Scouting Report. (Texas A&M, 10/10)

Previous Week Opening:

Spread -17.5 | +17.5
Money Line -1,000 | +650
Over/Under 57

This week vs. A&M:

Spread -6.5 | +6.5
Money Line -240 | +200
Over/Under 57.5

Miscellaneous Notes: Texas A&M is a very strange team in general. From their campus, male cheerleaders, all the way down to how they play football every year. I have a bad feeling about the game, if I'm being honest.

Texas A&M Offense: Again, they seem to have this weird up and down existence. Against Vanderbilt, they had 372 yards and against Alabama they had 450, including 300 yards of passing. Against Vanderbilt, they managed to move the ball somewhat but had trouble scoring. This is a theme with them, since the only points they mustered up in the first half against Alabama were from a freak play (sideline tightrope) and a lucky tip that was intercepted and returned to the red zone.

Quarterback Kellen Mond (4/1, 507 yards, lots of fumbles, like five): The good news is that Kellen Mond is a one-read Quarterback through and through. Hilariously, I was watching the game and saw someone read the defense and I was about to change my notes until I noticed it was the backup.

Mond is an okay Quarterback throwing, a good runner and so of course, Jimbo uses him as a passer. He can't really read coverage, and is only waiting for his first receiver to come open and while there are a lot of drops...I think Mond is the reason for the drops. His passes aren't crisp, they're not where they should be more often than not.

I would be really worried about this game if Mond ran more often. He has 37 yards on 15 attempts for 2.5 yards a rush. For the record, Trask has 2.7 yards a rush, to illustrate how little I'm afraid of Mond running.

Offensive Line: Uh oh. They're above average, for sure. In both facets of rushing and passing, they are actually pretty good. The good news is that Mond will throw to his first read if he's open or not, so he...really wastes the talent around him on the offensive line. They will definitely be able to run against us, they are well coached. Hopefully we can jump out early and force them to pass.

Skill Positions: They're good as well, they have the players to make plays and are decent enough to give us a problem. No one is really "elite" outside of their TE (but not Pitts elite, don't get it twisted) but again, there's no one to really consistently deliver the ball.

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Texas A&M Defense: They are just flat out bad at stopping the pass. Alabama's Quarterback had time and they easily passed for 435 yards. However, their rush defense is actually very good. They were beat deep consistently, I think we will be able to pass against them pretty well. The big thing to note is that Vanderbilt (albeit without the yards to show) and Alabama both had very high completion percentages.

Defensive Line: Very good at rush defense, poor at getting to the Quarterback. They are decent, but again not great. (This is a trend with them.)

Linebackers: This is the second week in a row where linebackers are the worst position on the defense. These guys can't cover, they are bad in run support and don't tackle well. It's likely that we'll see a lot of Nickel and Dime defense this weekend.

Defensive Backs: Poor technique, severely blown assignments but they can at least tackle. Tons of catches over their heads, out of position, never looking for the ball...this might actually be the worst position on their defense. It is 100% a Big XII style defense.

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Conclusion: I think if we protect the ball, we will get lucky with Mond who is prone to turning it over. However, I think this is going to be a high scoring game. I edited a few things on the last report (but not the score) and guessed that we would win by 14 points.

This week, I think we win a shootout by 10. We go up by 17 late, they score a touchdown late and the game ends with us in the victory formation.

I hope. If we end up with the turnovers, we'll likely lose the game.