Texas A&M vs South Carolina Game Thread

[DKW 86 7,426]

Eating humble pie here, expected SCAR to have this in the bag. On the bright side, think aTm will hand Bama their backsides on a plate.

ditto...

[CameronCrazy 1,063]

Holy crap! SEC West just got even tougher...

[NoALtiger 3,865]

Kinda shows the wide gap between the East and West Divisions IMO.

[GTNupe11 2,034]

He threw the ball 60 times... o_O. That's how you break a new QB into his first start ever. Short to intermediate passes. They had a good game plan. Couple that with USCe's horrible defense and lethargic offense and this game was over before it even started.

[Strychnine 1,802]

I really do not understand how people expected South Carolina to have this in the bag. Sumlin is an Air Raid guy. He let Manziel do the things that only Manziel "could do", but the fundamentals of an Air Raid team with talent were there. That's what you saw on display tonight, as evidenced by South Carolina's complete inability to contain them. The ball was spread around, and South Carolina never had a point to home in on as a focal point to stop it.

[Dom1ni0n 51]

Eating humble pie here, expected SCAR to have this in the bag. On the bright side, think aTm will hand Bama their backsides on a plate.

ditto...

Make that a triple, please.

[AUbritt 611]

WOW!!! aTm...WOW!!!

[Dom1ni0n 51]

I really do not understand how people expected South Carolina to have this in the bag. Sumlin is an Air Raid guy. He let Manziel do the things that only Manziel "could do", but the fundamentals of an Air Raid team with talent were there. That's what you saw on display tonight, as evidenced by South Carolina's complete inability to contain them. The ball was spread around, and South Carolina never had a point to home in on as a focal point to stop it.

For me, primarily with the talent and experience the roosters returned.

Consider the other factors many felt would be unfavorable for aTm.

Manziel, Evans & co. amassed a lot of offense the last two seasons, that was a huge percentage of offensive production lost. No one expected unknown upstarts to lamblaste SC at home.

[autigerfan73 0]

I wonder if that furniture company is going to keep it's word now since A&M won by more than 10

[Tigermike 3,035]

SC has a lot of improving to do on D it they want to have another ten win season. I hope AU doesn't have the big head and come out and lay an egg like that.

[Strychnine 1,802]

Manziel, Evans & co. amassed a lot of offense the last two seasons, that was a huge percentage of offensive production lost. No one expected unknown upstarts to lamblaste SC at home.

I always felt that Manziel and Evans were an understatement of A&M's offense, and more specifically the goals of an Air Raid offense. The Air Raid does not necessarily operate in terms of "go-to player", it seeks to spread the ball across multiple receivers and backs. Sumlin recognized a good thing when he saw it and let Manziel/Evans do their thing, but the Air Raid backbone was still there and it is HIS thing. Mike Leach has outlined the theory behind it on a few occasions, and it makes for interesting reading.

What surprised me more in the game was the effort of A&M's defense through most of the game. South Carolina had their moments, but A&M kept them largely in check. I was not on the South Carolina bandwagon heading into this season, and I certainly saw nothing to be impressed with in their opening game. They are extremely beatable, and A&M illustrated it. A&M is quite beatable too.

[Ber798297 241]

I wasn't able to see the first half and could only peek at the second half in between helping my kindergartner with homework, getting my kids to bed and discussing buying a car with the hubby. So my question is, was aTm that good, or was South Carolina that bad? The little bit I watch I felt like I was watching Auburn in 2012...

[AU64 10,122]

I wasn't able to see the first half and could only peek at the second half in between helping my kindergartner with homework, getting my kids to bed and discussing buying a car with the hubby. So my question is, was aTm that good, or was South Carolina that bad? The little bit I watch I felt like I was watching Auburn in 2012...

You have your priorities right...and did not miss much tonight....and yes....TAMU seems to be that good....and also yes, the USCe defense is probably the worst it's been in quite a while....maybe since the SEC championship game when Cam carved them up.

Sleep well.

[banditmwp 712]

tOBC hasn't been spanked that hard since the 2010 SECCG...

[caleb1633 1,418]

While A&M was impressive tonight and put up gaudy numbers, I have a hard time pushing "I believe" on air-raid offenses being capable of winning consistently. You have to be able to run the ball and play defense. Air-raid is a high risk-high reward system. Sometimes you see what happened tonight, other times it can be ugly.

[banditmwp 712]

While A&M was impressive tonight and put up gaudy numbers, I have a hard time pushing "I believe" on air-raid offenses being capable of winning consistently. You have to be able to run the ball and play defense. Air-raid is a high risk-high reward system. Sometimes you see what happened tonight, other times it can be ugly.

And when you go up against an all new defensive scheme, with an all new cast and crew, it DOES tend to skew results. I'm not sure aTm is THAT good, but they are definitely not hurting from Little Mr. Entitilement's NFL departure.

[Strychnine 1,802]

While A&M was impressive tonight and put up gaudy numbers, I have a hard time pushing "I believe" on air-raid offenses being capable of winning consistently. You have to be able to run the ball and play defense. Air-raid is a high risk-high reward system. Sometimes you see what happened tonight, other times it can be ugly.

And when you go up against an all new defensive scheme, with an all new cast and crew, it DOES tend to skew results. I'm not sure aTm is THAT good, but they are definitely not hurting from Little Mr. Entitilement's NFL departure.

I do not necessarily disagree, and I do not think A&M is THAT good. However, I do think they outplayed South Carolina convincingly enough in their season opener. I saw enough to expect another shootout when we face them. I also saw enough to think we will be in good shape if we keep the pace up against South Carolina.

[Dom1ni0n 51]

Manziel, Evans & co. amassed a lot of offense the last two seasons, that was a huge percentage of offensive production lost. No one expected unknown upstarts to lamblaste SC at home.

I always felt that Manziel and Evans were an understatement of A&M's offense, and more specifically the goals of an Air Raid offense. The Air Raid does not necessarily operate in terms of "go-to player", it seeks to spread the ball across multiple receivers and backs. Sumlin recognized a good thing when he saw it and let Manziel/Evans do their thing, but the Air Raid backbone was still there and it is HIS thing. Mike Leach has outlined the theory behind it on a few occasions, and it makes for interesting reading.

What surprised me more in the game was the effort of A&M's defense through most of the game. South Carolina had their moments, but A&M kept them largely in check. I was not on the South Carolina bandwagon heading into this season, and I certainly saw nothing to be impressed with in their opening game. They are extremely beatable, and A&M illustrated it. A&M is quite beatable too.

Agree that SC doesn't appear as formidable as originally projected. aTm's Air Rad was impressive, and showed improvement on defense, but still unsure how they will fare over the long haul. That scheme will undoubtedly give opposing secondaries a workout on Saturdays.

[wdefromtx 3,159]

I wonder if that furniture company is going to keep it's word now since A&M won by more than 10

Their insurance carrier who wrote the policy is not going to be happy.

[Strychnine 1,802]

Agree that SC doesn't appear as formidable as originally projected. aTm's Air Rad was impressive, and showed improvement on defense, but still unsure how they will fare over the long haul. That scheme will undoubtedly give opposing secondaries a workout on Saturdays.

Interesting thing about A&M is that their next opponent of any consequence is the one we open with on Saturday, and perhaps that will give us more to work with in terms of how they might match up against us. In the meantime, A&M is no less a team to take for granted than they were last year, and that is what I expected. I was not sold on South Carolina last year, and I didn't see much to justify a preseason top 10 this year for them without Shaw and Clowney. I'm not saying that I thought they were terrible, as they clearly weren't, just that I actually thought they had more to prove than A&M did.

[AUTUmike 79]

TAMU ran the ball 39 times and passed 60 times. They had a lot of success through the air, but they're still going run it quite a bit this year. True Air-Raid offenses pass more than 60% of the time (I'm aware % isn't the only characteristic of the Air-Raid). For example, Wazzou had a 56-14 pass-to-rush split tonight and they run the Air-Raid in its purest form.

[DKW 86 7,426]

Back to what Strychnine said:

TAMU hit 12 different receivers if i heard right on the SECN. 12!

That is throwing the ball around. That is Offensive execution on the highest level. The TAMU Receivers ran great basic routs, and the SCAR DBs were giving them room all night.

The SCAR D was winded late in the 3rd Quarter if you listened all game to the play by play folks.

SCAR looked completely helpless on D. Lorenzo Ward may be gone by mid-season if they dont get it under control and fast.

TAMU is thriving now with Sumlin. They are going to sell tickets, make money, and be a STRONG part of the SEC West.

I was watching Sumlin as a OC at OU back several years ago. He has coached for Mike Price, Dennis Erickson, Bob Stoops.

When he was OC at OU, he averaged 40+ PPG and was the engineer of some epic beatdowns of Big 12 Opponents.

If anything, i welcome him to the SEC. It is going to be high wire excitement for the foreseeable future with him around.

[AU64 10,122]

Agree that SC doesn't appear as formidable as originally projected. aTm's Air Rad was impressive, and showed improvement on defense, but still unsure how they will fare over the long haul. That scheme will undoubtedly give opposing secondaries a workout on Saturdays.

Interesting thing about A&M is that their next opponent of any consequence is the one we open with on Saturday, and perhaps that will give us more to work with in terms of how they might match up against us. In the meantime, A&M is no less a team to take for granted than they were last year, and that is what I expected. I was not sold on South Carolina last year, and I didn't see much to justify a preseason top 10 this year for them without Shaw and Clowney. I'm not saying that I thought they were terrible, as they clearly weren't, just that I actually thought they had more to prove than A&M did.

Just another case where the "experts" ignored the losses from a moderately good USCe team...and voted for the coach when ranking them as high as they did. The USCe QB just did not measure up and with Davis gone right away, the 'cocks had very little offense and could not keep the aggie offense off the field.

[around4ever 4,139]

I think most people have underestimated the coaching abilities of Coach Sumlin.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Just another case where the "experts" ignored the losses from a moderately good USCe team...and voted for the coach when ranking them as high as they did. The USCe QB just did not measure up and with Davis gone right away, the 'cocks had very little offense and could not keep the aggie offense off the field.

I felt Dylan Thompson played pretty well, actually. Well enough to win. He had 2 TDs and 100 yards worth of passing dropped, and still finished with 366 and 4 TDs. But without Mike Davis, their run game was just average. And, well, we saw that defense.

I think most people have underestimated the coaching abilities of Coach Sumlin.

And I just don't know why. We need to look at OU's offense when he was there, or the fact that he's coached 3 heisman winning QBs (and that doesn't even count Drew Bledsoe). The guy is an offensive genius and really handles himself well. I've been a Sumlin fan since I first heard him doing the interview circuit when they came into the league. I think he was as happy for the non-Manziel era for him to start as the rest of us. He was ready to show everyone what his system can do.

A&M is good, but their defense still has a number of holes. SC could have easily had 42 last night, even being entirely 1 dimensional. A balanced attack vs that defense will be effective, and also keep that offense of theirs off the field.