COLLEGE STATION, Texas — There’s no such thing as an ugly win in Jimbo Fisher’s mind.
Asked about the notion after Texas A&M’s 17-9 win over Miami late Saturday night, the second straight game in which the AggiesFisher was unable to gain 300 offensive yards. Fisher crossed his arms and shook the head.
“How is it ugly?” Fisher said. “Just because you play complementary football, you do the right thing, you don’t turn the football over, you make the plays you gotta make to win the game? That’s what winning football does.”
After you have completed the following: Appalachian State wins stunning Week 2 home defeatThe Aggies were happy to win over any Power 5 team, especially against a ranked one. A&M’s defense played well, its special teams blocked a field goal and new starting quarterback Max JohnsonThe ball was taken care of, with zero turnovers.
The No. 23 Aggies face No. 10 Arkansas, on Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is the beginning of a four game stretch away from Kyle Field. All against league competition. The highlight of the road trip on October 8th to Alabama will be highlighted. If A&M is to find any success in the next month-plus, its offensive production must get better.
Johnson gave a boost to his ball security, pocket awareness, management of the offense but his final line was pedestrian with 10-of-20 passing, 140 yards, and a touchdown. Running back Devon AchaneHis most productive rushing performance for the season (18 carries, 8 yards) and an encouraging total of 130 offensive yards. The Aggies need to improve in three areas: offensive line play and tight end production, as well as downfield passing.
Offensive line play
Up front, the Aggies have been inconsistent. Through three games, Texas A&M running backs averaged only 1.18 yards per rush before first contact from a defender, according to TruMedia. This ranks 101st among the FBS. The ball carrier is getting attacked by the defenders early and often.
It’s a steep drop from the past two seasons, when the Aggies averaged more than 2.2 yards per rush before first contact and ranked in the top 30 nationally.
TruMedia reports that the Aggies allow quarterbacks to feel pressured in passing games, with 34.5 percent of dropbacks. This is 98th and 12th respectively in the FBS, respectively.
As center, injuries played an important role. Bryce FosterGuard missed the first 2 games Layden RobinsonIt was also limited earlier in the month. Both started and went the distance Saturday, but O-line issues still stifled some A&M drives. Take the Aggies’ fifth offensive series.
The fourth play of the drive is right tackle Reuben Fatheree IIHe leaned forward, but failed to block Miami defensive lineman Leonard Taylor III. Taylor tackled Achane for 1-yard loss. This set up second and 11.
Taylor was able to get around Foster and slip into the backfield. But Achane, after taking a turn out of the pistol formation and sidestepping Taylor, broke a tackle by another defender, and darted through the space created in the great blocks made by Robinson and Fatheree to gain 13 yards.
The next play was the best of the drive for the A&M front. Guard left Aki OgunbiyiClosed end Donovan GreenTwo perfectly executed pull blocks and a stonewalling defensive lineman opened the hole Jahfari HarveyWaynmon Steed Jr. Achane, a linebacker, sprinted through the untouched field and gained 17 yard to the Miami 40.
With A&M gaining momentum, Miami defensive lineman Jared Harrison HunteOgunbiyi was thrown out to force Achane to surrender. Johnson felt pressure on second-and-12 as he attempted to release an incomplete pass despite Miami running only four plays. Johnson had good coverage on third-and-12. However, Johnson’s pass attempt was blocked by Miami’s tight coverage. Chase Lane was well defended, leading to an A&M punt on fourth down.
A promising drive that looked set to earn points was stalled at 42 partly because of problems up front. Five Aggies combined second and third downs were more than 10 yards long on that series.
Although no offensive line will be perfect, Miami’s defense is very talented. The Hurricanes deserve credit, too. But as the Aggies head into SEC play, they’ll see deep, productive defensive fronts consistently, magnifying the need to clean things up.
End availability and production must be tightly controlled
The Aggie tight ends are generally quiet and have been banged up so far.
Tight ends have been among the team’s top three pass catchers in each of Fisher’s four A&M seasons and have led the team in receiving yards twice and catches twice. Texas A&M put at least one tight end on the field for 91.8 percent of its snaps in the past three seasons, according to Pro Football Focus. Jalen WydermyerTwo-time Mackey Award finalist, and three-year starter, departed for the NFL Draft in 2021.
The Aggies have lost three of their 2022 games without a strong presence in the middle that tight ends provide.
True freshman Donovan Green is a four star recruit and the only tight end on this roster who has played in all three of the games. Senior Max WrightAfter missing the previous two games with an injury, he returned to the team Saturday and served primarily as a blocker. Jake Johnson, another four-star recruit, missed Saturday’s game with an injury. Freshman Theo Melin ÖhrströmA four-star Swedish recruit,, is yet to make it into the field.
TruMedia reports that the result is a less prominent tight end presence. The Aggies had at least one tight-end on the field for 100 plays (63.3%). That’s a 28.1 percent drop from the past three years.
Even when they’ve been in the game, production is limited. Green was targeted by Johnson once, when he caught a pass for 18 yards against Miami. Per TruMedia, A&M tight ends have been targeted just four percent of the time in the passing game this season, a nearly four-fold drop from recent years. From 2019 through 2021, Texas A&M targeted tight ends on 19.1 percent of pass attempts per PFF.
Passing Downfield
Fisher stressed the importance of Aggies improving their downfield passing game before the season. That’s why the arrival of five-star receivers Evan Stewart Chris MarshallHe was praised. Their additions could help A&M stretch the field.
The downfield success rate has been low so far. On throws of 10-19 air yards, A&M quarterbacks are 8-for-15 for 127 yards, no touchdowns and one interception, according to TruMedia. Their passing efficiency of 111.1 is 107th among the FBS.
The Aggies are 4-for-11 with 193 yards and three touchdowns on throws over 20 yards. All three touchdowns were scored in the Aggies’ season-opening victory over Sam Houston, an FCS foe.
Both Stewart and Marshall missed Saturday’s game because of suspensions (Fisher indicated after the game it was for a violation of team rules, which also led to defensive back Denver Harris and Smoke Bouie’s absences). They were definitely missed.
A&M’s line play also factors in, as it’s difficult to have consistent downfield passing success if quarterbacks don’t have sufficient time to throw.
“If you’re not protecting, you can have Jerry Rice running down through there (and it won’t matter),” Fisher said.
The Aggies’ inability to throw downfield last season contributed to an uneven conference play season.
In 2021, the Aggies finished in the bottom 35 nationally in completion percentage (43.6), yards per attempt (9.3), touchdown-to-interception ratio (11-10) and passing efficiency (132.7) of throws of 10 or more yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus. Although they were better at throwing throws of 20+ yards, they still placed no higher than 45th nationally for any of these categories.
None of these problems are likely to be quickly solved. In the meantime, Aggies might have to depend on their defense to keep the load from being carried by them in the future.
Fisher seemed happy with the prospect on Saturday.
“When you’re pitting guys back on the 1 or 2-yard line, it makes it easy for a defense to win,” he said. “I thought we played very opportunistic and won the field position battle to win the game.
“Good teams find a way to scratch it out. We’ve got to get a lot better, but we found a way to do it.”
(Photo of Texas A&M quarterback Max Johnson and Miami Hurricanes quarterback Tyler Van DykeJerome Miron/USA Today
