Texas A&M Football: Grading the Aggies Game Against Texas Tech

The Texas A&M Aggies traveled to Lubbock and beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders 45-40 in the 70th and likely final meeting in the series. In 2012 the Aggies will move to the Southeastern Conference while the Red Raiders will stay in the Big 12.

The Aggies were able to overcome numerous injuries, questionable officiating and the expected classless behavior by Tech fans to get the victory.

Tech played inspired football all game and proved to be a much more formidable opponent than their previous record suggested. It appears that Tech coach Tommy Tuberville is slowly improving that program, especially in the running game.

The Aggies evened up their conference record to 1-1 with the victory and are now 3-2 overall. Tech dropped to 1-1 in the conference and 4-1 overall.

As with any game, their were positives and negatives from the night. This is a position by position breakdown of the performance of the Aggies versus Tech.

Quarterback: A

Texas A&M's senior quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a solid, workmanlike game on the road in a hostile environment.

Tannehill was 16-of-26 passing for 188 yards and one touchdown. The biggest statistic is the zero next to his name when it comes to turnovers. Tannehill took what the defense game him and did not force anything.

On a night when two of Tannehill's top three receivers were injured and knocked out of the game, the senior QB was a steadying influence on the field.

Tannehill also rushed nine times for 55 yards and two touchdowns. On one of the touchdown runs, Tannehill lowered his shoulder into a Tech linebacker in the end zone and the Tech player had to be helped from the field.

The Aggies needed a gritty effort from their leader on the road, and that is exactly what Tannehill gave them.

Running Back: A

The Aggie offense leaned on their running backs all night, and the dynamic duo of Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael proved to be up to the task.

Gray rushed for 116 yards on 21 carries and had one touchdown.

Michael had 52 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown.

The duo allowed the Aggies to move the chains and keep Tech's prolific offense on the sideline.

Tech stacked the box, but still could not prevent the Ags from moving the ball on the ground. Gray and Michael are the best duo of running backs in the nation. Against Tech on national television they showed why they received all the preseason recognition.

The two running backs have shown Mike Sherman that they are capable of carrying a team. Look for the Aggies to lean on them more during the next seven games of the season.

Wide Receivers: C

The big news from this group was injuries.

Senior All America candidate Jeff Fuller was lost early in the game to a concussion.

Junior Uzoma Nwachukwu stepped up in Fuller's absence with four catches for 74 yards before he too was injured.

Ryan Swope inexplicably dropped two passes. Swope may still be recovering from issues from the concussion he suffered against Oklahoma State. He was not his usual dependable self in this game.

Brandal Jackson and Kenric McNeal had one catch each, but we need the juniors to step up and be game breakers when they are given the chance.

The wide receivers did block well down the field during running plays.

Nwachukwu's performance saved this group's grade from being an F. The Aggies need their wide receivers to step up and be a dominant group on the field. 

Tight Ends: A

You could make an argument that Michael Lamothe was the player of the game. His extra effort on his touchdown reception in the fourth quarter personified the Aggies will to win in this game.

Lamothe finished the game with two catches for 14 yards and one touchdown.

Nehemiah Hicks had three receptions for 21 yards. Hicks is the type of athlete who should be part of the game plan every week. There is no reason for him to not see three-to-five passes every week. He is a match up nightmare for defensive coordinators.

The tight ends did their usual solid job blocking in the running game.

We have three good tight ends on this roster. They should all see at least one pass per game.

Offensive Line: A

The offensive line was strong in the running and passing games. The Aggies pounded out 205 yards on the ground for the game.

For some reason, the stat keepers at Tech decided that kneeling the ball to run the clock out equaled an 18 yard loss, which hurt the rushing statistics.

The Aggies did not allow a sack that I saw, but when you look at the statistics you see one next to Tech DE Scott Smith's name. There was a play where Tannehill was scrambling and Smith kicked the ball out of his hands and Tannehill had to jump on it at the line of scrimmage for no gain. Maybe in Lubbock that counts as a sack.

Jarvis Harrison started at left guard against Tech. Brian Thomas switched over from his usual left guard spot to right guard after Cedric Ogbuehi injured his foot and had to sit out. The OL did not skip a beat and played extremely well.

Defensive Line: B

The defensive line did a solid job against Tech.

Tony Jerod-Eddie had his first sack since the SMU game.

The DL was solid against the run and got consistent pressure on Tech QB Seth Doege.

The officials interesting interpretations of the holding penalty prevented the A&M DL from being more effective.

The DL was obviously gassed late in the game, but that is to be expected when you play 105 snaps.

Overall a solid, but not spectacular game.

Linebacker: D

Junior OLB Sean Porter is playing at an All Conference level and should receive some All American consideration. He added a sack against Tech to go along with seven tackles and a forced fumble.

Unfortunately, he was really the only bright spot from the linebackers.

The dearth of big plays from the ILB position is really holding the Aggies defense back. There were way too many missed tackles against the Tech running game.

Garrick Williams had eight tackles but none of them stood out as meaningful.

Jonathan Stewart had a good game by his usual standards. His best play was interfering with a Tech WR to prevent a sure touchdown.

Damontre Moore needs to become a difference maker for this team. He has the ability, but he just needs to put it all together on the field.

Secondary: D

There were no outrageous busts out there but you cannot be happy with giving up 391 yards passing.

It is amazing that on 66 pass attempts the Ags were not able to snag a single interception.

Coryell Judie was called for pass interference a couple of times, but I did not think either of them merited a penalty. The second call came after the PI call against Jonathan Stewart and was laughably bad.

The biggest bright spot from the secondary was the play of freshman safety Howard Matthews. He was outstanding in rushing the passer and finished the night with a sack, two tackles for loss and multiple quarterback hurries.

Matthews ability to cover ground also prevented the huge holes in the middle of the Aggies zone like you saw against Arkansas. He is a freshman. but physically looks like a linebacker already.

Matthews and Stephen Campbell should give the Aggies a very physical pair of safeties next year.

Special Teams: B

The Aggies struggled in kickoff coverage a bit. Randy Bullock fixed that by kicking the majority of the kickoffs out of the end zone.

Bullock was true on his only filed goal attempt from 45 yards. Bullock has had an outstanding year so far.

The biggest play of the game came from Dustin Harris who blocked a Tech FG attempt which Terrence Frederick returned for a touchdown.

That is the type of play that wins games and the type of play that has been missing during the Ags two game slide.

Steven Terrell gave a great example of the type of play that loses games when he was called for roughing the punter which gave Tech a first down and extended a drive that resulted in a field goal. That is the type of play that A&M has been making in the second half of the past three games and the type of play that needs to be eliminated.

Terrell was probably blocked into the punter, but he never should have been close in the first place. You cannot extend drives against good offenses and expect to win games.

Luckily for the Ags, Harris and Frederick made a game changing play and tilted the scales back in the Aggies favor.

Coaching: B

The bottom line is that the Aggies got a win on the road and that is all you can ask for.

There are still some issues with play calling.

I agree with going for the first down on 4th-and-1. I do not know why you call a QB sneak when Tech cannot stop your running backs and the zone read has been working all year long.

When you are up by two scores in the fourth quarter, and your defense is gassed from playing so many snaps, why are you running no-huddle while trying to run out the clock?

I saw one play where Tech completed a pass over the middle to the hole in the zone coverage that Arkansas exploited so prolifically last Saturday. Tim Deruyter must have made an adjustment, because I did not see another issue there for the rest of the game.

The coaches said they were going to play more younger players, and they unleashed Howard Matthews on Tech with tremendous results.

The Aggies won on the road in a hostile environment despite questionable officiating. They did not get too down on themselves after a two game losing streak.

The Aggies desperately needed a win and they got it. You have to give a thumbs up to Mike Sherman and all the coaches for that.