Good news: you're 14 and can do pretty much whatever you want on offense. You've shut down the opposing team's passing game, for the most part.
Bad news: you're the reason you're only up 14.
A&M should be drilling this team, and everyone knows it. But it's been a bunch of mental and physical errors that have cost them points and put them on the board for Nevada.
First off, Kyle Allen has been extremely impressive so far. He's 15-20 for 203 yards and 2 TDs, and has 34 yards rushing (52, if you take away sacks) running the read option. He's only made two real mistakes, muffing a snap and overthrowing Christian Kirk on the last drive. Otherwise, he's been excellent. This is the most confident he's looked since he took over as the starter last year, and it's the best single half he's had in terms of passing yardage. However, A&M is only 1 of 5 on third downs.
Tra Carson had a good half, with 67 yards, but his fumble took points off the board. You punch that in and it's 31-10 and people are a lot happier with things. The Aggies are 3-4 in the red zone, but fumbling inside the 10 is cardinal sin. The use of Allen in the option game has been interesting, as was using Brandon Williams instead of Kwame Etwi or Brice Dolezal (and then running Brandon back out on defense).
I know Jake Spavital is trying to give Arkansas a lot of looks to prepare for, but I'd really like it if they'd operate the offense that has been working well -- 4 wides, one back or 3 wides, one tight end and one back -- before they start messing with 5 wides or throwing to eligible tackles and running reverse passes. Your offense is efficient, but it's not as effective as it should be. Still way too many self-inflicted wounds, and trying to get cute doesn't do much good.
The interior linemen are playing well so far. It's been the tackles, Gennesy and especially Ifedi, who have had bad days. Both got beat badly for sacks in the first half. But the running game has been up the gut a lot and it's been more successful today than the first two weeks.
On defense, Nevada has had virtually nothing in the passing game. Tyler Stewart is 6-12 for 70 yards, but most of those came on one drive. Otherwise, he's been forced to roll out to avoid pressure and has been harassed by Myles Garrett constantly. Garrett is killing the guys across from him, and they've tried to cut him, double him, you name it. It's not working.
What IS working, though is their read option game. A&M has jumped the wrong guys a couple of times and given up some big plays. After Don Jackson had his big run, however, A&M figured him out. He has 7 carries for 35 yards, but had 31 on one carry -- the TD. Since then, he's had nothing. James Butler has been the guy that's made an impact, with 57 yards on 7 carries. Stewart has been eliminated in the running game and has taken quite a few hits. But when Nevada averages better than 4 yards a carry (closer to 5), it's still not good.
AJ Hilliard struggled in his first action, even though he had 5 tackles. He was out of position several times, and that cost A&M on Butler's big run, for one thing. Everyone bit inside on the 4th down TD, with Justin Evans way out of position. Devante Harris got busted for a PI. Stupid stuff.
A&M needs to clean up their play. They're not going to lose, and it probably won't even be a 3 TD game when it's all done. But run recognition needs to be better, the offensive line still has a lot of work to do and there can't be stupid penalties and turnovers. It gets real next week.
Bad news: you're the reason you're only up 14.
A&M should be drilling this team, and everyone knows it. But it's been a bunch of mental and physical errors that have cost them points and put them on the board for Nevada.
First off, Kyle Allen has been extremely impressive so far. He's 15-20 for 203 yards and 2 TDs, and has 34 yards rushing (52, if you take away sacks) running the read option. He's only made two real mistakes, muffing a snap and overthrowing Christian Kirk on the last drive. Otherwise, he's been excellent. This is the most confident he's looked since he took over as the starter last year, and it's the best single half he's had in terms of passing yardage. However, A&M is only 1 of 5 on third downs.
Tra Carson had a good half, with 67 yards, but his fumble took points off the board. You punch that in and it's 31-10 and people are a lot happier with things. The Aggies are 3-4 in the red zone, but fumbling inside the 10 is cardinal sin. The use of Allen in the option game has been interesting, as was using Brandon Williams instead of Kwame Etwi or Brice Dolezal (and then running Brandon back out on defense).
I know Jake Spavital is trying to give Arkansas a lot of looks to prepare for, but I'd really like it if they'd operate the offense that has been working well -- 4 wides, one back or 3 wides, one tight end and one back -- before they start messing with 5 wides or throwing to eligible tackles and running reverse passes. Your offense is efficient, but it's not as effective as it should be. Still way too many self-inflicted wounds, and trying to get cute doesn't do much good.
The interior linemen are playing well so far. It's been the tackles, Gennesy and especially Ifedi, who have had bad days. Both got beat badly for sacks in the first half. But the running game has been up the gut a lot and it's been more successful today than the first two weeks.
On defense, Nevada has had virtually nothing in the passing game. Tyler Stewart is 6-12 for 70 yards, but most of those came on one drive. Otherwise, he's been forced to roll out to avoid pressure and has been harassed by Myles Garrett constantly. Garrett is killing the guys across from him, and they've tried to cut him, double him, you name it. It's not working.
What IS working, though is their read option game. A&M has jumped the wrong guys a couple of times and given up some big plays. After Don Jackson had his big run, however, A&M figured him out. He has 7 carries for 35 yards, but had 31 on one carry -- the TD. Since then, he's had nothing. James Butler has been the guy that's made an impact, with 57 yards on 7 carries. Stewart has been eliminated in the running game and has taken quite a few hits. But when Nevada averages better than 4 yards a carry (closer to 5), it's still not good.
AJ Hilliard struggled in his first action, even though he had 5 tackles. He was out of position several times, and that cost A&M on Butler's big run, for one thing. Everyone bit inside on the 4th down TD, with Justin Evans way out of position. Devante Harris got busted for a PI. Stupid stuff.
A&M needs to clean up their play. They're not going to lose, and it probably won't even be a 3 TD game when it's all done. But run recognition needs to be better, the offensive line still has a lot of work to do and there can't be stupid penalties and turnovers. It gets real next week.
