Coming into this year there were big doubts over how Texas A&M would survive after the departure of Johnny Manziel to the NFL. The defence was going to be relying on true freshman especially on the defensive line and on offence the job of replacing Manziel and Wide Receiver Mike Evans was no small task for Head Coach Kevin Sumlin.
Aggies Age Catches Up with Them
With the team looking particularly young on both sides of the ball they were around a 10-point underdog going into Columbia where they stunned the South Carolina Gamecocks 52-28. But as the weeks go by that win is looking less impressive as the Gamecocks have lost to Missouri and then Kentucky, meaning they have completely disappeared from the Top 25 rankings. Arkansas is a vastly improved team but still lack enough talent across the roster to be on the same level as the other six SEC West teams. Despite this they still gave the Aggies a huge scare at AT&T stadium as two long Kenny Hill touchdowns were needed to bail the team out in overtime.
Heading into the game in Starksville last Saturday there was a sense of confidence that the Aggies offence would be able to keep up with the impressive Mississippi State Bulldogs offence lead by Quarterback Dak Prescott. After a flawless opening drive to take a 7-0 lead they began to look incredibly inexperienced and error prone.
ESPN stats and info confirmed that the Aggies receivers between them had eight drops with many on crucial third down plays. The unofficial total of drops was higher than this with many receivers dropping tougher passes that you’d still expect them to make. These are the sort of mistakes that you cannot afford to happen if you’re to win big games on the road in the SEC.
Kenny Hill was also flustered as the Bulldogs finally produced a pass rush capable of putting sustained pressure on him. On one play he was flushed from the pocket by pressure from the right side of the line and tried to throw a pass across his body to a receiver running a shallow route which just wobbled through the air into the arms of linebacker Richie Brown. It was an ill-judged throw which we are not accustomed to seeing from Hill but as a sophomore QB there are going to be mistakes as he continues to learn.
On defence the unit just looked beaten up from the pounding they took against Arkansas. They missed tackles and allowed Dak Prescott to consistently fight for extra yards on scrambles. In coverage there were the huge lapses that resulted in big plays in early games as well. In fairness to the defence they would have fared better if the offence had managed to be more consistent in producing long drives so they could have rested for longer between efforts.
After a disappointing performance last week there is no respite as the Ole Miss Rebels come to Kyle Field, buoyed by their huge home win over Alabama where the home fans celebrated by carrying the goalposts through the streets of Oxford. This is arguably a huge let-down spot for the Rebels after such an emotional win and the Aggies are always a much tougher proposition on their home field.
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