Observations from the A&M game
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:21 pmJust wanted to post some observations...
1) JJ absolutely HAD to do something at the beginning of the game. The entire team was shell shocked from the start. You could see the nervous, clumbsy movements from everyone on the team. Padron was top of the list... on every one of his passes absolutely locked in on one receiver and threw. He was not running the offense. The second INT was about 15 yards over the receiver's head, and the WR was wide open. I don't think JJ had any other choice but to pull the QB.
2) Nice comeback offensively, but I thought there were two key turning points. The first was the overthrow of beasley on the out pattern. That ball fluttered out there and was just not a good throw. From that point on, A&M took their safety away from guarding the out and dared JJ to throw it. They moved an extra linebacker into the middle of the field to control the run, and took that safety and put him in the middle of the field to take away the area behind the linebacker. JJ didn't have the arm strength or time in the pocket to recover when they took the easy stuff away. Even when we had the ball on our own one, when we allways throw deep, and they put Thompson in the game for that purpose, he wouldn't throw the deep ball because he didn't trust his arm.
3) The second key turning point was McJunkin getting hurt on the same drive. After that injury, we got no yards up the middle and their nose tackle completely dominated Tennison. McJunkin was really, really good before he was hurt. Hope he isn't out long.
4) Defensively, I thought Rogers was really, really poor in the first half. The A&M o-line was fantastic - we know our d-line is good and they handled us pretty well. But Rogers wouldn't get "stuck in" to use a soccer term. He was always hanging out behind the pile instead of forcing his way in there to stop them early. That position has to get their hands dirty because the plays are funneled to it. The MLB absolutely have to perform and do the dirty work. The safeties made so many tackles because the MLB weren't making plays. That got worse in the second half with the two backup MLB in there. Hopefully Reed is okay. If they put someone aggressive with him, the run defense will be much much better. But the MLB play is why they ran all over us.
5) I thought A&M was very smart on offense. They knew we would blitz a lot. They ran up the middle until we brought safeties close, then threw the ball outside on the swing pass until we reacted to that. They didn't take shots down the field because they did not want to risk taking a sack. I thought it was a smart game plan, and it worked effectively. Not much you can do about it if you can't stop the run.
6) JR and Ace didn't play because JJ didn't want to make the same mistake as last year with putting a true frosh in the game at a big 12 opponent at the beginning of the year. Both players will work into the rotation in the NW St game and be involved from there on out. Castro, for example, will be 5th or 6th string by the end of that game. Sanders I think will also start rotating with Victor Jones in that game, although I thought Jones played pretty well on Sunday and seemed to be one of the few players (along with Crawford) not intimidated by the atmosphere.
1) JJ absolutely HAD to do something at the beginning of the game. The entire team was shell shocked from the start. You could see the nervous, clumbsy movements from everyone on the team. Padron was top of the list... on every one of his passes absolutely locked in on one receiver and threw. He was not running the offense. The second INT was about 15 yards over the receiver's head, and the WR was wide open. I don't think JJ had any other choice but to pull the QB.
2) Nice comeback offensively, but I thought there were two key turning points. The first was the overthrow of beasley on the out pattern. That ball fluttered out there and was just not a good throw. From that point on, A&M took their safety away from guarding the out and dared JJ to throw it. They moved an extra linebacker into the middle of the field to control the run, and took that safety and put him in the middle of the field to take away the area behind the linebacker. JJ didn't have the arm strength or time in the pocket to recover when they took the easy stuff away. Even when we had the ball on our own one, when we allways throw deep, and they put Thompson in the game for that purpose, he wouldn't throw the deep ball because he didn't trust his arm.
3) The second key turning point was McJunkin getting hurt on the same drive. After that injury, we got no yards up the middle and their nose tackle completely dominated Tennison. McJunkin was really, really good before he was hurt. Hope he isn't out long.
4) Defensively, I thought Rogers was really, really poor in the first half. The A&M o-line was fantastic - we know our d-line is good and they handled us pretty well. But Rogers wouldn't get "stuck in" to use a soccer term. He was always hanging out behind the pile instead of forcing his way in there to stop them early. That position has to get their hands dirty because the plays are funneled to it. The MLB absolutely have to perform and do the dirty work. The safeties made so many tackles because the MLB weren't making plays. That got worse in the second half with the two backup MLB in there. Hopefully Reed is okay. If they put someone aggressive with him, the run defense will be much much better. But the MLB play is why they ran all over us.
5) I thought A&M was very smart on offense. They knew we would blitz a lot. They ran up the middle until we brought safeties close, then threw the ball outside on the swing pass until we reacted to that. They didn't take shots down the field because they did not want to risk taking a sack. I thought it was a smart game plan, and it worked effectively. Not much you can do about it if you can't stop the run.
6) JR and Ace didn't play because JJ didn't want to make the same mistake as last year with putting a true frosh in the game at a big 12 opponent at the beginning of the year. Both players will work into the rotation in the NW St game and be involved from there on out. Castro, for example, will be 5th or 6th string by the end of that game. Sanders I think will also start rotating with Victor Jones in that game, although I thought Jones played pretty well on Sunday and seemed to be one of the few players (along with Crawford) not intimidated by the atmosphere.
