Shutout still leaves questions on offense
COLLEGE STATION — For much of its four quarters, this one looked like Vanderbilt 2020 all over again for Texas A&M, which early on Saturday had trouble putting away Sam Houston in the teams’ season opener.
A&M fans hope the results are similar for the season as well, following the Aggies’ overall odd shutout of the Bearkats. Odd because the game featured a more than three-hour halftime, considering it entered an extended lightning delay just as halftime was nearly over.
Two years ago, the Aggies barely beat Vanderbilt 17-12 in their opener, then wound up 9-1 and ranked fourth in the pandemic-shortened season. A handful of observations from A&M’s 13th victory over Sam Houston in 13 tries:
The simmer
On the surface, A&M appeared to play poorly against the Bearkats, but that stemmed from leading Sam Houston 10-0 with less than a minute remaining to halftime. Then Haynes King connected with Ainias Smith for a 63-yard touchdown pass just before the break, and the outcome never seemed in doubt the rest of the way.
Once the final score simmered a bit, too, the Aggies’ defensive effort behind first-year coordinator D.J. Durkin really stood out as A&M pitched its first shutout in an opener since 1993 and its first under fifth-year coach Jimbo Fisher.
The Aggies were dominant on defense, holding Sam Houston to 10 first downs and less than 200 yards of total offense. Things get much tougher next weekend, when A&M hosts Appalachian State, which lost 63-61 to North Carolina on Saturday. The Mountaineers scored 40 points against the Tar Heels in the fourth quarter alone.
(No) run game
Let’s toss out the window any Heisman Trophy hype for new featured running back Devon Achane. Achane, who averaged 7 yards per carry last season, could not find any wiggle room against an undersized Sam Houston front seven, and that’s troubling for the Aggies.
Achane rushed for 41 yards on 18 carries, averaging 2.3 yards per carry. It would have been hard to envision those numbers for the former Orange Bowl MVP, a guy who rushed for 140 yards on only a dozen carries as a true freshman against North Carolina in the 2020 postseason.
Fisher said Sam Houston twisted and looped up front, but that shouldn’t have prevented Achane from eventually overpowering the Bearkats. He did not — and neither did a suspect offensive line.
O-line ills
The Aggies will need to get better on the line in a big hurry, with No. 16 Miami coming to town Sept. 17. Once Bryce Foster returns from injury or illness or whatever is sidelining him to date, he might be a candidate to play guard opposite Layden Robinson.
New starting center Matthew Wykoff improved as Saturday’s game wore on, but the fact the Aggies failed to impress their will upon Sam Houston’s defense should indeed be disconcerting for the nation’s sixthranked team.
There are no easy answers here, and the Miami and Arkansas games (on Sept. 24 in Arlington) are shaping up as rugged ones for A&M. And that’s before the Aggies hit the road to Mississippi State and Alabama.
Where to from here?
There were a lot of questions about A&M’s direction after the Aggies struggled in the opener against Vanderbilt two years ago, and they quickly got their act together en route to their highest finish since winning the national title in 1939.
A&M fans can only hope for the same here, because overall, A&M looked absolutely ordinary — including quarterback Haynes King and his two interceptions — for much of four quarters against a program that should have been overwhelmed at Kyle Field but clearly was not.
Appalachian State awaits and likely will provide a much stiffer test than Sam Houston.