A&M wanted an offense similar to last season, when it averaged 206.8 yards rushing and 190.5 passing.

Focus switched

But it wasn’t long before the focus switched to the running game. And for the most part, it had success on the ground through the first eight games. The Aggies went into the Kansas game with the country’s fifth-best rushing offense, averaging 260.1 yards per game.

“We’ve been kind of conservative early because we were running the ball so well,” offensive coordinator Les Koenning said. “We relied on it and did a good job.”

But the toughest run defenses the Aggies faced in the first eight games belonged to Miami and Oklahoma State, ranked 44th and 54th in the country. And A&M managed 248 total rushing yards against them.

Then, facing the top two rushing defenses in the Big 12 in Kansas and Oklahoma, the Aggies never established a running game and finished with two of their three worst offensive performances of the season.

They ran the ball 22 times against Kansas through three quarters for 56 yards. A week later at Oklahoma, they ran it 28 times prior to the fourth quarter for 106 yards.