Sunday morning breakdown of what happened between Texas A&M and Notre Dame
Jeff Tarpley
This morning's writeup is going to be tactical and look backwards at last night. The afternoon one is going to be forward thinking and a strategic examination of the bigger picture.
On the surface, you can look at Texas A&M's game last night as a loss to a quality top ten team in a great atmosphere and state that it was primarily due to the team's quarterback play.
However, the Aggies gave up 198 yards on the ground at six yards a pop despite having seven tackles for loss. This occurred despite the fact that A&M's defensive front consisted of all four and five stars coming out of high school. In addition, they were facing an offensive line that had just six starts between them and was playing a freshman at left tackle because their most promising offensive lineman had been lost for the season early in fall camp.
When Notre Dame got the ball back with just over six minutes left, a Tyler White punt left them 85 yards from their own goal line. It was the perfect chance for the Aggies' defense to hold them, get the ball back, and give it to the offense in pretty good field position. That way, A&M wouldn't have to drive far and could turn the contest over to an experienced field goal kicker who had booted a 49 yarder already.
Instead, the unit surrendered five gains of at least nine yards and got the Irish in just one third down situation.
The path to A&M winning the game lay in the ability of its defense to dominate and make the Irish have to travel the length of the field in the most critical point of the contest with over 100,000 fans making an insane amount of noise.
They got what everyone wished for and couldn't come through.
QUARTERBACK
A&M's Conner Weigman had an NFL passer rating of 21.5. He couldn't drive the ball, or time throws to the outside even when he had backs covered by backers. He wasn't used in the running game and rarely took off on his own. Pressure from the right side resulted in troubles following through on throws to that side of the field but even when he got time, he seemed to be looking for the rush to come to him. Most of all, he held the ball too long and that allowed Notre Dame defenders to play A&M's routes to either pick the ball off or break throws up.
They didn't move him or use much gap blocking schemes (just a third of all plays run). They didn't move him around or use much play action. Once A&M's script to start the game ended they struggled the rest of the night to get much going.
RUNNING BACK
A&M's backs ran hard, with balance, and with good lean in the first half regardless of who was up front or what scheme (zone versus man) was being used. However, A&M ran more zone in the second half and there weren't any cutback lanes or frontside seams. They ran for 160 yards but just 3.8 yards per carry. Their longest run was 15 yards.
WIDEOUTS
Noah Thomas is supposed to be a future star, but he was targeted four times and had just one completion. Notre Dame's twitch at corner made it difficult for him to get separation but being lined up in the slot 80% of the time didn't pay off for him at all. However, his issues were shared by the rest of the group which couldn't create much spacing, and they had to also extend for throws that were off target.
TIGHT ENDS
Tre Watson (53 snaps) and Theo Melin Ohrstrom (21 snaps) split the work at tight end. There were few if any two tight end sets. They were a non-factor as blockers as they were unable to seal on plays to the outside or pull and generate any power at the point of contact.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Other than on a couple of scoring drives, the unit couldn't seal to the edge, couldn't pull and deliver blows on the move with any power, and their zone blocking was reminiscent of the 2023 unit (inability to turn their shoulders and hips into defenders to create any seams). Pass protection at right tackle was reminiscent of 2023 as well with three pressures surrendered. However, the left side of the group (which was supposed to be the best part of the lineup) gave up five pressures themselves. The group missed on initial contact and got pushed around even though the off season regimen was supposed to be more rigorous, they were bigger than last season, and unlike the Irish they played people with a combined total of over 50 starts.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Notre Dame ran plays away from Nic Scourton which limited his impact (one assisted tackle) although he did his best to chase plays down from the backside. They also chipped at him in pass protection. Shemar Turner played with push from the inside versus the run but playing head up on the center on passing downs limited what he could do. Shemar Stewart's length enabled him to keep blockers at bay and be a stack and shed player versus the run. Cassius Howell and Rylan Kennedy were noticeable coming off of the edge because they were often uncovered. They had two pressures each but they didn't really finish plays.
A&M's penchant for rushing up field to tie up blockers limited their ability to escape and make more of an impact than what they did. In addition, in the second half, they were stalemated or didn't play low enough when taking on blocks (both on zone runs as well as gap runs). They did keep Irish quarterback Riley Leonard contained in the pocket to an extent but they also gave him time to get the ball outside in one on one situations to sustain drives.
Stewart, Scourton, and Turner all graded out at a 68.8 or better overall per Pro Football Focus but the group needed to take advantage of a very inexperienced Irish front and that didn't happen. Leonard was able to distribute the ball, make the most of his moments as a runner, and not turn it over.
LINEBACKERS
Taurean York had nine tackles and Scooby Williams was the Aggies' highest graded run defender per PFF at 73.6. However, both also had their issues. York couldn't get stops near the line of scrimmage and committed too much and too fast inside which allowed the Irish multiple long runs. Williams missed two tackles and was hit or miss in terms of either getting there for no gain or allowing a long play. York was actually better in coverage with his ability to stay with his man and make stops as soon as the ball was caught for a short gain.
SECONDARY
A&M's secondary played a lot of two high looks after safety Dalton Brooks went out for targeting and that limited big plays in the passing game. However, A&M corners allowed some completions in man coverage along the boundaries that kept the sticks moving. Most importantly, playing their safeties 10 yards or more deep took them out of the running game. When they did come up, there were way too many missed tackles due to inadequate angles which allowed runners to maneuveroutside or cut back inside (11 missed tackles out of the group in all per PFF).
SPECIAL TEAMS
A&M punter Tyler White had a great debut with two kicks of over 60 yards that flipped the field but didn't end up making the impact they should have. Randy Bond had two field goals and Jared Zirkel had three touchbacks. However, Irish kicker Mitch Jeter had three field goals and his 46 yarder with 30 seconds left put the game away for good.
