After the debacle against Notre Dame, where Texas A&M football allowed two big, explosive plays for the Irish to salt away the game, most of the negative attention was focused on the offense—and for good reason. It was the offense that abandoned A&M throughout the game, whereas the defense really only cracked in the final moments.
Of course, the defense did crack, which shouldn’t be ignored. And since then, we’ve seen several more busts on the part of the defense—chiefly on outside runs and on the back end.
But those busts have become fewer and fewer as the weeks have gone on. And outside of those, down to down, the Aggies are beginning to look more and more the part of an elite defense.
Looking at the defense through the lens of percentages of averages allowed, the Aggies look extremely solid, if not elite. On a per-attempt basis, no team the Aggies have faced has reached their season average for passing or rushing.
The rush defense, especially, has been really impressive. The Aggies currently allow about 69% of per-carry rushing averages to FBS teams. This means that if you come into a game against the Aggies rushing for 5 YPC as a team, A&M will more than likely hold you to about 3.5 YPC or fewer. That’s not a huge difference on its face, but it throws the efficiency of a rush-dependent offense way out of whack.
The pass defense, even with the big plays they’ve given up over the top, is looking pretty nice on the whole as well. Bowling Green is buoying the group here, as they—thanks to the big play to Fannin—managed 6.8 YPA as compared to their average 7.1. But every other team the Aggies have played has fallen far short of their per-attempt average, such that A&M is allowing only 88% of those averages to FBS competition.
If the Aggies can continue to improve, especially in regard to clamping down on those explosive plays, then they will be well-positioned to be that elite defense that they have the talent to become. With the week to week improvement we’ve seen so far from the Ags, I feel like that’s an impending reality.