Grading every position for Texas A&M Football vs Alabama
It was a rough day at the office for several position groups on this Texas A&M football team. Alabama was able to exploit a few key matchups against the Aggies that have to be areas of concern going forward. Let’s jump in and hand out some grades, starting with the offensive side of the ball.
Quarterback: C-
There are a lot of people who would grade Max Johnson’s performance in this game lower than this, but at the end of the day, it was an up-and-down game for him. He placed the touchdown throw to Jake perfectly, as well as several other very pretty tosses, including the one to Evan on the first drive. However, he just as often failed to throw to wide-open receivers running in the Bama secondary, and though that was likely somewhat due to pressure, you need a better performance in a game like this. Plus, if he places that throw to Ainias just a tad further down the field in the third quarter, it’s a walk-in touchdown.
Wide Receivers: B+
It was honestly a good day for this group. Not a lot of drops at all, and as I said before, they were getting open consistently downfield. Ainias had a couple of good plays after the catch as well—as did the rarely-targeted Moose—but the inability to consistently get them the ball overshadowed what could have otherwise been a banner day.
Running Backs: D
There were not many rushes of note in this game, aside from one or two promising carries early on. Alabama has a great front seven, so you can’t blame the Aggie backs for too much, but the real bugaboo for this group was the lack of pass protection. Some blown assignments and poor technique ended up costing Texas A&M football dearly—see what happened on Max’s interception.
Offensive Line: D-
The first half went okay for the group up front, but the second half was a real struggle. Giving up the safety was a huge turning point, as was the blocked field goal (I know that’s not technically the OL per se, but it was made up of many members thereof). How consequential those became is enough to bump this down to just above failing, but not quite enough to reach that mark as it wasn’t a true thrashing throughout the game.