Three Texas A&M football takeaways after Bowling Green escape: Offense needs a vertical dimension
Here’s a big one. The schematic approach by Bowling Green was actually very astute: bring one or two more than the Aggies could block, man up on the outside or play shell coverage, and see if Reed can pick you apart.
As I said above, it paid off well—much to the chagrin of the A&M faithful. The Ags looked anything but explosive in this one because of their inability to push the ball downfield, and even though they ended up controlling the game for the most part, they were unable to ever get distance on the scoreboard.
This is why this offense needs that vertical dimension. Without the ability to go deep against other defenses, the Ags get one-dimensional quickly. And you can’t succeed against elite teams that way.
Reed will have to either make immense strides in a very short period of time or the switch back to Weigman will have to be made. I would be in favor of the latter, personally—the status quo really hasn’t changed all that much, to be honest, and so you just go back to your injured QB1.
In our most recent data point for no. 15, he showed an arm that will intimidate opposing DCs and therefore one that will open up the running scheme much more than we saw Reed’s legs do. If DCs can key in on the ground game, then it doesn’t really matter that much that the QB can move. If they have to respect the downfield pass, though, then everything opens up.