Observations from the game

[JasonB]

- we ran the nickel package 0 times.
- we never blitzed A&M. Three rushers, everyone else is in coverage. I think the hope is that JF would get sick of holding the ball and throw it into coverage, but it never really happened. After 8 seconds in the pocket, someone is bound to get open.
- To the naked eye, it was pretty obvious we did zero prep for this game. Straight 3-4, no blitzing. Pretty vanilla. Hopefully we have a great showing against TCU, because we didn't prep for A&M at all.
- If you are going to try and upset a team, you have to win turnovers, have at most 5 penalties, and not drop more than 2 passes. We failed miserably. We did not give ourselves a chance to compete in this game.
- Scott missed a lot of tackles. Our players were on their heels waiting for their player to make a move and trying to react. You lose every time in that situation against premium athletes. I know people talk about no tackling in practice, but we do hit. I think the bigger problem is that we don't have the special athletes on offense for those guys to practice against. That is where you learn those kinds of lessons.
- You are up thirty in the first half, go for it 3 times on fourth down and then take points off the board to go for it again? That is kind of crappy.

Upside:
- Holman broke out. He was awesome in fall camp, so hopefully this is a springboard for the rest of the season.
- o-line looked improved. Obviously, the penalties against Briggs were bad, but Gilbert wasn't running for his life and there weren't missed assignments everywhere. The offense looked a lot more stable (with the exception of the penalty), and really we stopped ourselves much more than they stopped us.
- Once heisman went out of the game, our defense changed to be much more aggressive. We blitzed both of the other quarterbacks all over the place, and effectively shut them down. Amazing to see how one player can take an offense from uber-productive to fizzling out.
- Longoria made a great play in the third quarter. I know he dropped the pick, but an LB running stride-for-stride with a WR 40 yards down the field is impressive.

[Rebel10]

Let's hope things get better this next game. The penalties were against Weeks not Briggs by the way.

[SMU 86]

Yep, that was Weeks not Briggs.

[78pony]

Sunshine makes me happy. Holman should be in Hillsboro or Cisco. Our coaching staff distinguished themselves. They demonstrated they have no business in the NCAA and a nice little 6th grade program would be just right.

[malonish]

I saw blitzes. 4 and 5 at times on delayed rushes.

[Rebel10]

I wonder if we will see any nickel this week.

[PSCA]

No blitzes, better go back an watch the game again. Pope and Henderson came on delayed .. straight, crossing blitzes more then a few times (they just got picked up too often) . It's a little hard for Longoria to catch a ball, he still has those two hard plastic braces on both his wrist that also spill over into his lower hand area. This is due to the surgery he had a few years ago on both wrist, I think this is his last year to wear them. He will be a good one before it's over. The kid has size, speed, and likes to hit ... and he has major league ups.

[JoeKidd]

- we ran the nickel package 0 times.
- we never blitzed A&M. Three rushers, everyone else is in coverage. I think the hope is that JF would get sick of holding the ball and throw it into coverage, but it never really happened. After 8 seconds in the pocket, someone is bound to get open.
- To the naked eye, it was pretty obvious we did zero prep for this game. Straight 3-4, no blitzing. Pretty vanilla. Hopefully we have a great showing against TCU, because we didn't prep for A&M at all.
- If you are going to try and upset a team, you have to win turnovers, have at most 5 penalties, and not drop more than 2 passes. We failed miserably. We did not give ourselves a chance to compete in this game.
- Scott missed a lot of tackles. Our players were on their heels waiting for their player to make a move and trying to react. You lose every time in that situation against premium athletes. I know people talk about no tackling in practice, but we do hit. I think the bigger problem is that we don't have the special athletes on offense for those guys to practice against. That is where you learn those kinds of lessons.
- You are up thirty in the first half, go for it 3 times on fourth down and then take points off the board to go for it again? That is kind of crappy.

Upside:
- Holman broke out. He was awesome in fall camp, so hopefully this is a springboard for the rest of the season.
- o-line looked improved. Obviously, the penalties against Briggs were bad, but Gilbert wasn't running for his life and there weren't missed assignments everywhere. The offense looked a lot more stable (with the exception of the penalty), and really we stopped ourselves much more than they stopped us.
- Once heisman went out of the game, our defense changed to be much more aggressive. We blitzed both of the other quarterbacks all over the place, and effectively shut them down. Amazing to see how one player can take an offense from uber-productive to fizzling out.
- Longoria made a great play in the third quarter. I know he dropped the pick, but an LB running stride-for-stride with a WR 40 yards down the field is impressive.

This is the truest statement (bold above). They left most starters (outside of Evans) when JM went out and we looked much better. He is truly a defining factor for the Ags. and with a healthy Joyner back next week I think our D will look good, like it did for most of the game against Tech. Secondary has been a disappointment overall to me thus far as I really thought they would be the strongest part of our defense.

[ponyboy]

You are up thirty in the first half, go for it 3 times on fourth down and then take points off the board to go for it again? That is kind of crappy.

How about onside freaking kicks when the game is well within hand. Does sportsmanship mean nothing any more?

[ponydawg]

Score was only 14-0 at the time of the onside. He probably wanted to get up quick and get Johnny out.

And if you don't think they showed sportsmanship then you are kidding yourselves, they could have easily scored 70 if Johnny played most of the game.

[dr rc]

How about onside freaking kicks when the game is well within hand. Does sportsmanship mean nothing any more?

So the game was well within hand at 14-0 in the 1st quarter?

[ponyboy]

They took Johnny out to protect Johnny, not to show us sportsmanship. It was a chicken sh$t move to do an onsides kick there. I'm telling you, the whole concept is dead.

[Stallion]

like you know anything about football
Its embarrassing to have an SMU fan make such a stupid claim
Its a call from the press box when their coaches see SMU kickoff team bailing out
Its Football get over it

[originaloverthehilltop1]

the game is not decided at 14-0 in the first quarter. so anything goes. truth is it was a good call cause we napped. our fault not a&m.

[originaloverthehilltop1]

cant believe i just agreed with stallion. i'm retiring.