Maroon Weekly

By Turner Dawson

65-10. What else can you say. The Aggies traveled to Norman, Okla, to face the struggling Oklahoma Sooners and the Aggies played doctor as best they could. The Aggies struggled in every aspect of the game and once again made a struggling offense look like a bunch of All-Americans.

Offensively, the Aggies were a mess all night long. Jerrod Johnson had another poor performance as he finished the game 12 of 33 passing the ball for 115 yards and one touchdown with one interception. In his defense, he was running for his life for much of the game, but he made some very poor throws when he did have time and had open receivers. You would expect more out of a quarterback that is leading the conference in yards per game.

On the ground, the Aggies were completely outmatched. The offensive line got manhandled by a much more physically imposing Oklahoma front seven. The Aggies finished the game with a whopping 59 yards per carry with a 1.6 yard per carry average. This had nothing to do with coaching or scheming. The Aggies just got physically dominated play in and play out.

Cyrus Gray only got six carries but he ran for 26 yards on those carries. Christine Michael on the other hand got 14 carries for 25 yards. He also fumbled on the opening Aggie drive which resulted in a touchdown return. Aside from the fumble by Michael, it’s hard to put the lack of production on the running backs. I thought they ran hard, they just didn’t have anywhere to go.

Jeff Fuller looked the closest to being back to the player he was at the beginning of the season in this game. Jerrod looked for him often and he finished the game with five catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. He really showed the kind of ability he has with the touchdown that he scored on a fade route in the first half. If the Aggies could ever put things together on defense and the offensive line, Fuller could be a very valuable player.

Defensively, the Aggies continue to search for some sort of answer as to how to stop anybody. It’s not an issue of stopping the run or the pass at this point, because they don’t do either. This bend and break defense is becoming a serious issue.

Landry Jones has had a lot of struggles this year as a red shirt freshman quarterback but the Aggies once again showed their knack for making average to bad quarterbacks look like Heisman candidates. Most of the quarterbacks the Aggies have faced this year have had their best games of the season against the Aggies. In this case, the Aggies gave up 392 yards passing by Jones with five touchdowns. It has become almost comical how many blown coverages and missed tackles this team can fit into one game.

Von Miller was shut out in sacks in this game which is something that has become extremely rare. The nation’s leading sacker wasn’t able to get to the quarterback all night long and we saw the results of that. This defense is bad with Von producing and it’s awful without that.

Just like the struggles against the pass, the Aggies weren’t so hot against the run either. The Sooners racked up 248 yards rushing with a 5.5 yard per carry average. The Aggie defensive front is so undersized and outmatched against virtually every Big 12 team. A&M isn’t just getting beat in the trenches, they are being abused.

I’m not really sure what this team can do in order to salvage this season, and it’s hard to blame the coaches in this case. Jon Kines is one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the country. He didn’t suddenly forget how to coach. At some point the players have to make plays. The same could be said of Mike Sherman.

If the Aggies can’t beat Baylor, there are going to be a lot of unhappy Aggies. If the Aggies can beat Baylor and then win a bad bowl game, then there might be some holding out hope that we are improving. But if the Aggies go 5-7 this year, Mike Sherman is going to lose the support of a lot of fans.