A&M blitzed 37 times in 50 passing snaps (42 passes, 7 penalties on pass plays and 1 sack). Aggies only got to Allen without a blitz on one play: the Daeshon Hall forced fumble. They really turned up the heat after that.
Wallace and Froholdt were each responsible for getting beat straight up on 3 knockdowns. Ragnow was the only starter who wasn’t beaten straight up for a knockdown.
Almost half the 15 knockdowns of Austin were the result of unaccounted-for rushers. Aggies did a great job on delayed blitzes because Hogs were so preoccupied with the DEs.
Looked at all that, plus Austin’s toughness (thought the national outpouring of admiration for him was cool), the run defense issues, QB run issues, missed opportunities.
They better figure it out quickly because this is a copy cat league and there are plenty of defenses left on our schedule that can do the same thing as TAM. Allen goes down and the season gets butt ugly quickly. Wallace, etc have targets on their chests until they can handle the guy across from them. Both coordinators need to look in mirror and figure out how to adjust to the apparent weakness on both sides of ball. Ellis and Greenlaw are not getting much relief and it shows up in fourth quarter as they tire. Team needs to cut down on penalties as well.
Looking at the oline, I am surprised the staff did not go harder for jc players last year. We still have major depth issues and when you consider that we played freshman the past three years but appear to be struggling with what we have on campus to plug in, makes you wonder if talent is that good or we are trying to buy more time for development than the SEC schedule will allow. One player at left guard maybe all we can afford but it underscores the issues at tackle .
We need people to step up like last year ( like the receivers last year) as we have this week and then it gets real starting with Bama and balance of schedule. I think they can do it but TAM left some bruises that won’t wash away anytime soon.
Football is a chess match between schemes and adjustments. We clearly made a decision to help the OT’s against top tier DE’s with a back chipping. TAMU countered with a delayed blitz. Take a look at this clip and tell me who is wrong and why? The next chess move is to send a TE in the space vacated by the blitzer. This all happens in real time.
Given the stunts, etc TAM was using in the interior with the tackles , I expected us to run at those DE with traps, draws, and iso plays since we were already using extra personnel to slow them down.
Deion Malone is redshirting and Paul Ramirez has played the last 2 games according to the game participation chart. We really hit a home run with Tretola when he came in and started from day 1.
OL, DB and LB recruiting has been below average in numbers and quality under CBB.
It looked like Wallace had no chance on that sack. Hall was lined up outside of Sprinkle and Allen ended up about 10 yards from the LOS after he dropped back. It reminded me of the super bowl last year with D Ware and Miller just running by the Carolina tackles because Cam was taking a 5 step drop from the shotgun.
I really put that one on Austin. He has to see that and step up and help his tackle. Austin is still learning. He will see that tape and understand what he’s got to do next time and he’ll figure it out. He’s got great coaching. As someone in this thread mentioned, there are moves for what A&M did with the linebackers. It’s all a chess game. And, as all of these Arkansas linemen, backs and QB play more, they will make the adjustments. The game will slow down and they will get better.
