Texas A&M football: Stock report after Week 3
It was the bounce back game the Aggies needed after the debacle of a 48-33 loss to Miami in South Florida. A cupcake to get things right heading into SEC play.
The 47-3 victory over UL-Monroe probably didn’t answer many questions. The Sun Belt Conference Warhawks didn’t put up much of a fight. But the trouncing did afford head coach Jimbo Fisher an opportunity to employ many players, who were able to gain some confidence as the season gets serious from here on out.
Let’s take a look at the 2-1 Aggies’ stock report after Week 3.
Player of the Week: QB Conner Weigman
The Aggies’ quarterback was nearly perfect, completing 25 of 29 passes (no interceptions) for 337 yards and a TD. He also ran 3 times for 18 yards and another score. To be fair, his receivers made his job easy. They were able to gain separation and make Weigman’s task that of simple pitch and catch.
Still, Weigman made good decisions and stood tall in the pocket, further developing his skill and leadership at the position.
Freshman of the Week: Rueben Owens
The 5-star RB is showing why he was one of the most coveted RBs coming out of high school. Owens rushed for a team-high 51 yards on 8 carries (6.4 yards per carry) and scored a TD. In addition, he had the longest run from scrimmage (21 yards) in pacing a rushing attack that totaled 158 yards.
Biggest surprise: Even Stewart out
WR Evan Stewart was scratched from the lineup and not in full uniform for the game. Equally surprising was the group who made up for the loss of the team’s leading receiver. On Saturday, 10 players caught passes from either Weigman or backup Max Johnson. The 2 Aggie QBs combined for 32 completions in 40 attempts.
Ainias Smith led the way with 7 catches for 127 yards. Jahdae Walker, with 5 receptions for 110 yards and a TD, was perhaps the biggest surprise in Stewart’s absence. The junior from Cleveland, Ohio, had a total of 3 catches in his 2 previous games with Texas A&M after coming over from Grand Valley State.
Biggest concern: Pass defense
The SEC’s best defense last season against the pass has turned into one of the worst this year. The about-face is puzzling. The Aggies allowed only 156.2 yards per game through the air in 12 outings over the 2022 season. But this year, so far through 3 games, the Aggies are giving up 200 per game.
Granted, the Aggies were better on Saturday and through the final 3 periods looked like the defense of last season. After yielding 82 passing yards in the first quarter, the Aggies gave up just 13 more after that, all in the 2nd quarter.
The Aggies did not allow a pass completion in the 2nd half, so maybe the concern is being addressed.
Developing trend: Run defense shining
One of the biggest concerns coming into the new season was that of run defense. It was bad last season. The worst in the SEC, in fact. The Aggies gave up 209 rushing yards per game a year ago. That seems to have been reversed.
Although the Aggies gave up 100 yards rushing on Saturday for the first time this season, over 3 games in 2023, they are allowing just 98.33. That’s a marked improvement over 2022.
Key stat: Aggies scored on 9 of 11 possessions
Only once did the Aggies have to punt. The only other non-scoring possession was the final play of the game. Otherwise, the Aggies had their way with the Warhawks’ defense, scoring 5 TDs while adding 4 Randy Bond field goals.
First impression about Week 4: Now it gets serious
Okay, the preliminaries are over. Now it gets serious. The Auburn Tigers come to town for an 11 a.m. Saturday game to kick off the SEC schedule. Kyle Field will be hopping as the Tigers visit to raise the curtain on the games that count.
The Tigers aren’t considered contenders in the SEC West, but they’ll be a much better gauge on the program’s progress than was UL-Monroe. And who’s to say that Auburn won’t be a factor? They enter Saturday’s game with a perfect 3-0 record, albeit against lesser opponents (UMass, Cal, Samford). It’ll be interesting to see how the Aggies offense fares against Auburn’s solid defense.
It looked to me that Durkin’s changed up his approach (and personnel to some degree) from the Miami debacle, which is a good thing.
The offense is for real, with Weigman ranking #2 in the country in QBR after week 3 and some great receivers – it’s a lot more than just Stewart and Thomas.
But overall the jury’s still out on this team. We’ll see how the defense holds up against Auburn as the next step.
Durkin changed nothing. He is still not blitzing and still using a three man front too much. Having Diggs trying to cover a slot is sheer stupidity. The personnel changes were due to players being out with injury. This defense can do the job if Durkin would regularly dial up some good blitz schemes. The talent is there. Matthews did a great job of filling in for Gilbert. I suspect Gilbert played injured during the fourth quarter of the Miami games, as he play then was far from being up to his past performance. Deuce did well replacing Chappell.
Weigman is a championship level quarterback. His completion rate of 86% is second only to Gary Kubiak. His scrambling ability becomes more apparent each week. Conner is without doubt the best quarterback since Manziel. And few from before Manziel are ahead of him.
The offensive line will still need to improve as SEC play begins. Nabou look better than Foster has so far this season. Dewberry played well as expected. Perhaps Adazzio should keep this lineup.
A&M’s depth at receiver was in evidence. Walker played up to his promise. Smith was solid as always. The two true freshmen looked good at receiver and returner. Johnson looked his best yet at receiving. He needs to continue that path and step up to replace Green. Johnson’s blocking still leaves something to be desired.
The top three tailbacks all played well. Owens is beginning to show the flash evident in his high school career.
Auburn will not be nearly as easy. Durkin must start bringing pressure regularly. Any decent quarterback will pick you apart given enough time in the pocket.
I didn’t see defenders twittling their thumbs in the middle of the field with no one to cover the way we saw against Miami. That’s partly due to the lack of consistent game plan from ULM, but you can’t get beaten that badly by scheme and let it happen again and again, so it looks to me like they learned something from the loss. Whether it was injured players or simply choosing new players with better tackling skills, I was happy to see some tackles that involved actually wrapping up. Again, good to see after last week. Also again, we’ll see how much of an actual improvement they made once they get into SEC play. Whether for better or worse, that will be next week.
What he changed was not selling out the farm to stop the run with a defensive front of 4 down linemen at virtually every snap. We have some really good pass rushers who can get after the QB even from a 3-man front – often better than from a 4-man front. I agree Durkin’s not Elko, but the approach to yesterday’s game was actually a lot different than what he put on the field for Miami and it’s better suited to the SEC as well.
I am always unimpressed with the writers here at Saturday Down South, particularly when it comes the to meaning of trends. Take for example the stat they always bring up about A&M having an excellent pass defense last year and not so much this year. Hey guys (knocking on their heads), last year our run game defense SUCKED, so opposing teams didn’t have to pass. Once our defense learned how to slow down the run this year, opposing teams have turned to the pass, thereby reversing the trend. It would be nice if the A&M defense could learn to defend both. That would really mess with geniuses at SDS.
Don’t buy into that. You’re right that our rushing defense was horrible last year, but even with stats that isolate our passing defense from the run defense, the pass defense was really good last year. We’re missing AJ this year. That’s not the whole story, but it’s a big part of it.
Very rosy picture for a game they should have won by 70.
Your team looked great, no doubt, but the rest of the season will need to play out for the Tigahs as it will for all the rest. You can gloat about beating an MSU team that has its QB so confused about scheme that he can’t hit open receivers 10 yds down field, but I wouldn’t advise it.
@poptiger We won by 44. Weigman didn’t play the last quarter and a half of the game. Shut your b!+tch ahh up.
Folks advocating the three man front might want to take a look at this season and last – how many pressures resulted from the three man versus the four man.
And this not address Durkin’s failure to blitz in any significant manner.
Give a decent quarterback all day to throw the ball and they offense will win the battle. DB’s cannot cover forever. This has been proven time and time again over the decades.