POST GAME THOUGHTS: A&M BEATS ULM 47-3

Your Fightin’ Texas Aggies bounced back this week in a big way by beating the ULM Warhawks 47-3 largely on the back of 557 total yards of offense.

It’s important not to overreact to this win—after all it is “just” ULM. But it’s also important not to under-react too. There’s a lot to take away from this game about us, regardless of who we played...and almost all of it is good, but for sure there’s some stuff to clean up before we move into conference play. Let’s break it down:

Conner

25/29 (86%) for 337 with 1 TD and 3 rushes for 18 yards with 1 TD. What can you say about this kid. He’s absolutely elite, and I don't at all say that lightly. The throws he was making were incredible and the way he ran this offense was really fun to watch. Enjoy this kid yall because he’s special in a way we havent seen in long long time.

Receivers

We were down two of our best three WRs and we still had 10 guys catch balls. Ainias had 7 for 27, Jahdae Walker Flashed with 5 for 33 and in a really great sign we saw TE Jake Johnson grab 6 for 36, with a few key grabs over the middle. 400 yards passing without Evan and Noah. That’s pretty damn good.

Defense

Defense gave up 127 yards in the first quarter largely on the back of one long pass play. But check out what we did in subsequent quarters: 2nd: 32 yards 3rd: 11 yards, 4th: 52 yards. That’s good.

And it was largely done on the backs of multiple looks, a lot of which were 3 man fronts that our fanbase doesn't like for whatever reason. But if it gets us pressure then so be it. Get to the QB, make tackles, create havoc. We did all three.

This defense is talented and they had a really good day today...and that was down our best corner too. Also special shout out to Jacoby Matthews.

But as always there are things to clean up, so let’s talk about a few of those

Our interior line is still struggling with stunts. Bryce Foster was out today so Mark Nabou got the start at center and there were a couple of times that he and Kam or Layden struggled with twists and stunts up front. Gotta fix that.

Speaking of Bryce Foster, the injury bug is frustrating. We were down our Chappell, Foster, Stewart, Noah Thomas, and Bisontis went out too (although I thought Crownover came in and did a solid job). Hopefully, all of these are precautionary and guys will be back next week (I know Evan will) but it’s concerning to watch.

Lastly, we are still struggling with that first drive out of the half. We defer to the second half in hopes of stealing a possession, and we did that in a two-minute drill going 63 yards on 6 plays to go into the locker room. There’s a huge opportunity to start the 2nd to put the nail in the coffin, and we go 8 plays for 32 and settle for a FG. I said this last week but I dont know what we’re doing in the locker room that makes us come out looking like that, especially when we went in with a lot of momentum.

Overall

Today was a good day. Someone else can look up the stats but this might be the most yards we’ve had under Jimbo. We beat a team that we are better than the way that we should and we should absolutely give ourselves credit for that. Don't overreact but don't underreact either. We learned a lot about this team this week and we have the potential to be pretty good moving forward. Big one next week.

BTHO auburn