A&M was unprepared in all facets of the game, and it showed in a humiliating loss. The Aggies were outplayed, but more importantly, they were thoroughly outcoached.
Fisher seriously needs to look in the mirror after this, because this was utterly inexcusable. This is a team who’s defense was absolutely shredded at home last weekend by a bad North Carolina and they had one. Offensive. Touchdown.
It goes without saying that A&M’s offensive line stinks out loud. It’s an utter embarrassment. I don’t know how you run Haynes King out there next week after this debacle. Max Johnson can’t be worse, and you have to find some semblance of consistency.
A&M had 189 total yards of offense. Devon Achane had 10 carries. They had the ball for just 18:31, in large part due to the fact that they couldn’t get anything going. The Aggies were just 2 of 8 on 3rd downs, fumbled four times and had their big-legged placekicker hit a potential-game tying kick like a pitching wedge.
It’s pathetic. There’s no other way to put it. And a lot of the blame goes on the utter predictability and indecisiveness of the offensive play calling. A&M uses no motion. They don’t use the strengths of King’s game, which is to boot him outside and give him the option to run. They have the most explosive running back in college football and don’t try to establish the running game.
On third and two feet, they THREW THE FOOTBALL. And the blocker took off down the field and it ended up being a two-yard loss.
How can you do that?
We know the line is terrible. Matthew Wykoff isn’t the answer at center. Aki Ogunbiyi has struggled again at left guard. But nobody’s playing well. King repeatedly has guys in his face, all the more reason to get him out of the pocket.
But King is playing scared himself. There were massive holes for him to run through many times today and he didn’t do it. He just sat in the pocket and watched it collapse around him. The asset of his speed is totally meaningless if he refuses to take off.
The routes for the wideouts are just awful. There were two deep shots the whole game. TWO. And one ended up in a sack. Everything else was just passes to the outside or short curls. It was utterly predictable and App State played it like they knew what was coming. Because they did.
Appalachian State was aggressive defensively because they had to be. And it worked. The same bleeping defense that gave up 56 points to UNC last week was perfectly comfortable against the Aggies because A&M didn’t show them anything they hadn’t seen. A&M acted like they’d never seen what App State threw at them. Their defensive staff whipped A&M’s offensive staff — in other words, Jimbo.
Sit down, DJ Durkin. You’re not off the hook.
How on earth does a team hold onto the ball for 41:29? How do they convert 9 of 20 — 20! — third down attempts? How do you have your nose tackle jump on a clear bait play on 4th and 1 when he’s right over the ball? How do you have back to back facemasks? And, most importantly, how can you not turn over an offense that you are so much better than physically?
A&M’s offense looked confused and disjointed; the defense looked like it felt no sense of urgency. App State did nothing new or exotic for them; they did use motion, they ran RPO like crazy and they ran right at the Aggies. And they kept on getting into 3rd and short situations. If they were in medium distances, they still picked it up. If A&M set up a blitz and vacated an area, App State ran right at it. If they were giving a 5-players in the box look, App State ran at it.
50 rushing attempts for App State. 50. They only ran for 171 yards — only! — but when it mattered they picked up the yards. They wanted it more. They knew they could get them and did. In the meantime, A&M was sitting there happily rotating players, taking out ones who were having good series and replacing them with other guys. I can see doing that when it’s hot out, and when you had success last week, but at some point, you’ve got to have a sense of urgency. It never came. Again, the offensive coaches for App State were tactically superior to Durkin and his crew.
The defense wasn’t good enough. But this one is overwhelmingly on the offense. The inability to consistently move the football, to get any rhythm whatsoever, and the insistence on doing the same things over and over when they’re just not working is atrocious.
Maybe this can be a wakeup call for this team and this coaching staff. You can’t be hesitant. You can’t be conservative, and you can’t be repetitive. You can’t turn emotion on and off. And that seems to be things that A&M seems to think they can do.
This is an embarrassment. There’s no other way to put it. Stuff like this is why we have to deal with Aggie jokes.
Fisher seriously needs to look in the mirror after this, because this was utterly inexcusable. This is a team who’s defense was absolutely shredded at home last weekend by a bad North Carolina and they had one. Offensive. Touchdown.
It goes without saying that A&M’s offensive line stinks out loud. It’s an utter embarrassment. I don’t know how you run Haynes King out there next week after this debacle. Max Johnson can’t be worse, and you have to find some semblance of consistency.
A&M had 189 total yards of offense. Devon Achane had 10 carries. They had the ball for just 18:31, in large part due to the fact that they couldn’t get anything going. The Aggies were just 2 of 8 on 3rd downs, fumbled four times and had their big-legged placekicker hit a potential-game tying kick like a pitching wedge.
It’s pathetic. There’s no other way to put it. And a lot of the blame goes on the utter predictability and indecisiveness of the offensive play calling. A&M uses no motion. They don’t use the strengths of King’s game, which is to boot him outside and give him the option to run. They have the most explosive running back in college football and don’t try to establish the running game.
On third and two feet, they THREW THE FOOTBALL. And the blocker took off down the field and it ended up being a two-yard loss.
How can you do that?
We know the line is terrible. Matthew Wykoff isn’t the answer at center. Aki Ogunbiyi has struggled again at left guard. But nobody’s playing well. King repeatedly has guys in his face, all the more reason to get him out of the pocket.
But King is playing scared himself. There were massive holes for him to run through many times today and he didn’t do it. He just sat in the pocket and watched it collapse around him. The asset of his speed is totally meaningless if he refuses to take off.
The routes for the wideouts are just awful. There were two deep shots the whole game. TWO. And one ended up in a sack. Everything else was just passes to the outside or short curls. It was utterly predictable and App State played it like they knew what was coming. Because they did.
Appalachian State was aggressive defensively because they had to be. And it worked. The same bleeping defense that gave up 56 points to UNC last week was perfectly comfortable against the Aggies because A&M didn’t show them anything they hadn’t seen. A&M acted like they’d never seen what App State threw at them. Their defensive staff whipped A&M’s offensive staff — in other words, Jimbo.
Sit down, DJ Durkin. You’re not off the hook.
How on earth does a team hold onto the ball for 41:29? How do they convert 9 of 20 — 20! — third down attempts? How do you have your nose tackle jump on a clear bait play on 4th and 1 when he’s right over the ball? How do you have back to back facemasks? And, most importantly, how can you not turn over an offense that you are so much better than physically?
A&M’s offense looked confused and disjointed; the defense looked like it felt no sense of urgency. App State did nothing new or exotic for them; they did use motion, they ran RPO like crazy and they ran right at the Aggies. And they kept on getting into 3rd and short situations. If they were in medium distances, they still picked it up. If A&M set up a blitz and vacated an area, App State ran right at it. If they were giving a 5-players in the box look, App State ran at it.
50 rushing attempts for App State. 50. They only ran for 171 yards — only! — but when it mattered they picked up the yards. They wanted it more. They knew they could get them and did. In the meantime, A&M was sitting there happily rotating players, taking out ones who were having good series and replacing them with other guys. I can see doing that when it’s hot out, and when you had success last week, but at some point, you’ve got to have a sense of urgency. It never came. Again, the offensive coaches for App State were tactically superior to Durkin and his crew.
The defense wasn’t good enough. But this one is overwhelmingly on the offense. The inability to consistently move the football, to get any rhythm whatsoever, and the insistence on doing the same things over and over when they’re just not working is atrocious.
Maybe this can be a wakeup call for this team and this coaching staff. You can’t be hesitant. You can’t be conservative, and you can’t be repetitive. You can’t turn emotion on and off. And that seems to be things that A&M seems to think they can do.
This is an embarrassment. There’s no other way to put it. Stuff like this is why we have to deal with Aggie jokes.
