With only three regular-season games left and the race for the College Football Playoff reaching a fever pitch, No. 15 Texas A&M’s defense will look to get right against New Mexico State at 6:45 p.m. Saturday following a collapse against South Carolina two weeks ago.

“I think everybody in our building understands these opportunities don’t come along all the time,” coach Mike Elko said. “We have a special chance where we’re at this point in the season, and we control everything. You certainly want to take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves.”

For a defense that had been one of the SEC’s premier units, the group seemed powerless in a primetime road defeat against the Gamecocks. The performance was marred with 25 missed tackles, including 12 forced missed tackles from redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers, and an inability to sack the quarterback behind one of the country’s worst offensive lines.

Despite the letdown in Columbia, South Carolina, A&M has a chance for a tuneup against a largely impotent New Mexico State attack. As the nation’s 17th-worst scoring offense, New Mexico State has been solely dependent on gimmicks to generate any semblance of an offense.

New Mexico State has been dealt a tough hand at the sport’s most important position. Starting senior QB Deuce Hogan suffered a season-ending collarbone injury in September, sophomore QB Parker Awad was benched after a string of poor performances and now New Mexico State is relying on a two-quarterback platoon to keep it afloat.

Junior QB Santino Marucci operates the base offense with a blend of passing and traditional running concepts, while mildly-athletic senior QB Brandon Nunez comes in to operate a package of plays that emphasizes the quarterback’s legs. The musical chairs situation at quarterback has left New Mexico State with the 111th-ranked passing offense.

To make up for the lack of efficiency through the air, New Mexico State has a pair of bruising running backs that each average five or more yards per carry. Junior running back Seth McGowan and junior RB Mike Washington have combined for 957 yards and nine touchdowns. Both backs are over six feet tall and use their burly frames to get downhill in a hurry.

“Offensively, [New Mexico State’s] got quite a few talented skill kids,” Elko said. “They’ve got two running backs who are really talented. Seth McGowan is a Texas kid who signed in Oklahoma out of high school and has wound up at New Mexico State, and he’s a really, really talented back.”

Early in the game for A&M, the interior defensive line will need to hold its ground and improve its tackling to allow the A&M offense to get out to the expected big lead. Should junior defensive tackle Albert Regis and senior DT Shemar Turner plug up the gaps and ice out the New Mexico State running game, the Crimson and White will be forced to turn to a lifeless passing attack.

“You certainly find ways to reemphasize target [area] in [individual] work, in drill work [and] in isolated situations so that the approach stays the same,” Elko said on coaching tackling during the season. “The body control gets a little bit better, and then the target area on the finish needs to improve tremendously in order for us to successfully get people on the ground. I think it’s a refocus and a re-emphasis [on] some of those base fundamentals that you really want to harp [on] to make sure that you get that improved and fixed.”

The New Mexico State wide receiver corps has struggled to find its footing this year — in large part due to the play behind center — only finding the end zone three times as a unit. Freshman wide receiver TJ Pride found the most success, leading the team with 23 catches for 238 yards. A&M’s cornerback duo of junior Kansas State transfer Will Lee III and freshman Alabama transfer Dezz Ricks will look to continue their strong seasons against an insipid group of wideouts.

In a game that A&M is expected to control from the opening kickoff, New Mexico State gives the Maroon and White defense an opportunity to rebound and show that the performance against South Carolina was an aberration, not a foreboding sign of things to come.

“I think [it is] business as usual, but with maybe a little bit of a heightened sense of urgency that we don’t have any margin [for errors] and we’ve got to go,” Elko said. “It’s time to go.”