Texas A&M football just dominated the Utah State Aggies in this one, triumphing by a score of 44-22 after the visitors ran up a frantic touchdown against the Aggie third-stringers late in the fourth.
There was a lot of good to take away from Texas A&M's performance in this game, but most Aggie fans will have the injuries to Marcel Reed and Trey Zuhn top of mind at the end of this one. Luckily, it seems like Marcel Reed's update is all good news headed into a key game next week against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The A&M defense contained the Utah State offense for most of the day, with the sure highlight being Cashius Howell's three sacks on three straight plays against USU. That's the first time that has happened in a collegiate game since 2015.
Texas A&M dominates easily against Utah State, but injuries and penalties rankle A&M fans
The issue with the defense that most Aggie fans will remember in this one is the penalties. Utah State couldn't get anything done against the A&M starters except for on two drives, both of which were precipitated by Aggie penalties.
While USU scored again in garbage time against the second-string, it's those first two drives that are more concerning. Texas A&M needs to play far more disciplined football for the entire game if they want to contend for anything this year.
There was some inconsistency on the offensive end as well from the Aggies. Marcel missed a few throws, even though he ended the day with a great statistical line. The run game looked better, but Rueben Owens once failed to follow his blockers on a fourth-and-one, resulting in a turnover on downs.
I'm sure the performance of the backups will cause some fans to get upset, but this is a well-coached team by Bronco Mendenhall. If your complaint is that the Aggies' third-stringers are only slightly better than a Mountain West team, then I don't think you have a whole lot of a complaint.
One thing that was impressive there, though, was the way that they responded to getting gashed in that final drive after the two-minute timeout. The defense didn't give up a single yard after that point, and recovered a sack-fumble to close things out.
Overall, there were a lot of things to like in this game for Texas A&M, but they need to just play more cleanly. If A&M puts together a complete game, they can beat Notre Dame in South Bend— if not, though, they could be returning home with a loss.