Mark it down, November 25th, 2009, William Muschamp got outcoached.
Yes, there have been mistakes, but A&M is feasting on a steady diet of Brewster, Gideon, and LBs. We aren't tackling very well, but the reason this game isn't 28-7 right now is because A&M is working us from the booth.
We are a very good second half team and I will give Muschamp the benefit of the doubt with the short week. However, we need to get our worst coverage guys out of having to cover receivers. We also have to not give up free touchdowns and fumbles. Jerrod Johnson really only has one strength -- tremendous accuracy -- but if you leave guys wide open he will hit them and look good doing it.
I expect we'll see some more blitzing to set off the panic center in Johnson's brain, and less man coverage against 4 WR sets.
On the other hand, I don't think I've ever seen McCoy play better in a half. Maybe Missouri last year. A&M's defense is the slowest we've seen all year but he is on it and you can tell.
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Postgame comments:
Well I don't really believe what I just saw to the point where it's probably not even worth breaking it down in great detail because we'll never see that again.
The pass rush was abysmal. Kindle looked slow and confused, like Jone Kines.
Our pass defense made so many mistakes it's impossible to make a short list. For a defense that relies on reads, switching, and staying on guys, we had way too many wide open WRs running around. Either A&M blew our scheme to pieces or we tried to get cute with the short week. I honestly don't know and won't hazard a guess.
A&M has the slowest defense we've played in a long time. If Colt McCoy is going for 175, you need to reevaluate things.
Similarly, all it takes to tackle Jerrod Johnson is to build up enough speed to push the air in front of you fast enough to knock him over. He torched us on a couple of draws. Yes, their OL held some but our LBs were invisible. Terrible performance from the front seven.
The silver lining here is that the Gideon debate should be over.
Towards the end of the game it stopped being about us sucking and started turning into a Hollywood movie. I'll give anyone 5 tries to complete a 17 yards curl between two people on 3rd and 15 and I bet they don't get a single one. Sometimes you just have to sit back and take it. I'm half surprised Rudy didn't come out and tackle McCoy on our last drive.
Hard to complain about the offense too much, even though it was only by the Grace of St. McCoy's legs that we scored at all, but on 4th and a long yard, when your offenses weakness is the OL, whose weakness is physical strength, whose weak point is the center and guard, why sneak it? We were lucky to get that first one, I thought. On the other hand, I liked our aggressiveness. I wish more coaches would take the percentages like we do.
The defense looked beyond slow and I think we should start complaining about an over-watered field.
One last thing that I'll repeat from the comments: A&M has now outplayed us 4 of 5 years, and we didn't even look all that great last year. My biggest pet peeve with Mack, behind only the Greg Davis loyalty, is that he never has this team ready for A&M. I can't explain that, either.