THE WRECKING CREW IS BACK!!!!  If you don’t believe that statement then please take your Gig thumb and shove it up your rear or retract it and never extend it for the rest of the season.  There’s just no pleasing you.  Yes, they gave up 24 points (7 off a turnover) and almost 500 yards of offense but that Wrecking Crew played their asses off on Saturday night.  Three goal line stands, pressure on Austin Allen all night, and Armani Watts’ strip as Arkansas was about to score.  While our offense struggled for the first half, the Wrecking Crew made sure Arkansas could never get in front too far that we couldn’t get back.  I’ll get in more detail on the defense later but if you watched that game and didn’t think the defense deserves the Wrecking Crew name then I don’t know what to tell you as the Southwest Conference style of football ain’t coming back.  Speaking of Austin Allen, major props to that guy.  He was a 66% passer on the night and threw no interceptions while getting pummeled by the Wrecking Crew.  I mean just pummeled.  He just kept coming back for more and I was impressed.

As for the game itself we haven’t had a game that enjoyable since Johnny and Mike Evans.  We had a slug fest for three quarters and then right towards the end of the third quarter we had an amazing goal line stand on the 6 inch line.   On the second play of getting the ball back we hit Reynolds for a 92 yard TD pass and then we start walking away at that point.  For three quarters you’re on the edge of your seat as it goes back and forth and then your team starts walking away in the 4^th quarter so you can take it all in and just enjoy it.  It was a real fight for most of the game but your team kept responding and then walked away with it comfortably when it was all said and done.  Mix in some awesome defense and big plays on offense and I don’t think it gets any more enjoyable than that in my book.  I mixed in some chocolate cake and Shiner Bocks always within reach and Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football just doesn’t get any better than it did on Saturday night in my book.

Offense:

I’m starting this offensive analysis off with someone else other than our quarterback.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but Josh Reynolds is the most underrated receiver in the country.  He doesn’t have the flash or size of other receivers but he produces more than anyone else.  We all know about the 92 yard touchdown catch but the guy had three other clutch catches on the night and I really think it was his involvement in the passing game that got our offense going.  The most notable was Knight scrambling hard to his right and Reynolds went back for the ball and made a hard catch right on the sideline to get a first down.  He’s not just a deep threat but he works all over the field and is really the most sure handed guy we have.  Nobody nationally talks about him and even most Aggies focus on RSJ and Kirk but Josh Reynolds is a damn stud and we’re going to miss him next year.

The next guy I want to talk about is Trayveon Williams.  This time last year he was playing high school football and right now he’s gashing SEC defenses.  The way he’s doing it is impressive.  He’s doing it with a mix of moves, power, and speed.  He’s really a complete back right now and he’s a true freshman.  Keith Ford is not chopped liver and also had nice runs on Saturday night but Williams is the guy with momentum right now.  He’s been the better of the two backs in the second half the last two games so credit to Mazzone for riding the hotter hand and putting teams away.  I know a certain offensive coordinator that would stick with a regular rotation rather than riding the hot hand late in the game.  Also love that Trayveon and Trevor give the double Gigs when they score.  It’s the little things that make me smile.

As for Knight he once again played a REALLY solid game.  A lot of Aggies thought he was struggling really badly in the first half but I thought he did fine all things considered.  He didn’t look his best but if Christian Kirk catches the balls that hit in him in the hands that first half looks totally different as does Knight.  Knight was once again a slightly better than 50% passer but what I like is he’s getting better as the game wears on.  Sure, I’d like for him to start out stronger but I like the fact that he and Mazzone seem to work together to get on the same page as the game wears on.  Knight is still not a great QB from a passing standpoint but he didn’t turn the ball over and made his best passes in the second half.  If we can get him to start out stronger he could honestly be the best quarterback we’ve had in two decades not named Johnny Manziel.

Where Knight is really excelling is the running game.  This includes his actual runs but most importantly his decision making on the zone read.  I’m not a huge fan of the zone read but when you have a guy like Knight that’s reading it well and making the right decision then I’m all for it.  Knight was making great reads on it all night.  On his second touchdown right at the end of the first half he made an outstanding read.  Arkansas didn’t have a true middle linebacker and had two guys inside but off the center.  Nobody on the Arkansas defense was over the center at the second level.  At the snap the inside backers broke outside to cover leaving the middle wide open.  Knight immediately saw it, tucked the ball, found the seam at the line and off he went.  Just outstanding recognition by him and one of the big plays of the game as it brought us back to even at 17 going into half with us getting the ball in the second half.  That was a real momentum boost knowing the game was back to zero at half.  He’s got some improvement to make as a passer but I’m not gonna get on him because he made some great decisions on Saturday night and we ran away from Arkansas when it was all said and done.

High snaps.  I forgot to write about the high snaps at Auburn last week.  It was REALLY common against Auburn that I thought they would be gone against Arkansas.  Not the case.  Once again we had lots of high snaps and Knight was doing his best to come down with the ball.  I thought McCoy would have gotten that cleaned up but he didn’t and it cost us.  On our first possession of the second half we have our best drive all night long and it fell apart at the goal line thanks to a high snap.  I don’t know what’s going on and why it’s consistently happening but snaps for a center have to be second nature.  Something is going on with McCoy and Jim Turner has to get that fixed pronto or we could see it hurt us again.

As for the rest of the offensive line there’s not much more you can ask for.  We rushed for 366 yards and 37 carries averaging 9.9 yards per carry.  We only gave up one sack to go along with those yards so Knight had time to make decisions all night.  Outside of the snaps there’s not really anything to fault this offensive line for on Saturday night.  It took a little bit to get things going but I’m fine with an offensive line that gets better as the game wears on.  What’s probably the most impressive thing about Saturday night is this Arkansas defensive line is different than Auburn’s in that Arkansas’ defensive line is smaller and quicker.  In back to back weeks our line has handled two different styles of defensive lines.  We obviously did better against Arkansas but it’s good to see our offensive line can make adjustments against different styles.

As for the other receivers not named Reynolds I was glad to see Christian Kirk finally respond in the second half as his first half was just terrible.  He botched a punt and then dropped two balls that he normally catches.  RSJ had a nice catch for 47 yards that helped establish some offensive momentum.  Would like to see him more involved as he’s just a size mis-match but glad he had some involvement.  Hopefully his injury isn’t too bad as even if he’s not producing as much as he can he’s a mis-match issue that defenses have to account for.  It would be nice to get Speedy involved but he doesn’t seem to be doing anything to warrant it from a receiving standpoint.  We went deep to him a couple of times in the first half but he just doesn’t seem to get any separation.  They all did a tremendous job blocking which helped our running game.  Love receivers that understand the importance of blocking when the ball isn’t going through the air.

As a whole we were outstanding on third downs compared to previous games at 8 of 12.  I’ll take 67% third down conversions in any game.  On Red Zone trips we were 1 of 3 with one failure resulting from a missed field goal and the other was the fumble from the high snap.  Time of Possession was pretty bad only having the ball for 20 of 60 minutes but I’m torn on who’s fault that is.  In the first half we didn’t sustain drives but in the second half we did.  The defense did a nice job of getting off the field on third downs in the first half but in the second half they let Arkansas convert a lot of third downs so some of that time of possession is on the defense for not getting off the field on third downs.  We’ll place equal blame on the offense and defense for time of possession this game.  Most importantly though we scored 45 points to their 24 and that’s what matters.

The only negative of this offense from this game other than the high snaps and turnovers is it would be nice to see this offense get going much sooner in the game.  Maybe it’s just a case of wearing the defense down along with Mazzone and Knight figuring out what works best.  However, it would be nice to get a bigger cushion early on to see what the defense can really do knowing a team has to be more aggressive.  Then again, based on our defense’s performance which I’ll touch on next maybe we’re better off sand bagging making an offense think they can keep focusing on the run which is our greatest strength as a defense.  I doubt that’s the reason for the early struggles but it might have worked in our favor so far.

The Wrecking Crew:

That’s right, the Wrecking Crew.  I wish we didn’t give up almost 500 yards and 24 points but if you watched that game you know that defense played their asses off when they were out on the field.  7 of those points came off of Kirk’s muffed punt so what does that game look like if that didn’t happen?  Arkansas ripped off a 50ish yard TD run and a couple other long runs and that’s what they’re built for.  That was bound to happen.  So the Wrecking Crew wasn’t perfect but I’ll take that effort and end results any day.  There are some areas of improvement that I think Chief will focus on going forward.

You can’t ask more of the defensive line from what you saw on Saturday night.  Arkansas is big and built to run.  They want to lean on a defense until they break.  Our defensive line never even cracked much less broke.  The interesting thing about their performance is nobody truly stood out the entire game.  It was a complete effort by everyone on that defensive line.  Myles Garrett didn’t wreck shop like he has the other three games but it was clear Arkansas wasn’t going to let him.  They didn’t let the left tackle live on an island against him keeping someone else to help and rolled to the right most of the game.  Garrett never got a chance to tee off.  He got loose a couple of times but the QB wasn’t sitting there in the pocket like with other teams.  Credit to Arkansas for not letting Myles Garrett but Myles did make plays getting a fumble recovery and having a couple tackles for a loss including the goal line on runs to his side.

The best play by Myles Garrett was the 4^th and goal in the second half.  Arkansas ran a sweep to his side which was the wide side and they were so worried about Myles they didn’t account for Armani Watts at all.  This allowed Watts a clean shot at the ball carrier and he made a great tackle for a loss.  Arkansas foolishly thought they could reach block Garrett with the left tackle but he couldn’t get there in time so the upback had to engage Garrett instead of Watts.  Just by Myles being Myles and the fact that the interior of our defensive line wasn’t budging made Arkansas run a play they couldn’t execute.

I encourage you to watch the play here.  https://youtu.be/9ALhb5Ivrsc?t=625

Go ahead and maximize the screen for the full effect.  The best is the Arkansas girl giving the Arkie coaching staff the business for being so stupid calling that play against the Wrecking Crew.  She knew EXACTLY what we were gonna do them Ags!

The most amazing thing about this play is Nick Harvey.  He had some bad plays on the night but he played this one perfectly.  Follow the ball carrier but watch the Aggie defender in the end zone tailing him.  If Watts doesn’t make the play then Harvey is actually in position to make a play as well but he never got the chance because Watts just made the play dead.  That’s just outstanding recognition by the ENTIRE defense to diagnose the play and let playmakers make plays.  If Watts somehow misses then Harvey gets a shot and if Harvey doesn’t get him Myles had freed himself from his normal hold so he was about to make a play as well.  Hell, even Zaycoven from the nose tackle position was in pursuit and had angled off to the goal line rather than pursue from behind so outstanding job by him to take an angle.  There was absolutely no way Arkansas was scoring on that play.  No way.  Not to discount the efforts on 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd down as those were more impressive from a physical standpoint but the play diagnosis by our defense on that 4^th down was amazing.  Arkansas thought they could surprise us but in watching that replay I’m convinced there is NO way Arkansas scores there even if Watts misses his tackle.  Harvey or Myles would have got him.  Amazing work by the Wrecking Crew as that stand saved the game and when Knight hit Reynolds two players we were like Usain Bolt at the 60 meter mark and Arkansas wasn’t catching us.

The defensive tackles didn’t have a lot of stats but they were doing work all night consuming double teams by Arkansas’ big linemen.  What they did on the goal line stands was phenomenal.  The tackles were the key in Arkansas not being able to establish their normal inside runs and forcing outside runs where we had support from Myles, our linebackers, and safeties.  They ripped off some long inside runs but thanks to the work of the defensive tackles they were stalemated all night preventing them from ever establishing the inside run.  Daeshon Hall had a massive hit on Austin Allen that created a big fumble in the 4^th quarter.  I’ve said it before and as every game passes it’s proven there’s no doubt this defensive front is one of if not the best in the country.  Enjoy these guys because it doesn’t get much better than this.  This is a special group.

The linebackers were outstanding all night as well.  Not one really sticks out which is okay because that means they’re all interchangeable and doing their job.  Alaka, Washington, Moore, George, Dodson, and even 12^th Man Gillaspia are contributing which is a FAR cry from last year where we couldn’t even find one linebacker to really contribute.  They were out of position a couple of times but the majority of the time they’re in the right spot and making plays.  Really impressed with this group as they don’t have a dominating guy in the rotation but they’re all contributing and not making mistakes very often.  I’ll take what these guys are continuing to do.  This is like the 2012 linebacking group but we actually have depth and a little more athleticism.  George and Washington are seniors so there’s hope beyond this season unlike 2012 when we lost all three and had a significant dropoff in 2013.  Yes, I’m looking ahead at this group as we’ve not had linebacking depth in some time.

I won’t spend long on our safeties as they’re just flat out studs.  Seriously.  Best group in the country.  Watts had probably the two biggest plays on defense with the goal line 4^th down stop in the 3^rd quarter but his most amazing play was stripping the ball at the goal line in the 2^nd quarter.  Arkansas would have gone up 17-7 at that point.  We then took the ball and kicked a field goal to tie it at 10.  If Armani doesn’t strip that ball who knows how that game would have turned out.  We would have had to really crawl back.  He did the same thing at Ole Miss last year when we turned the ball over in our own territory.  A couple plays later Watts strips the ball keeping Ole Miss from scoring which would have put the game further out of reach.  Of course we had Spav last year and couldn’t respond so we lost that game but glad this year we took advantage of Watts being a flat out baller.  Evans didn’t do anything that stood out like Watts but he was his usual self as was Donovan Wilson.

Now to the weak link of the defense and why Arkansas had so many yards.  Arkansas was able to throw for 371 yards with Austin Allen completing 67% of his passes.  Most of those yards came against our corners Nick Harvey and Priest Wilis.  They weren’t exactly terrible but they weren’t good by any stretch.  The Arkansas receivers were getting enough separation and Allen was flat out hitting the mark.  Our corners were at least in the area code so they weren’t totally burned.  They just let the Arkie receivers get position and they made the catches.  We also had some pass interference penalties that led to our goal line stands.  Since the Wrecking Crew held their ground those penalties ultimately didn’t burn us.  Now, I will say some of the pass interference calls were questionable as our corners weren’t exactly mauling the receivers on the calls.  They just looked worse than they actually were.  Chavis has some work to do with these guys as I’m afraid Arkansas just showed a blueprint how to beat A&M.   Now in our defense we were so focused on shutting down Arkansas’ run that we left our passing defense susceptible to a degree.  We won’t see an offensive line with the blocking scheme like Arkansas the rest of the year so I think we’ll be able to get to the quarterback where we just couldn’t do it against Arkansas.   I also think Donovan Wilson will play a bigger part in our pass defense against certain offenses that aren’t so run oriented.

Overall the most frustrating part of our defense was the inability to get off the field on third downs in the second half.  Arkansas was 9 of 16 but many of those were on 3^rd and 6 are longer.  Getting off the field on 3^rd and 6 or longer had been the calling card of this defense but I can think of at least 5 conversions of 3^rd and 6 or longer where Arkansas passed for a first down.  We were getting pressure on Allen so he was getting hammered but the dude was delivering the ball right before getting hit and delivering the ball on the mark.  Maybe this was just an anomaly so we’ll see as we progress through the year but the lack of coverage is no doubt the most alarming thing from this game.

One last thing on people questioning the Wrecking Crew is this defense was on the field for 40 minutes this game and played 23 more snaps than our offense.  Everyone seems to think it was Arkansas’ defense that tired late in the game as we started pounding on them but that’s not really the case.  Arkansas’ defense played 20 less minutes and 23 less snaps than the Wrecking Crew.  It should have been our defense that was tired and not theirs based on that data.  However, what really happened is the Wrecking Crew never gave up and our offense finally got going and mentally beat an Arkansas defense that had no answers at times.  The Arkansas defense flat out quit despite playing half the time as The Wrecking Crew.  They weren’t tired.  Look at the points and yards if you want but don’t underestimate the effort and heart the Wrecking Crew played with on Saturday night.  Time and time again they made plays to keep Arkansas from getting up too big and once our offense finally got on track in the second half it was domination time.  The Wrecking Crew is the reason we’re sitting at 4-0 while our offense still figures it out a tad.  Don’t call them the Wrecking Crew if you want but just remember what I said you can do with your Gig thumb the rest of the season.

Special Teams:

Not a whole lot here other than LaCamera missed a 36 yarder that he has to hit.  Kirk bobbled the first punt return which set Arkansas up for a score inside our red zone.  Speedy had a great kickoff return of 42 yards but just kind of stepped out of bounds for no real reason.  Moorehead needs to work with him as I’d love to see the kid throw a juke or something but he appears uninterested in contact as he did the same thing last week in Auburn just stepping out of bounds for no real reason.  Speedy has the ability so I’d just love to see the kid tap into it.  We punted twice for an average of 47.5 yards so nothing really special there.

 

Going forward I really feel we’re a 6-0 team headed to Alabama.  Tennessee scares me a little more as Saturday’s second half Tennessee flat out stomped Florida.  If they finally found the right gear then our game against them is back to a toss-up they can win.  We’ll see what they do against Georgia this weekend before making a final determination.  I still don’t think we beat Alabama but it’s certainly possible if our offense comes out and plays 4 quarters of football to match the Wrecking Crew’s effort.

Ole Miss I still have as a toss-up after their game with Georgia and I have no idea what to expect with LSU now that Eddie O is running the show.  Don’t forget Eddie O took USC to 6-2 as the interim coach so I see this as a very similar situation.  Head coach at LSU is his dream job so he’s not going to throw in the towel by any stretch.  Eddie did lose to UCLA in his year at USC so that makes me feel better but he did beat #5 ranked Stanford that season.  I’m going to leave us at 9-3 for now.  There’s a very real chance we go 11-1 if we get past Tennessee, Ole Miss proves vulnerable again because let’s face it we don’t know what Georgia really is as they don’t look good right now, and Eddie O shows he’s still the same head coach that Ole Miss fired.  I feel very good about this team being on par with the 2012 team but just want a couple more weeks to see how we do along with those on our schedule before predicting too many wins.

This week we’ll likely be “resting” a couple key guys like RSJ, Myles, and Avery Gennessy so catching a really bad South Carolina after an Arkansas battle is nice.  Thank goodness this is a 3:00 game as that’s perfect for us.  We can fly in, wake up at a normal time, take care of business, and get back home at a decent hour as well.  I really assume we’ll take care of business this weekend so there’s not much to predict and just see how it plays out.  I’d love to see an Auburn type game from 2012 where after beating Mississippi State to put people on notice we just ran Auburn out of their own stadium to truly make the statement we were better than anyone expected.  If this team is truly as mature as they say they are we start off stronger than any game on offense and walk away with this thing by half.  We shall see.

 

Before I get into the game I have to comment about everything Auburn.  Their fans were amazing all weekend.  From being out on Friday night at their version of Northgate, to some tailgating before the game, to during the game, and then at the bars after the game on Saturday night.  Just tremendous and welcoming all weekend.  I didn’t run into one jackass.  I put them as the nicest fan base I’ve visited above Nebraska and Alabama.  I hope we’re just as nice when visiting fans come to Aggieland.  The scene in the stadium was tremendous.  There’s no doubt we made the right choice going to the SEC.  If you haven’t been to Auburn put it on your list as you won’t be disappointed.

As for the game that’s a damn nice win.  We went on the road against a damn talented football team and controlled the game for most of it and put them away when we had to.  There are lots of areas to work on and we didn’t even come close to playing flawless but we held control and momentum for most of the game.  While you can question the coaching of Auburn that’s still a really talented team so we had to work for it.  In the end I’d say we out coached and out played them and that’s something we couldn’t say last year and even two years ago.  As a whole this team has improved for the third straight week and that’s not something I’ve felt we’ve done in the past two years and even in 2013.  This kind of feels like the 2012 season which I’ll touch on later.

Before I get into each unit I have to say this game felt like the Vanderbilt game last season.  We were playing a really tough defense and had trouble in the red zone all night but converted 5 field goals and scored a long touchdown.  Auburn has a much better offense than Vandy but it just had that feel where we were in control the entire game but just couldn’t quite walk away until late in the game.  That’s not a bad thing but we could have really blown that game away with better play calling and execution in the red zone.  As it was though we didn’t take any chances and didn’t make any mistakes.  We held control and walked out of our first SEC road game against a really talented team with a solid win.  You take that all day long.

Offense:

I have to say Trevor Knight played a really good football game.  He wasn’t flawless as he was only a 50% passer on the night but his receivers had some drops they shouldn’t have had.  Most importantly Knight did not turn the ball over.  For the most part he played within himself and played his best game against the best defense he’s faced without a doubt.  At least as an Aggie.  Knight missed some passes on his own but I’ll take the Trevor Knight we saw on Saturday night all season long.  Even better if he improves some which I think he will.  I thought his decision making in the pocket was pretty decent.  He’s still not perfect but he did a good job of just tucking and running or throwing the ball away and not trying to do too much.  The kid is a really good runner and I have no issues that if he feels pressure and sees a lane to tuck and head up field.  I’m going to do a little piece on Knight later this week if I get time but I was impressed with Knight on Saturday night considering he appears to be improving and not regressing.  Regressing is what we’ve seen out of our QBs the last two seasons.  If this is Knight’s baseline for the rest of the season I’ll take it.  Would love to see him keep improving which is what I think will happen.

The most impressive part of our offense on Saturday night was our offensive line.  Not because they dominated but because the adjusted in game.  On the first two series despite us getting positive yards at times the Auburn defensive line was blowing up our offensive line for the most part.  I really thought we were in for a long night.  Auburn scored on their second possession and we had two punts on our first two offensive possessions with Auburn’s defensive line over matching our offensive line.  I was seeing 2015 all over again down 7 to 0.  Not sure what Jim Turner did but he got our line in tune and they handled Auburn’s defense for the rest of the night.  Not dominant by any stretch but all of a sudden our offensive line was holding their own.  The interior part of the line was especially taking the fight to a really good Auburn defensive line.  Never saw that in game adjustment last season with our offensive line so it’s great to see.   Later in the game the work our offensive line did all night finally showed in Trayveon Williams long run which was the official dagger in Auburn.  Their defense was fully cooked at that point.  Our offensive line has lots of improvement but I like what I’m seeing.  Great game by them and let’s hope they keep improving with Knight.  I have no reason to think they won’t at this point.

Outside of Williams big run our backs didn’t dominate by any stretch but they worked and ran tough all night against a really good defense.  I have no complaints with what they did and assume as our offensive line improves so will their yards.  We don’t have the talent of LSU or Bama in our backfield but the guys we have are really serviceable and an improvement over last year which is not a knock on Tra Carson at all.  That dude had major heart but Ford and Williams are just better equipped for what we need right now.

The biggest negative of our offense against Auburn was our receivers no doubt.  Everybody had some drops they shouldn’t have and RSJ is just still inconsistent with catching balls.  He shouldn’t be this bad at this point in his Aggie career but he’s just not a reliable pass catcher.  Reynolds had his usual nice long catch along with a TD catch but he also missed another TD catch.  Kirk didn’t have any long catches but had a couple key receptions.  He also got his bell rung in the third quarter but came back in.  He had a nice 20 yard run so he’s just a weapon I’m glad to see Mazzone utilize in many different ways.  Kirk does a lot of work as a receiver he doesn’t get credit for.  Speedy had a nice catch and run for 40 yards but I thought he made a mistake going out of bounds when he could have given an inside cut to the defender and potentially broke into the end zone with his speed.  I’m really not impressed with Moorehead as a receivers coach with these drops and then seeing Speedy step out of bounds when he could have made a move for a potential TD.  It just seems Moorehead is an average coach and that’s it.  He doesn’t appear to be a nails recruiter so he’s a guy I’d like to see replaced assuming Sumlin is here next year which I’ll touch on later as well.  Now, I will credit this receiving corps in that they doing a pretty damn good job blocking and take that seriously.  That’s a really solid thing and hope it doesn’t change.

Outside of the individual units the biggest negatives of this offense remain the same.  It’s third down conversions, red zone conversions, and time of possession.  On third down we were 2 of 15.  TWO of FIFTEEN.  That’s 13%.  THIRTEEN FREAKING PERCENT.  How in the world did we even win this game with that conversion rate and actually scored 29 points?  It’s really mind boggling.  We actually had 19 first downs which is pretty impressive but that means we had 16 first down conversions on 1^st and 2^nd downs as we converted a 4^th down but man we’ve got to get better at converting third downs.  That would go a long ways to winning time of possession and giving our defense a huge lift.  I still contend Mazzone is just picking plays and not really sequencing or scripting plays which would help our offense control a game better if he could get us in shorter third down situations.

As for the red zone we were inside the red zone 5 times and kicked 4 times.  We also made a trip inside the 30 yard line that turned into a field goal and not a touchdown.  Outside of that we had one big play that got a touchdown.  We’re going to need bigger plays or a much better conversion rate in the red zone against teams like Bama and Ole Miss if we want to beat them.  I’d prefer red zone conversion to hoping for big plays to score touchdowns.  Hopefully Mazzone works on some red zone plays that show the defense a different look and catches them by surprise.  We’ve also got to get better converting third downs.  We get better in the red zone and converting third downs then our time of possession gets better and our defense gets better.  Mazzone still has lots of improvement as a play caller in that regard.  He’s not terrible by any stretch but he’s nowhere near the play caller that Petrino and Kiffin are and that’s what I hope he aspires to be.

Defense:

I have to start off with Mr. Myles Garrett because the dude is just amazing to watch in person.  We’ve got at least 10 more games with him and maybe a couple more but enjoy the 10 games because he’s special.  For 3 games now from start to finish he’s just wrecking shop and altering the plans of the offense.  I can’t believe Gus thought a backside guard could get to him before Myles wrecked their backfield.  You would think when it didn’t work on the first play of the game he wouldn’t try it again but Gus stupidly tried it again to similar results.  I think it only happened twice.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but Myles is just dominating the left side of the offensive line by himself.  If you don’t give the left tackle help Myles is going to destroy him.  It’s really creating so much else for our defense.  Myles may not be the #1 pick next year but if you’re an NFL scout and watch him in person it’ll be hard to walk away and not think he’s the best defender in the country and be someone at the next level like a JJ Watt.  His stats aren’t showing it but his play flat out is.  Myles just does everything he can to help his defense from start to finish.  There are no taking plays off waiting to get an easy sack as Myles knows there’s not any.  He’s just a special special guy.  I don’t know how he comes across on TV but I can’t take my eyes off him when the ball is snapped because he’s just that amazing.  I think against Arkansas he could flat out dominate their Undertaker looking left tackle.  Arkansas will probably put him on an island early on and once Myles gets his third sack they’ll start looking to help Undertaker, Jr.

As for the rest of the defense they did what they had to do.  If you thought Auburn wasn’t going to get some rushing yards you haven’t been paying attention to what they do.  They run the ball and run the ball really well.  They got 236 yards of rushing which is more than you want to give up but most importantly their longest run was 33 yards.  That’s a damn fine job by our defense that got gashed for long run after long run last year in this game.  The longest runs by their two backs were 33 and 20 yards which is okay by me.  Auburn is just built to run.

In all honesty no one else on the defense really stood out to me other than Myles.  That’s not a bad thing at all as against Auburn you have to play disciplined defense.  Everyone seemed to step up and make a play at times which was great to see.  The defensive tackles were on a solid rotation which kept them fresh against Auburn’s big offensive line.  I’m sure the Auburn offensive line was wondering why our defensive line wasn’t wearing down.  We run a solid 5-6 guys out there at defensive tackle so they’re always battling someone fresh.  Hall had a decent game and made a couple of really nice stops but seems he was just out there holding his position and playing responsibilities.  That’s not a bad thing.  I did see him get burned crashing on a zone read but he didn’t do it all night so I’m fine with a mistake here and there assuming it’s not repetitive.

The linebackers seemed to be really solid and they also rotated a lot.  Last year’s linebackers seemed to be one step too slow and out of place which lead to some really big Auburn runs last year.  Not this time.  The linebackers were filling the gaps they were supposed to and not being out of position.  This linebacking group really reminds me of the 2012 in that they’re not dominant but they’re playing really smart football.  This is a younger group with more depth than the guys in 2012 so that’s a really good sign.

The group that looked the best behind Myles was no doubt our safeties.  Justin Evans is just a flat out baller.  Watts and Wilson are no slouches and they looked really solid as well.  There’s no doubt in my mind Evans and Watts are playing on Sundays and I actually think Wilson will play on Sundays as well in his nickel role he does for us.  This group like Myles just keeps holding their own and getting better which helps mask our inexperience at the corner position.  As far as the corners go they did okay.  Auburn had 163 yards of receiving which isn’t amazing but they averaged 7.4 yards a pass which is pretty good.  They just don’t pass a lot but they do it regularly enough you can’t forget to defend it or totally sell out to the run.

Kind of like defending the running game, Auburn’s longest pass was 18 yards so we didn’t give up a big pass.  There’s a lot of factors for that including the pressure we could get on the QB if they tried to set up for a long pass but it’s nice to know Auburn didn’t get any long passes by surprise.    Our defense was ready.  The other impressive thing this defense did was playing the first down marker on 3^rd and longs.  What I saw a lot of the night was on anything 3^rd and 10 or longer we’d give them an open zone about 6 yards downfield which baited the QB to throw there and then immediately crashed for little to no gain.  Auburn was 6-17 on third down conversions and 0-2 on fourth down conversions.  I’m too lazy to look but I bet they didn’t convert more than one third down that was longer than 6 yards.  If we tackled them for a loss on a first down I don’t think they converted the second or third down.  That’s pretty impressive when you don’t give up that momentum as a defense when you get a tackle for a loss on 1^st down.  That’s the way it should be but defenses don’t always execute it that way and there’s nothing more demoralizing than have an offense convert 3^rd and 12 on you.  That wasn’t happening with our defense on long 3^rd downs against Auburn.

As a whole I’ve mentioned this defense reminds me of the 2012 defense.  It does in many regards but it’s just flat out better.  We really need to enjoy this defense this year as it’s going to drop off next year.  We’ll lose Myles, Hall, Evans, and Watts.  Maybe Watts stays another year but I think there’s a chance he goes.  Myles and Evans are getting drafted in the first round.  Hall and Watts will go in the second to third rounds.  I don’t think we’ll see the drop off in talent like we had from 2012 to 2013 on defense but I’m telling you now to cherish this 2016 defense because it’s the best we’ve had since back to RC Slocum and the legit Wrecking Crew of old.  I’m not quite ready to call these guys the Wrecking Crew as they’re missing some dominant linebacker play.  But at any given time there’s 11 guys out there playing their asses off and most importantly playing their role against their opponent.  It’s been a long time since I’ve since this in an Aggie defense and I’m loving every minute of it.

Special Teams:

Have to start off with LaCamera going 5 for 5 and none of them were really gimme kicks.  LaCamera had kicks of 46, 35, 31, 37 and 26 yards.  The 26 yarder was sort of a gimme but the others were legit kicks on the road in a pretty tight game that he nailed.  Much like the Vandy game.  Tripucka averaged 42 yards and had a long of 59 which he flat out booted.  We didn’t have a single return this game.  Not one on punts and not on kickoffs.  I’m actually okay with that as in a game like that just take the ball on the 25 if it’s kicked in the end zone and on punts just call the fair catch and hold the ball.  No need to take a chance giving the other team a turnover on the road in a pretty tough environment.  Special teams just executed all night long and that’s what you want.

Going Forward:

After seeing Tennessee’s third performance I’m ready to move this to a 9-3 team.  Kevin is gonna win nine and be fine.  I have a good feeling we’ll be 6-0 rolling into Tuscaloosa.  I’m also really thinking this could be a 10 win team as I want to see what LSU does against Auburn this weekend.  I think LSU wins that game so I won’t be able to move us to a 10 win team yet but if Auburn beats LSU then Les is a dead man walking and that team will have quit come Thanksgiving night.  I also think there’s a strong chance we beat Ole Miss as they’re reminding me of 2011 Texas A&M.  I mean they’ve blown two 21 point leads.  That’s Mike Sherman style right there.  Ole Miss is still a really talented football team but they’re obviously struggling to put 4 quarters together and if that trend keeps up there’s no doubt we can beat them at Kyle in November if this A&M team keeps  getting better each week.  I honestly didn’t feel that the last two years at this point.  This could honestly be an 11 win team playing in a major bowl game.  With the right breaks we could even play for the SEC Championship but any discussion of that begins or ends in Tuscaloosa so let’s cool our jets on that talk until after that game.  Nick Saban controls the gate to the SEC Championship for SEC West teams.  That’s just the way it is.

We have to get past Arkansas first but they really don’t scare me.  Auburn scared me like Arkansas scared me the last two years.  We got by Auburn.  This Arkansas team is not as good as their last two seasons’ teams.  Maybe I should be scared but what I saw in their TCU game and what I saw in our UCLA and Auburn games I feel really confident we’ll win this game and there’s a good chance we walk away with it.  Assuming we don’t make mistakes with the ball.  That TCU defense is not that good and Arkansas had to come back on them and get them in double overtime.  Arkansas also played La Tech close and I don’t think La Tech is good at all.  Just based on three games for both teams I think we handle Arkansas really well.

I know a lot of people are afraid of Arkansas because of the last two years but our offense really struggled those years under Spavital.  Mazzone while not spectacular has shown to be a marked improvement over Boy Wonder.  With the way our defense and offensive line is playing I just feel really confident going into this game that we could really make a big showing against Arkansas.  This could be that statement game we didn’t have the last two years where we had to come back and basically steal a victory.  I don’t see that happening this year.  I really think we walk out of Jerry World with a statement win that this is a different A&M team that’s not going to collapse down the stretch like we’ve done in the past.  Maybe I’m wrong but with 25% of our schedule done I’m feeling a statement game.  I don’t think it’ll be a 2012 Mississippi State game where we announced we’re kicking ass from here on out but I think it’s going to be pretty convincing.  We’ll need a wide margin as a lot of people won’t see the second half as they’ll be asleep .  They’ll just see the final score on Sunday morning.  I’m all for this team making a statement they’re a Top 10 and deserve to be there.

My prediction – Aggies 33, Arkie 16.

Not a whole lot this week but wanted to hit on a few things so I’ll get right to it.  For those of you wondering I know I’m biased but I confidently feel the Nationally Famous Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band did in fact win halftime.  No doubt PVAMU entertained at half time but in the end their effort fell short of 360 Aggies marching in perfect precision.  I was truly worried though.

Offense:

I’m just really going to hit on a few negatives here as the positives are way too many so just look at the score and stats.  First off, Trevor Knight is a pretty good quarterback.  He’s easily in the top half of starting QBs in the SEC.  He might actually even be Top 3 as this season keeps going so I’m not saying he’s a total pile of dung.  He’s without a doubt the best guy to be starting for us considering what happened at the QB position at the end of last year.  I’m just looking at him and trying to be objective on expectations with the hope he can be really good if not great.  Based on his time at OU and two games here he’s still just inconsistent.  He sailed some balls that he had no reason sailing.  He was 57% this weekend and against Prairie View and you just have to be better.  He also threw an interception that was extremely stupid and a reminder he can’t spot balls like he thinks he can.

Now, to his credit he threw some REALLY good deep balls to Christian Kirk.  He also looked really good running the ball.  And all in all it looked like he was getting better as the game wore on so maybe he’s still just getting more comfortable as a starter and in Mazzone’s system.  He did look better this week than last week but that’s to be expected considering the opponent.  I was just hoping to see fewer mistakes.  There were mistakes though that just makes me keep the foot on the brake when it comes to getting really excited about Knight in that he’ll win us games by himself.  There’s definitely some hope he keeps developing and we’re going to find out a lot more this weekend against Auburn.  However, with the Knight I’ve seen in two games I currently feel we can lose any SEC game with him at the helm.  I’m not saying we lose every SEC game and far from that as I think we do win more SEC games than we lose but right now I think there’s a strong chance we lose an SEC game and it’s because Knight has a horrible day from a completion and turnover standpoint.  I really hope I’m wrong on that and very well could be.

Another negative from the game is I don’t think RSJ is really going to be a clutch receiver.  He’s amazingly talented but he’s just not consistent in catching balls.  He’s not the guy I want to be going to when we need a 3^rd down or TD.  It would be nice with his size and speed but I just don’t fully trust his hands.  It’s been 3 years and his hands have always been his biggest question.  He’s still good and there’s no doubt he should be starting but like Knight throwing an interception I feel like RSJ is going to drop a ball when it’s needed most.

The final negative was our third down conversion was right at 50%.  Just like Knight needs to have a better completion percentage against PVAMU I feel the same about our third down conversion.  Due to Knight’s inconsistency and the fact we converted 33% and 50% of third downs in the first two games, I don’t have much faith in this offense extending the drive on anything longer than 3^rd and 4.  That means Mazzone has to start sequencing plays to minimize 3^rd down distances.  I know that sounds obvious but I feel there’s been some calls on first and second downs that we were trying to get a first down when we probably should be trying to gain 3-4 yards.

All in all though I’d give the offense a grade of 85 for the game.  A whole lot of positives as the backs, line, and Kirk/Reynolds are just solid.  It’s just there’s a few inconsistencies from key guys and the 3^rd down conversion issue that still bother me.  We’ll find out what it all means on Saturday when we go on the road for a night game at Jordan-Hare.

Defense:

I actually heard some people complain about the defense because PVAMU moved the ball some and we had to block a field goal to keep them from scoring.  They gave up 205 yards in being on the field for 32 minutes.  That’s actually really remarkable.  I read a Tweet where 121 yards of that came on two possessions so basically other than TWO possessions the Aggie defense was flat out dominant.  PVAMU was 5 of 18 on third down conversions and a 1.1 yard per carry average.  As Russell Crowe said in The Gladiator said, “Are you not entertained?”  That was a solid 4 quarters of defense against a team that had some decent athletes.  Usually in games like these one of those guys wiggles free for a score but that didn’t happen.

 

Looking forward I’m still leaving us at 8-4.  We’re going to find out a lot more about this team the next two weeks against Auburn and Arkansas.  My original prediction was they were both wins but I don’t know about Auburn.  They played Clemson close but Clemson looks in question but Auburn also took care of business on Saturday night.  I’m not sure if that means Auburn is good or bad.  I think they’re definitely better than I expected them to be.  I still lean to us winning but it’s not going to be easy.  I do think we beat Arkansas still despite their win over TCU.  I don’t think TCU is a Top 10 team and Arkansas matches up with them well.  With Arkansas almost giving the game away at the end I feel like we keep our streak going but it won’t be easy.  There’s a good chance we’re 5-0 with Tennessee coming to town.

Speaking of Tennessee they looked like the team everyone expected but their QB is still dicey passing and Va Tech turned the ball over 5 times.  Let’s see what they do against Florida in two weeks.  LSU finally switched QBs so I’m interested to see what they do the rest of the season now that their biggest issue was been changed.  Fournette is still in question there though.  Ole Miss solidly beat a cupcake but I think Bama is going to stomp Ole Miss this Saturday like they slammed Georgia last season.  I mean Saban was ripping into Kiffin with a minute left of a 28 point win.  If you don’t think that was on purpose for Saban to set the tone to make up for 2 back to back losses against Ole Miss you’re a fool.  It doesn’t mean Ole Miss is a bad team but Bama is just going to abuse them this weekend so we won’t really know where they are other than not Bama’s level but no one else is this season.

With all that I’m leaving us at 8-4 until we see what happens the next two weeks as we’ll get a LOT of clarity on who we are as well as those teams left on our schedule.  We could still go anywhere from 6-6 to 11-1 but until we get through the next two weeks I haven’t a clue.  I honestly do think we could go 11-1 but if we don’t get by Auburn and Arkansas then we don’t stand a chance obviously.