Baylor Game Review

It's hard to complain about a game in which you won by 5 touchdowna, and your defense holds the opponent to fewer than 300 yards of total offense and a field goal. The Aggies gained a season-high 375 yards rushing on 52 carries for 3 TDs and an average of 7.2 yards per carry. We were 19-25 passing for 153 yards and 2 TDs. We had 528 yards of total offense. The defense gave up 82 yards rushing on 26 carries for an average of 3.2 yards per carry, and 215 yards passing on 24 completions, while snagging 3 interceptions.  All appearances are that the Aggies dominated the game to gain the win and bowl eligiblity. However, a closer look below the surface shows things aren't what they appear.

Offensively, I have little to complain about. I wasn't happy with Christine Michael's fumble, but I won't complain about his effort on a day he set the record for the longest play from scrimmage in Texas A&M football history. Michael does need to learn to protect the ball better. However, 114 yards rushing on 11 carries and a TD isn't too bad of a day. Cyrus Gray had 107 yards rushing on 14 carries, an average of 7.6 yards per carry. Along with Jerrod Johnson's 83 yards on 16 carries, Gray and Michael helped combine for the second 300-yard game from A&M's two starting RBs and the QB since the Tech game.

I was satisfied with the passing game. Jerrod spread the ball around to ten different receivers, and was an efficient 19-25 for 153 yards and 2 TDs. When Baylor came out in the second half and loaded the box, all but daring us to beat them with our passing game, I would have liked to see us go to the air some more, but when you can run the ball at will, like we were doing, there really is no reason to stop yourself if the defense can't stop you. Ryan Swope and Ryan Tannehill led the team with 4 receptions each, and Tannehill had one TD catch. I was also pleased to see Kenny Brown snag a TD on his one catch; his reception was on our first possession of the game, and helped us take the early lead. Considering the fact that Baylor only scored on a field goal, you could say Brown's one reception was the game-winner. Brown will be part of our future at the TE position, so it is nice to see him being productive. I enjoyed seeing Ryan Swope's role in this offense continue to grow; he is going to be a good one for us. I was surprised to see Uzoma Nwachukwu and Jeff Fuller only have 5 receptions between the two of them. I'm not sure if that is an issue of playcalling, or if defenses are doing a better job of getting help over deep to cover them, but Fuller and EZ should have a minimum of 15 receptions between the two of them each game, at least.

Defensively, out scheme continues to frustrate me. We seem to want to be aggressive on first and second down to stop the run, then drop off and keep the passing game in front of us on third down, and make the tackle. If the offense makes it down the field, we wait until they get to the red zone, then we play aggressive again, and try to force a field goal. Against Baylor, this strategy led to 3 interceptions, but better teams don't make those mistakes. We only had three sacks for the game, two of Nick Florence and one of Blake Syzmanski. We simply need to be able to bring more pressure than that. I know Baylor uses a lot of screens to take some pressure off their QB and get the ball out quickly, but we still gave Baylor too much time to pass the ball. Our run defense was okay; Jay Finley had one 26 yard run, and Jarred Salubi had a 34 yard run, but other than those two runs, we keep their ground game in check. We only gave up 177 yards passing to Florence on 21 completions, which means we were tacklng well, for the most part.

Overall, I am happy about this game, but we need to play better, especially on defense, if we want to win our next two games.