Texas A&M 38, Utah State 30: Not-So-Immediate-Game Reaction

by Beergut on Sep 20, 2009 1:07 PM CDT Comment 3 comments

Last season, while we were in the midst of a miserable 4-8 season, I used to force myself to wait as much as 24 hours after a game before I did a game recap. This was mostly to make it possible for me to calm down after what turned out to be many losses, so I wouldn't say something I would later regret. It also forced me to think about what had happened, and get some perspective on the game (important when the team you live and die for loses two-thirds of its games during the season). Here we are now, almost twelve hours after our 38-30 win over Utah State, and I have some thoughts on the game.

An ugly win is much better than a pretty loss. Ask Oklahoma if they'd take an ugly win over BYU right now, and they'd unanimously say yes.
Coach Sherman said having a bye week so early in the year made this game like starting a second season after the New Mexico win; we played like this was another season opener.

After giving up two TDs on two of Utah State's first three offensive posessions, we held them to a field goal on eight of their next nine posessions. That means we made some adjusments on defense.

After giving up over 100 yds rushing in the first quarter, we held USU to ~80 yds rushing for the rest of the game. You're never happy when you give up over 100 yds rushing in a game, period, but at least we made some adjustments.

EZ Nwachukwu is a STUD. 3 receptions, 101 yds, 3 TDs, 1 carry, 39 yds, 1 TD. That defines "stud".

I won't complain about a game in which Jerrod Johnson passes for over 300 yds and 4 TDs.

Another game, another 3 sacks for Von Miller (two were of the intentional grounding variety, I believe). He's off to a nice start this season.

Johnson spread the ball around to 8 different receivers; that is what this offense is designed to do.

We had no turnovers in the game, while State had two fumbles lost. The first part of winning games is making sure you don't lose them; the best way to lose a game is to turn the ball over. We've done a good job of ball protection so far this season.

Another part of not losing games is not hurting yourself with penalties; we have A LOT of work to do there, as we had 16 penalties for 147 yds. That is simply atrocious.

Injuries can kill you. Having Fuller and Michael go dow with injuries during the game is disheartening. It is impressive that we slogged on and played through it.

I am hopeful we can get Ryan Swopes more involved in the offense. Through two games, he has no receptions and no carries.

Our top two tacklers in this game were linebackers Kyle Mangan and Garrick Williams. Four of our top six tacklers in this game were members of the defensive front seven. That is what you want your defensive production to look like; when members of your secondary make up your top two tacklers, that is when you know you are in trouble.

Lucas Patterson's line for the game: 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery. Not too shabby.

The defense as a whole had nine TFL for the game; that means we're getting upfield and making plays. It means we're being aggressive, which also means we're going to get burned sometimes.

I'll have more thoughts after I am able to watch the game film. I'm not sure when this game will be available on Aggies All-Access.

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We tackled in this game like I expected us to tackle in the first game. That can be fixed.

I think we had more freshmen lose their redshirt. I saw Steve Cambell and Kirby Ennis out there.

There was an Adren Dorsey sighting. He actually had a tackle.

I only caught two of Miller’s sacks. I know Matt Moss and Eddie Brown had sacks.

Dustin Harris got called for a pi, but I thought he had a nice game at CB. He will return a punt for TD this year.

Midway through the 3rd quarter, we were taking the game over with our running game. Then Michael got hurt.

Still wondering where Kenric Mcneal went after the first quarter.

Very encouraging to see us throwing the ball to our backs out of the backfield.

JJ missed on a few throws. It was an average day for him, BUT he did not turn the ball over which is huge.

by miketag on Sep 20, 2009 2:12 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

I forgot that Lamothe and Swope made their debuts. I know Lamothe had a tackle.

JJ owns another school record. He now has four career 300 yard passing games.

by miketag on Sep 20, 2009 2:30 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

I am worried...

I knew that the game would be closer than what a lot of people expected, but I was hoping our defense would have come along farther than this. But like BG said, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss.

by maroonblood on Sep 20, 2009 3:36 PM CDT reply actions