3 Takeaways From Texas A&M Football’s Dominating Win over ULM

Defense for Texas A&M Football Shows Improvement

After all the criticism of Durkin and this Aggie defense that happened this week, they needed to have a big day. They needed something to help them bounce back from the sting of what took place down in Coral Gables last Saturday. And yes, as I’ve said several times, even though it was a lower quality of opponent, the Aggie defense looked impressive for most of the day. They gave up one long pass that they definitely should not have, and for a moment all fans of the Maroon and White had flashbacks to Miami. But they clamped down after that, with a noticeable improvement in coverage and tackling in the second half especially.

The Warhawks only gained a total of 222 yards on the day, and that’s without considering the fact that 61 of those yards came on the final drive where the Aggies had their third-stringers out on the field. The first-string defense suffocated the Warhawks for almost all of the afternoon, holding them below 100 total yards passing (though it should be noted that this is the third time in three games that this has happened for ULM). The one thing they could have done that we didn’t see—aside from preventing that one deep ball from being completed—would have been to turn the Warhawks over, but this was a clean game for both sides in that regard.

The defense needed this confidence boost. Conference play begins next week against Auburn, and a leaky and demoralized back end of the defense would be disastrous. As it stands, the Aggies are now at least higher on morale than before. It remains to be seen how their quality of play will be throughout the rest of the year.