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The Aggies controlled the game throughout, as they should have, and beat the Cowboys a whole lot worse than the 52-10 score indicated. A&M started pulling its starters before halftime and played most of the second half with third-stringers on defense and backups across the board on offense.

The biggest question going into Saturday was whether Conner Weigman would be able to shake off his horrible performance against Notre Dame and look close to what we expected to coming into the season. And, for the most part, he did. Mike Elko said his footwork was “fantastic” and that he (Weigman) did wanted the coaches wanted him to. There was “one play” Elko mentioned that Weigman probably would want to have back, and I think I know what that was — he had two deep crossers who would have come open for touchdowns early in the second quarter.

Overall, Weigman was 11-14 for 125 yards, 2 touchdowns and had two drops, one of which would have been a score. I think that both Weigman and Marcel Reed were told that, if there were any questions, pull it down and run. Weigman had 4 carries for 39 yards and was pretty spiffy a couple of times. He was definitely better. He may have taken off and run a little early, or he may have missed a couple of guys. But his passes were on target, had good zip and you can’t ask for much more than that.

I liked what I saw as the game went on as they got away from more of the long, drawn out routes and started looking like a Collin Klein offense. Better RPOs, quick passes, throwing to balls to guys coming out of the backfield.

Reed showed some really good things, but also showed why he’s not there yet. He was 5-11 for 71 yards and put some balls right on the money. He also missed a few as well. He also had 7 carries for 43 yards. The talent is there in abundance; it’s a matter of consistency.

Le’Veon Moss had 84 yards on 9 carries and set the tone for the game right off the bat. He had 52 yards on the first drive and just ran over, around or through McNeese defenders. Then Amari Daniels came in and the offense hardly skipped a beat, with 75 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. By the middle of the third quarter, both guys were out of the game or they could have put up a lot more yardage.

The Aggies got a lot of receivers and tight ends in the game today. Nine total guys caught passes today. Jahdae Walker came out early, or it probably would have been 10. Cyrus Allen showed why A&M wanted him, with 5 catches for 72 yards. Noah Thomas continues to be Weigman’s security blanket, catching a 15-yard touchdown on a lob route. Moose Muhammad was Moose, with a 20 yard catch and run, a 3-yard touchdown catch — and a personal foul for losing his cool. He was lucky he wasn’t ejected, and I’m kind of surprised he came back in.

I still want Tre Watson to get the ball more. He had nice catch for a first down, but only got three targets. He can be a weapon. But the number of guys who got their first career (or A&M) reception was pretty remarkable: Theo Ohrstrom, Izaiah Williams, Ashton Bethel-Roman, Josh Bostick and Shane Calhoun. It’s great that they got a lot of guys involved, and they were up to the challenge.

Ok, we know what Terry Bussey can do now. But they’re going to have to find ways to get him the ball besides the jet sweep. Notre Dame knew what they were going to do, and you can bet Florida is waiting for it next week. If you get him the ball through the air, then that’ll open things up for those runs.

The offensive line absolutely dominated McNeese’s defensive front. A&M averaged 8.8 yards a carry, allowed 1 tackle for loss and didn’t come close to giving up a sack. They set the tempo right off the bat, basically shoving the ball down McNeese’s throat on their first three possessions. They got a bunch of guys in the game, and all of them performed well. The line has come a long way from Steve Addazio’s train wreck already, but Florida will definitely be a tougher test than what they dealt with today. =

The Aggies put up 529 yards of total offense today and didn’t punt. They had 333 yards on the ground. I think that qualifies as a manhandling.

The defense did what it wanted to today. They did nothing exotic, everything was simple and they still took a shutout into the fourth quarter while playing third- and fourth-stringers. The numbers that showed the real defense were up at halftime: 76 total yards, no points, two turnovers.

The goal today was just to go out and physically beat the Cowboys offense, and they did that well into the fourth quarter. A total of 32 players made tackles today, and player 33, Will Lee, picked off a pass. They were pretty dominant.

The Aggies needed something from Solomon DeShields today, and they got more than “something”. He was excellent. He was in the right place at the right time, and forced an interception with a hit of quarterback Kamden Sixkiller. The defensive tackle group went six deep, and everyone made plays.

Sixkiller isn’t good, but the Aggie defense made him look extremely bad. McNeese didn’t get over 100 yards passing for the game, ending up on 99 on 21 pass attempts. The Aggies didn’t get any sacks, but Sixkiller was under pretty consistent pressure.

Interestingly enough, A&M’s top three tacklers were freshmen: linebackers Jordan Lockhart and Tristan Jernigan and safety Myles Davis. Lockhart and Jernigan played most of the second half as Taurean York and Daymion Sanford (as well as DeShields) got to watch.

It’s hard to say which defenders did well and which did badly because A&M just dominated in all aspects while the starters were out there. When they were, McNeese had a long play of 26 yards. They didn’t have a completion for more than 16 all day. They were just flat outmatched.

Randy Bond hit his field goal attempt and all his extra points. A&M didn’t punt. The 12th Man kickoff team did their job well. There’s not much else to say on special teams.

It would have been really easy to come out flat or discouraged against a team like McNeese and not look especially good. Mike Elko and his staff did a good job of getting the Aggies ready to go, and they scored every time the starters touched the ball. The only time they didn’t score, period, was when they had a drop on 4th and goal on the 2. That’s absolute domination. We got to see a little bit more of the Klein offense, and hopefully they’ll be ready to really turn it lose next weekend.

Defensively, it was no frills, vanilla line up and bash their skulls in. They got a pair of turnovers that led to touchdowns, and that’s what you want. Then both the offense and the defense got their starters off the field and let the reserves get a lot of work, something we haven’t always seen in games like this. Elko had a plan and stuck to it. And it worked.