Texas A&M football’s defense bends, but doesn’t break
The Aggie defense showed out last night, limiting a Miami offense that boasts a projected 1st-round QB in Tyler Van Dyke to only 9 points, and not allowing a single touchdown. Van Dyke finished the day with 5.3 YPA and never looked comfortable, with the A&M pass rush bearing down on him time and time again. They never registered a sack, but they did enough to force some ill-advised throws from Van Dyke.
However, some fans were less than pleased with the defensive performance, complaining of too many 3-down sets, long drives given up, and the aforementioned lack of sacks. Many felt that the Aggie D wasn’t getting off the field when they should, pointing to 27 first downs gained by Miami.
Penalties extended several Miami drives. However, the Canes were only 5-14 on 3rd down, and were largely held without any explosive plays. The A&M defense forced the Hurricanes to be methodical in their drives, daring them to convert time and time again— and Miami faltered.
THAT PASS FALLS INCOMPLETE ❌
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) September 18, 2022
📺 | #BTHOMiami pic.twitter.com/7edESBLOnv
In my opinion, the difference in scoring efficiency is really the biggest explicative factor in the result, along with red zone conversion. Miami and A&M had extremely similar yards per play— Miami at 5.09, A&M at 5.08— and weren’t even all that far off on points per drive, with 1.00 and 1.55 respectively. However, on a points-per-play basis (a measure of scoring efficiency) you can see the disparity clearly: the Aggies nearly tripled the Canes here, 0.327 for the Ags to 0.117 for Miami.
I should mention that all this was accomplished by a quite depleted defensive unit. A&M was missing Walter Nolen, Denver Harris, Smoke Bouie, Tunmise Adeleye, Andre White, and Myles Jones coming into the game, and lost both Demani Richardson and Brian George to 1st-quarter targeting calls. Due to this, the Aggie depth had to step up, with guys like Bryce Anderson answering the bell in a big way.
The exciting thing here is that this defense can still yet improve, despite their current lofty ranking by SP+. First of all, some of the injured players returning will obviously bolster not only the depth, but the quality of play. Second, as I’ve mentioned, the A&M defense failed to register not only a single sack, but a turnover, despite several chances at a pick. If you see those numbers start to tick upwards, as I believe they will with the maturation of a young front line, watch out.