Texas A&M vs Colorado Recap
Isaiah Spiller’s game winning touchdown reception. Photo by Cliff Grassmick, The Daily Camera
A win is a win. Right? Well, yes, but boy was I wrong about this one. That game was hard to watch at times, but things could be much worse. Just look at Ohio State, Texas, or Iowa State. A lot of programs with high expectations lost this weekend, and A&M wasn't one of them, thankfully. Removing pregame predictions (mine was so wrong lol) and expectations, if I were to tell you our starting QB gets injured in the first quarter on the road against a power 5 opponent and we still come out with a win, I bet you’d be happy. It was not pretty, but the goal is to win games and A&M did that. Survive and advance, baby.
I’ll start with the negatives so we can end this on a high note. The offense did not play well at all. Top to bottom, a pitiful performance. The offensive line got pushed around, especially on the interior. Bryce Foster has a very bright future, but he got bullied yesterday. A “welcome to big time college football” moment for him. Layden Robinson was noticeably limping for over half the game, but gutted it out. I give him tons of credit for staying in the game, but the lack of push from the offensive line is very concerning because A&M will face better defensive lines in the SEC. Rushing for 97 yards on 29 carries for an average of 3.3 YPC will not cut it, especially with a backup quarterback trying to find his footing.
Speaking of backup quarterbacks, Zach Calzada really struggled. It was clear that he had some nerves early. He was putting too much juice on his throws and sailing balls too high and long. He calmed down a bit as the game went on but still was not very accurate, finishing 18/38 for 183 yards and one all important touchdown. Calzada needs to be better for A&M to have a great season. If we play like that against Arkansas, they will beat us.
That said, I think Calzada showed a ton of guts in this game. He led the Aggies on basically two game winning drives. Of course he fumbled at the goal line on the first one, but that was a great scramble. An undisciplined play to stretch the ball, yes, but I’m not going to pile on the kid for making an awesome play and putting forth incredible effort. He made a couple of really good throws down the stretch and made some plays with his legs as well. My biggest issue with the offense was not Calzada, but rather the play calling.
Jimbo trolling the sidelines at Mile High. Photo by David Zalubowski, AP Photo
I thought Jimbo called a terrible game, and he said as much in his press conference - and I’m not a hater of Jimbo’s overall offense. Jimbo and A&M catch a lot of heat from national pundits, saying the offense is too slow, outdated, not explosive enough, etc. I don't subscribe to that rhetoric because if you look at the numbers from 2020, the offense worked. No, it wasn’t a top 10 offense in the country but A&M scored plenty of points and went 9-1. So I’m fine running the kind of offense Jimbo prefers, but his stubbornness nearly cost the Aggies this game.
When your starting quarterback gets injured, and the backup is clearly struggling to find his confidence under very difficult circumstances, you have to simplify the offense for him. Give him some easy throws to build some sort of confidence and rhythm. Don’t continue to ask him to make extremely difficult throws on quick slants, out routes to the sidelines, seam routes with linebackers underneath and safeties over the top, etc. Most of the throws Calzada was making were very difficult, and I get that Jimbo has confidence in him to run the offense, but you have to look at what is happening on the field and adjust at some point. Jimbo didn’t.
I mean just go back and look at the throws Calzada was being asked to make. Defensive backs were draped all over our guys, and those routes are based so much on timing and chemistry, something your backup quarterback likely doesn’t have with the wide outs because he isn’t practicing with the first team all week. Did Calzada not see some open receivers and make inaccurate throws? Obviously. He left a lot out on that field. But as a coach, it’s your job to put your players in the best position to succeed. When you see those mistakes being made, instead of doubling down and chewing him out on the sidelines for missing those, adjust the game plan a bit to make it easier on him. I know this is easier said than done, especially when the QB might not be making the right read, but man, sometimes you need to throw up the white flag and simplify the playbook to make sure you win the damn game.
I know it’s easy for me to sit on my couch and play arm chair quarterback, and Jimbo is a way better football mind than I could ever hope to be, but there are some things that are super simple coaches can do to help a struggling QB. For example, I think Jimbo needed to run some bootlegs, sprint outs, roll outs, anything like that to shrink the field and avoid pressure. Make the reads and throws as easy as possible for Zach and move the pocket to avoid pressure. Or run more play action, especially on that seam route to freeze the underneath linebackers and give Wydermyer a bit of breathing room. We hardly ran play action. I realize the run game wasn’t effective but I guarantee those linebackers would bite on a run fake with those weapons in the backfield. Instead, we were just lining up in shotgun and making Calzada throw from the pocket, oftentimes under duress. So yeah, of course he struggled. Even the passes he completed were into such tight windows with defensive players all around the Aggie receivers.
Which brings me to my next point: rotate in guys at wide receiver. I love Ainias Smith, Caleb Chapman and Chase Lane but there are others guys on this roster who can make plays too. It was clear Calzada didn’t have much rhythm or chemistry with those guys, so why not rotate in some fresh faces and see if that makes any difference? It might not have worked but would it kill you to try? I guarantee Demond Demas, Moose Muhammed, and Jalen Preston know how to run a go route. Trot them out there and take a big shot deep, what is there to lose? It’s not like our receivers were burning Colorado defensive backs all afternoon.
Finally, the last thing that bugged me with Jimbo’s play calling was abandoning the run. Give credit to Colorado’s defense for playing a damn good game, especially that front seven. They only allowed 3.3 yards per carry, and Jimbo gave up on it despite never being down more than one score. Running more may not have worked, but with a backup QB who is struggling on the road, I’d rather go down doing what A&M does best than trying to force your backup to win the game with his arm. Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane combining for 17 carries is not a winning recipe for A&M. I will give Jimbo credit for getting Spiller involved in the passing game. That saved us in the end, but he didn't go to that until very late. Better late than never, but we should have started hitting Achane and Spiller on screens and swing passes much earlier than the last couple of drives. This goes back to the point about giving Calzada some easier passes cause throwing a swing pass is pretty dang easy.
Photo by David Zalubowski, AP Photo
Alright, rant over. I’m done being down about this game and offense for now. Moving forward, I think Calzada will be better than what he showed today. I hope Haynes King is not out for long but it didn’t look good with him being on crutches and in a boot the entire second half. To win SEC games, we are going to need our offensive line to improve, and Jimbo needs to call a much better game.
There was plenty of good in Saturday’s game as well, despite what twitter or message boards might lead you to believe, and that is thanks to the defense. Colorado had some success early thanks to a solid game plan. They were able to run the ball pretty well in the first half, and they leaned on that. They knew freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis was not going to beat A&M through the air, so they relied on the run and it worked for a while. Notice how the Buffs played to their offense's strengths and didn't try to force things.
Enough about the Colorado offense because this defense is the story. They won the game for A&M, plain and simple. Antonio Johnson was playing like a man possessed at an all SEC caliber. He finished with 9 tackles and two pass deflections. On the line, Demarvin Leal was unblockable. He finished with 5 total tackles and one TFL but if you watch the tape, he is impossible to miss. Throwing Colorado linemen around like ragdolls, while taking on double and triple teams. Leal is living up to his preseason and NFL draft hype and is the unquestioned leader of this Aggie defense. Fifth year senior DT Jayden Peevy deserves a shout out as well. He filled up the stat sheet with 7 total tackles, 2 TFL, a pass deflection and an interception.
To give you some perspective on how dominant this defense was, especially in the second half when the Aggies really needed it, here’s a few eye popping stats. Texas A&M held Colorado to just 52 second half yards. No, that is not a typo. At half, the Buffs had outgained A&M 208 yards to just 81. At the end of the game, the Aggies had outgained the Buffs 288 to 260. In fact, Colorado never even crossed mid field in the second half. Complete and utter domination.
The 12th man traveled deep to Denver. That stadium was loud. Photo by David Zalubowski, AP Photo
Thankfully this defense gave A&M’s offense every opportunity possible to win the game, and finally we were able to get it done thanks to a couple beautiful catches (and good throws) by Isaiah Spiller. That kid is such a gamer man. I’m sure he was frustrated with how the offense was performing, and with how he was performing personally. He only averaged 2.5 yards per carry, but rather than getting down about it, he made plays in the passing game and came up CLUTCH when his number was called. That is the sign of a great player.
One more takeaway I had is that Texas A&M has learned how to win. You always hear that winning is a habit, and the best teams just find a way to win no matter the circumstance. The Aggies have now won 10 straight games and did just about everything wrong offensively, other than turning the ball over a bunch, to lose this game. And yet they didn’t lose. They found a way to win. There is no way A&M teams in the past would have been able to recover from that Calzada fumble at the goal line. The Aggies used to fold when faced with adversity. Instead, this team came right back after that fumble and scored on the next drive, and that showed me something about the mental toughness and never give up attitude this team plays with.
So while A&M has a TON to work on, and they are not be ready offensively to compete for the CFP right now, I still think we can win a lot of games and have a great season. The defense will keep us in every game, and the culture change has happened. This team battles through adversity and figures out ways to win better than most Aggie teams in my lifetime, and there is a lot to be proud of with how this team battled, competed and won, despite it not looking pretty. Just watch the press conferences of Isaiah Spiller, Jayden Peevy and Demarvin Leal to get a sense of how confident and united this team is.
The bottom line is we are 2-0, and a zero in the loss column is the only thing that matters at the end of the day.
2-0.
#BTHONEWMEXICO
