At halftime, I was honestly feeling pretty good with the way the defense was playing. We had that one blown coverage play (Matthews ??) that gave up the long TD, but other than that they looked solid -- until Ole Miss came out with the Barry dude and started that goofy option stuff, complete with WR screens (reminded me of the Sherminator vs. OKState / the entire 2011 Big 12). The thing I've been thinking with the defense all year -- we know its a bad unit, the team knows its the weaker unit. They don't need to be great. Their one job is to keep the other team under 40 points. Johnny and the offense will take care of business, but don't ask them to have to drop 50. They got the big interception last night when we needed it, and they got the big 3 and out when we needed it. Next 4 : Auburn Vanderbilt UTEP Mississippi State All at home. I really like where we're standing right now. Things get a bit ugly after that though, at two potentially top 10 teams right now, LSU and Missouri....Its hard to see us making it out of both of those unscathed, but we'll see. Also I want to congratulate all the Longhorns reading this thread, and big Mack for finally getting that first win over the Oklahoma Sooners.
Keep the other team under 40, ha, seems like a lot to ask of this defense. (Although they've done it in every game except Alabama.) Doesn't give the offense much leeway either. Schedule doesn't look terrible or too tough but with the defense, anything is possible.
Has there ever been a team as reliant on one player as A&M is on Johnny? He's an amazing player, without him this team is terrible.
Chizik is a great defensive mind. Florida won with Tebow on the bench one year. Both teams had tons of NFL talent on defense. VY too. Manziel has Evans and some underrated receivers, along with insane depth at RB. But what stands out the most is the oline. Manziel has never had to play without an elite offensive line. He has all day in the pocket then he can scramble or pass 7 seconds later. I wonder what Manziel would look like with an average line.
Mike Evans, Malcolm Kennedy, Ben Malena, Trey Williams, Jake Matthews, etc are all pretty good players. Manziel obviously steers the ship, but those guys can all hold their own. Besides, there are plenty of examples of teams that are carried by one guy, even though the team surrounding them is pretty talented.
You named a bunch of guys on offense... those other guys had NFL talent on defense. TAMU has HS talent on defense. And I actually don't have a dog in this fight, just saying.
They play like High Schoolers, but the talent is there. I don't understand how these guys can be this bad. Many of these players were high school superstars that have not progressed in any way. The talent the Aggies get every year is second only to the Longhorns in the state of Texas. And in recent years the Aggies are doing even better than the Longhorns. Is the coaching really that bad, or are these players incredibly overrated coming out of high school? You are going to have some hits and misses, but I find it hard to believe the Aggies are having all misses when recruiting players on defense. The Longhorns are just as bad for some reason(except against OK), so I don't know what to make of it.
I think it's a combination of inexperience (tons of really young guys getting PT), injuries and lack of size - we're tiny up front. These Texas kids are coming in smaller and smaller, is it because high schools here are running the spread?
Completely intentional my friend. The defense sucks out loud right now, and it needs to get fixed before it costs us a game that we're supposed to win. Lack of discipline mixed with low IQ, and a propensity to get caught out of position is killing the defense on the field. Off the field, I'm just not sure what the coaches are telling them. How is it possible to have middle linebackers play the wrong gaps every single time? They make Rolando McClain look like Lawrence Taylor.
Yep. Nice commit for the Aggies. http://espn.go.com/dallas/college-f...les-garrett-arlington-martin-commits-texas-am
This kid has the potential to be even more disruptive than DaMontre Moore. This is a huge coup for Sumlin and Co.
