I think the Aggies showed some bright spots, but still a lot to work on.
TAMU is much better than expected--the changes they made with coaching and players show they're not the same team that got blown out last year by the Aggies at home.
Just got home from the game. It seemed to me that the biggest difference in the game was that Miles had decent protection into the third, and we were getting a lot of pressure on their QB. That changed around midway into the third. They were getting to Miles and their guy had good protection. Good things started happening for them with that change. Add a few stupid penalties and TAMC was in the game. In the end, our guys showed enough grit to get the job done.
On the remaining schedule, Idaho, SUU, MSU, and Montana all have wins over FBS or FBS transitioning teams. Offense can’t execute like this vs the big hitters later
Positives
- There are obviously things that I can nitpick, but credit where credit is due... this was a much cleaner game from Miles Hastings if you just look at the stat line and not necessarily the full context of the game. Accuracy was improved from the Cal game and just 1 turnover that came off of a blindside hit. Now he did still miss some passes that a starting QB at this level should be hitting, made some questionable passing decisions like throwing into triple coverage, and will need to improve going forward, but this wasn't a horrendous outing.
- Larison started to get his feet churning. After his slow(ish) game against Cal it was nice to see him drop 123 in this one. He also had that amazing diving catch in the first half.
- Run defense was on fire. TAMC had 22 rushing attempting for a gain of 35 yards, but loss of 44 yards for a total of -9 yards or -.4 yards per rush. Tough to beat that.
- We won the turnover battle
- Kicking (all-around) was much better than the Cal game
Negatives
- Pass defense, oh my goodness. Either Rex Connors is the only thing holding secondary coverage together or TAMC are world beaters in the pass game (even compared to Cal). As a reminder, this was the Lions back up QB playing and he torched us for 457 yards. Big oof.
- Red zone offense. Things improved in the 2nd half, but the first half was a painful experience to watch. Having to settle for field goals that often isn't a sign of a healthy offense.
- Finishing the defensive plays. Man, we had their QB wrapped up for sure fire sacks it felt like at least 5, 6, 7 times, yet the stat sheet shows that we finished the game with... ZERO. The guy was elusive and strong on his feet, but just freaking sack the guy.
Overall, there were definitely areas that we improved upon from the Cal game, but also found some new glaring weaknesses that are going to make Big Sky play brutal if they don't get cleaned up. We'll take the win though!
A work in progress best describes Aggie Football. Went to the home opener last night and pleased to see a nice crowd. Lots of mistakes, Plough has his work cut out for him. Too bad the Aggies made the fourth quarter closer than it should have been. Was looking forward in seeing our QB2 get some reps.
Giving Larison 28 carries concerns me. It’s a long season.
Other observations:
The Star Wars music gets redundant.
Athletic Dept needs to have more info on the paid parking. Several folks like us, were getting help from the parking attendants with the app. Fortunately there were plenty of them to assist. Found out we can prepay online and bring a hardcopy to leave in the vehicle.
Otherwise, the gameday experience was good. Go Ags!
Commerce was in cover zero quite a bit. You have to be able to execute your press beaters, especially with a talent advantage. This is on the QB not the OL.
I think Plough summed up my feelings about the game when he said that he'd take a "dirty win over a loss any day." I also thought it was interesting that the TAMC Coach said he felt like the Aggies came out flat and that his team failed to take advantage of it and got behind big before they started rolling in the second half.
This was a tough game and we bent but didn't break. Our inefficiency in the red zone is concerning and I was surprised at how porous our pass defense was giving up those big plays in the second half. I remember Plough saying that they want to make teams one dimensional offensively by stopping the run, which we did, but we also can't have teams torching us through the air either.
Our next game at Southern Utah is going to be challenging. They're a pretty good football team and playing in Cedar City on their "high school like field" will make it tough to get emotionally up for the game. I hope we'll be ready to play and that we'll see some definite improvement in the areas we are struggling with.