Report Card for Texas A&M Football: Grading Every Position after Ole Miss

Grading Defense for Texas A&M Football

Defensive Line: Even though they only notched one sack on the day against Jaxson Dart, the defensive line pressured him throughout the game. Shemar Turner’s antics that got him tossed deserve a mention here, of course, as without him it looked like we started to see the front for the Aggies wear down for the first time this season late in the game. This type of offense is a tough, tough defensive assignment when you’re not defensively sound one through eleven (more on that in a moment…), so the front seven didn’t have as much of an advantage as they otherwise would have against the run, but they still did a decent job, holding the Rebels to 3.97 YPC. The tough part was allowing 3 rushing touchdowns, more than doubling what the Aggies had allowed all year to that point. GRADE: B

Linebacker: Edgerrin Cooper was quiet in this one. He helped contribute to the one sack the Aggies notched on the day, and had a TFL and seven tackles (all assisted). Taurean York was similarly quiet on the day, notching only 3 tackles. It didn’t seem as though either were washed out of the play often, and they both did a decent job in coverage. Chris Russell played well too, putting a big hit on Jaxson Dart at one point. I wish this group had made a little more of an impact, but they were schemed out of things by Kiffin for the most part, and were unable to step up late in the game versus the run after a decent day otherwise. GRADE: B-

Secondary: I realize that the Aggies lacked their top two corners coming into this one, but the Rebels made sure to take full advantage, with minimal resistance coming from the Aggie defensive backs. Even when there was good coverage down the field, the Ole Miss receivers would make the contested catch, but solid coverage was hard to come by for most of the day. The most egregious example was freshman Sam McCall leaving a receiver all alone on one side of the field, with him running unencumbered 30 yards to the end zone for a free touchdown. Dart had very few throw-aways due to coverage downfield, and the Aggie DBs did not deal well with wheel and rub routes. Possibly the only decent play I can think of was Jacoby Mathews making a great break on a slant route (against which the Aggies struggled for a huge portion of the game) and breaking up a pass on third down. Bryce Anderson made some good plays as well, it should be mentioned, but overall, this was the worst day for the Aggie secondary since the ignominious occurrence in Coral Gables, and it cost the team a win on the road. GRADE: D-