Texas A&M Football: Grading the Aggies Position by Postion vs. Baylor

Courtesy of Bleacher Report

By Michael Taglienti (Featured Columnist) on October 16, 2011 

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The No. 21 Texas A&M Aggies defeated the No. 24 Baylor Bears 55-28 at Kyle Field yesterday.
The Aggies improved their record to 4-2 on the year and 2-1 in the Big 12. The Bears fell to 4-2 and 1-2.
Once again the Aggie defense struggled but they made plays when they needed to and the Ags found a way to get a win at home.
The win was particularly gratifying for Aggie fans who were frustrated with Baylor's attempts to prevent A&M from joining the Southeastern Conference.
This is a position by position breakdown of how the Aggies performed against Baylor.

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Quarterback: A+

Ryan Tannehill completed 25 of 37 passes for 415 yards, six touchdowns and one interception. Tannehill also rushed five times for 55 yards.
The interception was a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage.
Tannehill was very effective on third and long. He completed multiple passes to extend drives. The Aggies did not punt the ball all day so obviously Tannehill ran the offense pretty well.
Tannehill made good decisions and took what the defense gave him.
For a guy who has struggled with the deep ball at times in his career he threw a great pass to a wide open Ryan Swope for a 68 yard touchdown.
He played as well as you can ask your quarterback to play.

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Running Back: A

Christine Michael rushed 21 times for 105 yards and a touchdown.
Cyrus Gray had 12 carries for 45 yards.
Ben Malena came in the last series of the game and had four carries for 33 yards. Malena really surprised me with the quickness he showed out there.
This is about what you would expect. Last week Gray had the hot hand but this week it was Michael. The Aggies have the best running back combo in the country.
It does not matter who gets the carries, both Michael and Gray are great back who will play on Sundays.

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Wide Receivers: A+

Junior wide receiver Ryan Swope had a career day with 11 catches for 206 yards and four touchdowns. The four touchdowns set an A&M record.
Uzoma Nwachukwu had his second strong game in a row with four catches for 94 yards and a touchdown.
Jeff Fuller continues to struggle with multiple injuries but caught five passes for 71 yards. Fuller had a great catch and run to gain 26 yards on a 3rd-and-long play in the second half. He may have had his best game of the season. He continues to fight the ball a little bit and had some drops but you have to be impressed by his toughness.
Malcome Kennedy had a huge 19-yard reception for his only catch of the game on a 3rd-and-long play. Kennedy got the first down for the Ags.
Time and again the wide receivers made big plays on third down to extend drives.

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Tight End: B

I do not think a single pass was thrown to the tight ends all game.
They did a great job blocking on the edge.
Just a workmanlike effort from this group.
Would really like to see the coaches get the tight ends involved more in the passing game particularly down the middle of the field.

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Offensive Line: A+

The Aggies gained 681 total yards on the day and scored 55 points. That pretty much sums it up.
This is the best offensive line I have ever seen wearing Aggies uniforms. I think that every single starter and some of the backups on this offensive line are going to get a chance to play in the NFL.
Jarvis Harris started at left guard again and did a very good job.
Luke Joeckel is the best left tackle in the league.
The Aggie OL did not allow a sack. They also only allowed three tackles for loss for a total of four lost yards for the game.
They are a dominating unit. The Aggies have a chance to beat any team they line up against because their OL can run block and pass protect against any D-line in the country.

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Defensive Line: A

Spencer Nealy got the first start of his career and responded with a monster game. He led all defenders with seven tackles and had 1.5 tackles for loss along with half a sack.
He twice forced Baylor QB Robert Griffin into Damontre Moore's arms for sacks.
The DL played well overall. It didn't show up on the stat sheet in tackles but they got consistent pressure on Griffin.
They allowed DC Tim Deruyter to only use a three-man line or a four-man line in the nickel and generated a pass rush without blitzing linebackers.
They had a very strong game against a great offense.

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Linebackers: B+

There was some improvement from this group.
Jonathan Stewart had a strong game.
Sean Porter continues to play at an All Conference level.
Damontre Moore played like most expected him to play coming into the season. He had 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Steven Jenkins made a couple of nice plays and had three tackles.
The LBs teamed up with the DL to limit Baylor to 1.6 yards per carry.
There were still too many missed tackles. They need to clean some things up.

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Secondary: D

The Ags had one blown coverage which resulted in a long touchdown reception for Baylor.
Coryell Judie was unable to make a tackle when one-on-one with Terrance Williams, which led to a long catch and run for a touchdown.
It is obvious that Judie is not himself. He simply does not have the acceleration he normally has. The hamstring injury is still bothering him.
Trent Hunter lost his man in the end zone which led to a touchdown.
On the bright side Dustin Harris made a great play for an interception to secure the game.
The secondary did come up big in the red zone.
Not what you are looking for but better than some of the past few games.

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Special Teams: B+

Kicker Randy Bullock continues his strong senior season. He was two for two on field goals and had four touchbacks on kickoffs.
The Ags did not punt the ball today.
They did allow a 49-yard kick return but the official missed a blatant block in the back on that play.
A solid day from the special teams. The Aggies do need to get more from their punt return game.

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Coaching: A

Really cannot complain too much about an offense that did not punt at all.
I thought Tim Deruyter had a good game plan, there were just some coverage busts.
The Aggies shut down the run and came up with some big stops on defense.
I would like to see the offense slow down the pace with a lead in the second half. No need to hurry it up when your OL is dominating.
Sherman did a good job of going for the throat with the pass when Phil Bennett started to stack the box.
The coaches came up with a game plan that led to a 27-point win so you have to be happy with that.