For the first time since Johnny Manziel was behind center in College Station, Texas A&M has scored more than 40 points in regulation for three straight games.
The last time the Aggies did this overall was in 2018, but that included the legendary seven-overtime game against the LSU Tigers, where the Ags only scored 31 points in regulation. If you're looking at only the first 60 minutes of game time, it has been over a decade since an A&M offense has achieved this feat.
That team with the reigning Heisman winner ended up scoring 40-plus in the first ten games of the season, right up until the 10-point effort in Baton Rouge when Johnny's shoulder injury finally got the better of him. They also finished first in offensive rating per the SP+ (then the S&P+) ratings, the best the Aggies have ever finished in that metric.
Texas A&M scores 40+ points in regulation for first time since Johnny Manziel's final year
Though the Aggies have had some real weapons on offense since Johnny left campus— Christian Kirk, Josh Reynolds, Devon Achane, Isaiah Spiller, Jace Sternberger— they've never once been able to muster this kind of performance. There are plenty of times where they played some bad teams in three straight games, but they were never quite able to do this.
This also comes on the back of two games in which the Aggies were clearly messing around and trying different stuff out— I don't think, in other words, that Utah State and UTSA's defenses are just as good as Notre Dame's. The fact that it includes such an intimidating Irish defense in this group of three is reminiscent of when Manziel put up 42 points on Saban's Alabama... except the Aggies won this game.
The Heisman winner himself was amped up to see the Aggies win this huge game. No doubt he's having flashbacks to a game where he, clad in the all-white A&M uniform, took down a top-ten team on the road.
The best part is that there is still so much room to improve here. The Aggies can get a lot better than what we saw on Saturday— Marcel was under 50% completion, the run game was possibly underutilized, and they gave the Irish several short fields. This team could become very scary very quickly— and for the first time in over ten years, there's an elite offense in College Station.