Texas A&M Football: 3 takeaways from Week 1 vs. Sam Houston State

Despite the muggy day, the 3-hour weather delay, and the fact that it felt like the offense was simply spinning its tires at times, Texas A&M football, as expected, pulled out the win over Sam Houston State yesterday. Not only did they win, but they pitched a shutout, with a final score of 31-0.

It’s hard to not overreact to Week 1 results (see: all the people writing obituaries for the PAC-12’s chances at a playoff spot), but nevertheless, I think there are some things we can infer for the Aggies going forward. With that in mind, here are three things we can take away from the opening matchup of the season for the Ags.

Texas A&M football’s passing game was explosive

We had heard all offseason about the emphasis on pushing the ball down the field, and we certainly saw that on Saturday. Haynes King ended the day with two passing plays of 60+ (one more than we had all of last year) and three plays of 40+, matching the 2021 team’s total.

That’s a pretty crazy statistic, and it speaks to how radical the transformation has been in the approach this offseason. King ended the day with 11.74 yards per attempt – a stellar mark (for context, Bryce Young averaged 8.91 YPA and CJ Stroud averaged 10.06 YPA last year).  He threw several beautiful balls, including several out routes to the field side and the aforementioned deep balls.

However, there was bad as well as good. It felt at times as though King was forcing the ball down the field, trying to hit the big play when he should’ve just checked it down, ending the day with 2 interceptions to offset his 3 touchdown tosses. Hopefully this is something that will change as he continues to garner experience as a starting QB.