Texas A&M ran Samford out of the building yesterday, winning 48-0 over the Bulldogs. That was all extremely expected, of course, but the Aggie fans got a good look at the entire roster during the course of the blowout.
Here's what we learned and can solidly take away from this game against Samford, with only one contest left in the regular season.
Texas A&M vs Samford takeaways: Defense played to the standard
Something that grated at a lot of Aggie fans in the early non-conference matchups against UTSA and Utah State was the backups coming in on defense and giving up late scores. The starters looked really good in both of those games, but the backups were more than a little porous on that side of the ball.
Well, that certainly wasn't the case in yesterday's game. The Aggies' defense was playing to the A&M standard all the way from the first string down to the fourth, holding the Samford offense to an eye-catching 77 yards of total offense.
That's encouraging to see going forward, as it not only speaks to an increasing grasp of the system by some of the younger players, but the culture that Mike Elko wants in this locker room really beginning to seep in. Every man on the team, no matter which classification or what game state, needs to play the same way.