The numbers that tell the tale of the Ags’ blowout win over the Cowboys
McNeese needed to be a get-right game for Texas A&M, and that’s exactly what the Aggies got, pulling the starters after going up 38-0 before halftime and cruising to a comfortable 52-10 win Saturday afternoon at Kyle Field.
Here are the stats that best illustrate how the game played out, and what we should take away from it.
Salient Stats
0: Punts from Tyler White/turnovers by the A&M offense. If you’re complaining about the offense: Why? The Aggies scored a TD on every Conner Weigman drive, and scored on every drive except for their final one that ended with a 4th and Goal incompletion.
0: Major injuries (that we know of). Jahdae Walker left the game with a hand injury, but Mike Elko made it seem like holding him out the rest of the game was precautionary. RB E.J. Smith and LB Scooby Williams did not dress out, but it also seemed like they could return next week. Add in the fact that WR Jabre Barber dressed out this week, and A&M seems to enter SEC play next week relatively healthy.
8.8: Yards per rushing attempt. One week after A&M struggled mightily on the ground, it was good to see them dominate from the start with the rushing game, regardless of opponent. It felt like one of those games where it looked like the Aggies could have not passed at all if they’d wanted to, and it’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.
15: Players with a rushing attempt/reception: With the backups playing the entirety of the second half, this is to be expected. But we’ve seen plenty of A&M teams need the starters to play well into the third or even fourth quarters of these types of games, so it was great to see the reserves get some game reps.
78.6%: Completion percentage for Conner Weigman. Today was less about what the final stat sheet looked like and more about what Conner looked like while in the game. But a week after completing just 40% of his passes against Notre Dame, it was nice to see him nearly double that percentage, even if it is against McNeese. Overall, he looked poised, hit his targets and made good decisions, both with where to throw the football and when to tuck it and run.
99: Passing yards allowed. Even for a run-first team like McNeese, holding a team under the century mark through the air is an achievement. Add in Cowboys’ paltry 4.7 yards per attempt and two interceptions, and it was a fantastic day for this re-worked Aggie secondary.
948: Miles from College Station to Gainesvile, FL. Now we move on to SEC play, and next week at Florida will really start to define this team and what kind of season they could have.