OFFENSE: D-
Speedy Noil made a spectacular touchdown catch, Kyle Allen produced a few successful scrambles and Tra Carson reversed field on what became an exciting touchdown run. Outside of that, the offensive line again disappointed, and Allen barely threw for 100 yards in his first college start. Overall, the Aggies ran 69 plays and averaged 3.5 yards per snap. That won’t cut it against a 3-5 Sun Belt team. One of the touchdowns came off a Noil punt return to the ULM 12-yard line.
DEFENSE: C
The Armani Watts interception and some crucial third- and fourth-down stops saved the game for the Aggies. The team cranked out 7 sacks, including 3.5 for true freshman Myles Garrett. Still, ULM’s offensive line is one of the weakest in the country, The Warhawks had scoring drives of 17 and 11 plays in the second half, but the Aggies held ULM to a field goal each time. Louisiana-Monroe’s receivers sunk into the soft spots in A&M’s defense as the team was able to dink and dunk effectively at times. A&M fans should loathe the day this defense has to face another read-option team with a running quarterback. Say, Auburn.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B+
Drew Kaser nailed a 55-yard punt, pinned 4 of 7 inside the 20 and allowed just eight punt return yards. Noil’s 39-yard punt return, despite a stumble, nearly went for six and set up a score. Neither team did much on kickoff returns, and the ULM kicker drilled three field goals, including from 51 yards.
COACHING: C-
Kevin Sumlin and the coaching staff spent the off week attempting to turn around a bumbling defense and installing Kyle Allen as the starting quarterback, apparently tweaking the offense in the process. The Aggies looked marginally better, maybe? It’s tough to compare a 59-0 road loss to Alabama with a five-point home win against a Sun Belt opponent. Sumlin and Texas A&M have been able to recruit plenty of talent. But the team has played worse as the year progresses, not better. They don’t get good marks for player development and maximizing the team’s strengths.
OVERALL: C
A win is a win at this point, but Texas A&M appears headed for a butt-whipping next week at Auburn. Rice and Mississippi State already strung together huge offensive outputs in terms of yards against this Aggies defense, which now must face the patented Gus Malzahn read option that pounced on A&M for 45 points and 602 yards last year. This team would be fortunate to beat Missouri and finish 7-5 without some major improvements. Still, that’s not too far off from what we expected before the season.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
