2011 Texas Bowl: Grading the Texas A&M Win Against Northwestern

By Michael Taglienti

 (Featured Columnist) on December 31, 2011

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The Texas A&M Football Team defeated the Northwestern Wildcats 33-22 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas at Reliant Stadium.

The Aggies played their last official game as a member of the Big 12 Conference. The Ags showed they belonged in their new conference as they continued the Southeastern Conference tradition of beating Big Ten teams in bowl games.

The bowl win was the first for the Aggies in 10 years and extended a Northwestern losing streak in bowl games to 63 years.

The Aggie seniors ended their careers on a high note and honored their fallen teammate Joseph Villavisencio and their former coach Mike Sherman.

This is a position by position breakdown of how the Aggies performed against Northwestern.

Quarterback: A-

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Ryan Tannehill earned bowl MVP honors by completing 27 of 40 passes for 329 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

The senior finished out his career in an Aggie uniform in style by helping the Ags to a win.

The interception was an under thrown ball by Tannehill in the fourth quarter. Other than that throw he had a very solid game. He made a great pass  to Jeff Fuller on 3rd-and-6 late in the fourth quarter to put the game away. 

Too often this season the Ags have not been able to come up with the play to win the game. In this game Tannehill took a chance and threw it deep to Fuller who made a great play on the ball.

Tannehill finishes the 2011 season with a school-record 3,744 yards.

Running Back: C+

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Ben Malena had a solid workmanlike performance with 77 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 36 yards.

The Wildcats stuffed the box and dared the Aggies to pass. I was somewhat surprised that A&M did not run more play action.

Malena ran hard against the eight man fronts and ground out his yardage. Aggie fans are going to have to accept that he is a grinding running back who will give you a viable ground option but is not special like Cyrus Gray or Christine Michael.

He had a solid game and had two runs on screen plays.

Malena still needs to work on hitting the hold harder and selecting the right holes to run into. He needs another year in the weight room to add some speed.

Wide Receivers: B+

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The Aggie wide receivers had a couple of drops early but came on as the game went on. Fuller won the game with his 29 yard reception on 3rd-and-6 with less than three minutes remaining in the game.

Uzoma Nwachukwu also had a big 21 yard catch on that drive.

Ryan Swope led the Aggies with eight catches for 105 yards.

Fuller had seven catches for 119 yards and one touchdown.

Nwchukwu had five receptions for 67 yards. 

The wide receivers were not perfect but they stepped up and made plays at the end of the game to put the game away.

Tight Ends: C

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Can honestly say that I did not notice the tight ends on the field today.Some of that is their fault and some of that is the coaches fault.

Against a team running an eight man front most of the games, the coaches should have called some passes to the tight ends over the middle and behind the linebackers. That should have been some easy yardage for the Aggies.

Instead they only threw one pass to the tight end all day and it was a sideline route.

Hutson Prioleau had one reception for two yards and then went out of bounds at a time when the Ags were trying to run the clock.

It was a forgettable day for the Aggie tight ends.

Offensive Line: C+

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The offensive line was very good in pass protection but was not very good in run blocking.

Northwestern entered the game allowing 4.6 yards per rush. The Aggies only rushed for 3.0 yards per carry for the game. They struggled to move the ball against the Wildcats' eight man front.

The pass protection was very good. The Ags allowed one sack but that was a case where H-back Michael Lamothe and RB Ben Malena both missed their blocks in the backfield.

The offensive line featured a couple of backups who do not normally see the field. Evan Eike and Danny Baker both saw extensive action. Baker wore Joe Villavisencio's number 67 during the game.

Defensive Line: A

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The Aggie defensive line did a very good job against the run Northwestern only 1.4 yards per carry.

Tony Jerod-Eddie and Ben Bass each had sacks. Spencer Nealy had half a tackle for loss.

The defensive line did a good job of getting pressure on Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa although they did struggle with tackling.

At times they were overpowered but overall they played a very good game. The seniors stepped up and played the way you would expect seniors to play in their last game.

Linebackers: B

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This grade would have been an "A" if the linebackers had tackled better. Northwestern's backup QB Kain Colter was more explosive and stronger than anyone thought. Some of the missed tackles were due to Colter's ability and some were due to sloppy play after a one month layoff.

Jonathan Stewart had a great game with nine tackles and a sack.

Steven Jenkins had nine tackles and broke up a pass.

Sean Porter was his usual brilliant self with six tackles, a sack and a pass broken up on a trick play.

Damontre Moore had nine tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss.

All four of the starting linebackers had good games and all return for the 2012 season which bodes well for the defense.

Defensive Backs: D

The Aggies lose three members of their secondary to graduation. That may be a good thing as the secondary as a whole was not very good in 2011.Coryell Judie broke his wrist on a tackle in the first quarter and missed the rest of the game. Frustrating end to a frustrating season for the senior. Aggies will have to wait to watch him play on Sundays.

Lionel Smith still has not learned to turn around and look for the ball when in coverage. He was called for a pass interference once again. 

Dustin Harris was called for pass interference on a play that was simply good physical defense. He had one pass breakup on the day.

Terrence Frederick had a nice game with three tackles for loss, two sacks and a pass break up.

Trent Hunter had seven tackles and a sack.

The secondary has to improve next year if the defense is going to stop anyone in the SEC.

Special Teams: A-

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Randy Bullock was perfect on three field goal attempts and three extra points.

Steven Terrell recovered an attempted onside kick.

Dustin Harris had a long punt return to give the Aggies great field position.

The special teams were very good save that one punt return that they gave up.

Coaching: A

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Boages

The coaches get an "A" because they won the bowl game which has not happened at A&M in a decade.There were a lot of issues with how this game was called though on both sides of the ball. 

The Ags played out of the nickel as a base defense. This prevented Damontre Moore and Sean Porter from having a bigger impact on the game.

On offense the play calling was too conservative. It is a bowl game and there is nothing with calling a trick play.

The Ags refused to run play action pass despite the Wildcat linebackers sitting on the run all day.

This is a team that found a way to lose a lot of games this year and in this game they made the plays to win so the coaches deserve credit for that
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