Texas A&M vs Ole Miss Recap
Texas A&M leaves Oxford with tough loss and sour taste in their mouths. The Aggies have been swept by the Mississippi schools.Ole Miss - 29
Texas A&M - 19
By: The Hammer
The Ole Miss rushing attack proved hard to stop all night for the Aggies. Rogelio V. Solis, AP Photo
Man, talk about a gut punch. After dropping two games to Arkansas and Mississippi State earlier this year, it looked like this A&M team had turned a corner after beating Alabama, Mizzou, South Carolina and Auburn. Unfortunately, the team we saw for most of that win streak, was not the team who showed up Saturday night in Oxford. The Rebels out executed us most of the night. We’ll dive into what went wrong for A&M shortly, but first credit where credit is due.
Ole Miss deserves a ton of credit here, especially DJ Durkin and the defensive staff. This team was prepared, motivated and Durkin out coached Jimbo. The Rebels came into the game as the 107th best run defense in the country, giving up over 194 yards per game. But in this game, the Ole Miss front seven came to play. The Aggies only managed 141 yards rushing on 29 attempts (4.9 yards per carry). Not terrible numbers, but certainly not what A&M was expecting coming into the game. Chance Campbell and Sam Williams played phenomenal games and made running between the tackles a challenge for A&M. The Rebels rose to the occasion in this one, and we did not.
Now onto where the Aggies fell short of their potential and let this game slip away. I think the hardest part about this loss, and really all three of A&M’s losses this season has been the fact that although the team did not play very well, they had chances to steal the win in each game. Against Arkansas, the score was 17-10 with 7 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter even though it felt like the Hogs were dominating. In the loss to Mississippi State, the Aggies had the ball with a few minutes left in the 4th quarter down 24-22 before Zach Calzada was taken down in the end zone for a safety. So even though in all three losses A&M was outplayed, there was a chance in every one of them to make a few plays and escape with a win, but we just came up short. The same thing unfolded in Oxford in front of a sell out crowd at Vaught Hemingway. A&M was outgained by a country mile but this game was 15-13 midway through the fourth quarter. After falling into a 15-0 hole at halftime, A&M clawed back and the game was there for the taking. Yet it was the Rebels that did the taking, not A&M.
The main constant for Texas A&M in 2021 has been the defense. Aggie fans can count on them to show up, and that was no different against Ole Miss. Yes, they gave up a ton of yards. The tempo of the Ole Miss offense gave us big problems, especially early in the game. Jerion Ealy ran all over the Aggies for 152 yards at over 6 yards a carry. In fact the Rebels ran for 257 yards as a team, which is way more than this defense should be giving up. But when it came time to tighten up, this defense delivered yet again. Giving up a ton of yards isn’t pretty, but they only gave up 20 points to a high octane offense led by the best quarterback in the country. They stopped Ole Miss on several key 4th downs, and forced a couple of field goals as well. Not to mention one of the Rebel’s two touchdowns was right after a Calzada interception that gave the Rebels the ball at the Aggie 14 yard line. If it wasn’t for a few key stops, the forced fumble and the defense settling in after the first half, this game would have been ugly but it wasn’t. It’s a shame this defense won’t get the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage in an SEC championship or CFP game, because they are absolutely good enough for that.
So how does a team with an elite defense lose three games and currently sit at 7-3 on the year? Ah yes, the offense. I won’t belabor anything I have already discussed earlier in the season, and obviously the offense has gone through serious injuries issues, especially early in the year. However, the offense really let this team down yesterday, and it starts with Jimbo. His play calling was questionable yesterday and that’s been a theme in all of our losses this year.
To preface this, I don’t like playing armchair quarterback here, and I am a huge Jimbo supporter. I think he is a great coach and I’m very happy with him leading the program, but I think he has deserved criticism at times this year for the offense’s performance. Texas A&M has made 34 trips to the red zone in 2021, and we have only scored 16 touchdowns and settled for 14 field goals thus far. Yes, less than 50% of the time A&M is in the red zone they score a TD. That is very bad and we saw this play out on Saturday night as well. The Aggies got into the red zone twice and settled for a field goal both times. This is not all on Jimbo, players have to execute their assignments, however, a trend like this across 10 games so far leads me to believe the play calling is an issue. It can’t be blamed solely on execution when it’s a trend over many games. And if it truly is execution game after game, then that’s a coaching issue as well. Where is the creativity?
In addition to the red zone struggles, it’s hard to fathom only running the ball 29 times compared to 42 passes against Ole Miss. Sure some of those passing attempts were racked up late when we had to throw, but the formula for A&M to win games right now is not to throw more than run. And yes, the Rebels defense played better against the run than most anticipated, and Isaiah Spiller had a tough night, but Devon Achane was ripping off chunk plays in the second half, and he somehow only got 12 carries. On those 12 carries he ran for 110 yards (9.2 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. The Aggies actually averaged 4.9 yards a carry on the night, which is solid and stands to reason we should have been running the ball more, especially as the Ole Miss front seven wore down and Jake Springer, who had been fantastic in run support for the Rebs, was ejected for targeting.
When I am being critical of a coach, I like to have some ideas on what they could have done different, rather than just complain that things aren’t working and say something cliche or stupid like “run the touchdown play.” So yes I think Jimbo should have stuck with the run more than he did, but if he felt like we needed to throw the ball 42 times, I think we should have been attacking the middle of the field way more than. Ole Miss was absolutely selling out to stop the run, and it worked for a while, but we hardly ever tried to attack them over top of the linebackers with a seam route, deep cross, post, etc. Instead, it seemed like every pass play was an out route to the sideline, a hitch or comeback route. And it’s not that those plays weren’t working, Zach nearly completed 60% of his throws, but hitting a big throw over the middle had the potential to go for much more yards, and it will help keep the linebackers and safeties honest. A pass to the boundary will not. Those backers will keep coming down hill if you continue throwing toward the sidelines. Plus, the times we did attack the middle of the defense through the air, especially off play action it seemed to work pretty well (see the seam route to Wydermyer around the 9 minute mark of the third quarter and Ainias Smith’s reception early in the 4th).
Look, it’s possible Jimbo was trying to attack the middle more often and Calzada wasn’t seeing it or the execution was off, who knows. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt because as fans we don’t know what plays are being called, how Calzada is reading the defense, etc. We are reactionary to the result but don’t really know how the sausage is made, and Jimbo knows way more about football and offense than I do. But it’s no secret that this offense has been holding A&M back all year long and Jimbo is the head of that snake. He is an offensive minded coach who calls the plays, so ultimately the shortcomings fall on him, and he would tell you the same thing. I think it might be time to consider hiring an offensive coordinator that Jimbo allows to call plays (or relinquish play calling to Dickey), but given Jimbo’s stubbornness I don’t see that happening.
I watch other offenses around the country and there just seems to be something missing with ours, and this is not limited to 2021 so it isn’t just a backup QB issue. Wide receivers are rarely schemed open, it’s mostly predicated on timing and rhythm. And that’s okay when it’s working, but it makes it so much harder on your QB and wide receivers because the margins are razor thin. The amount of tight windows our QBs throw into is wild. Yards after catch are also extremely rare in this offense. When is the last time we saw a wide receiver catch the ball without a defensive back bearing down on him? Our wide outs are asked to make contested catches for nearly every reception. How about the last time we saw a receiver catch the ball in space and run for another 20+ yards after the catch? It just doesn't happen often enough, and that to me is more of a scheme or play calling issue than execution. But that is just my gut feeling on it because I’m not out here watching the “all 22” film so if guys are running wide open and Zach is just missing them, then it’s not fair to put that on Jimbo. It just feels like this has been going on for the better part of a few years now, which makes me think it's more on the scheme than the players, but maybe I am off base with that. I doubt Jimbo will change his approach much, if at all, but I think it could help.
Alright, rant over. No more time to feel sorry for ourselves. The bottomline is Ole Miss outplayed the Aggies and earned that victory. They came out with their hair on fire, ran the ball more effectively, played good defense, and turned the ball over less than A&M. Every facet of the game, the Rebels were the better team. A&M could have escaped with a win despite being outplayed, but Ole Miss made key plays down the stretch in crunch time and A&M did not. There is still plenty to play for, and I do not want to lose to LSU. We absolutely cannot lose to them. I trust Jimbo and this team to stay motivated, especially with a 10 win season still on the table when factoring in a potential bowl win. All things considered, going 10-3 with your starting QB breaking his leg in the first quarter of the second game while playing in the SEC West, the best division in college football by a mile, is nothing to be ashamed of. How those losses went down is the heartbreaker, but if you take a step back, that would be a very good season. We have to finish strong. I hope we can get there.
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