The Day After: The Aggie Report Card vs. Fresno State

Now that the euphoria of squeaking by Fresno State is over, it's time to grade the Aggies on what should have been a blowout after the first half.

Offense: B-
Pounding out close to 400 yards against a Fresno State defense that limited its previous opponent to 100 yards wasn't bad, but the Bulldogs previous opponent was Sacramento State. Like I said yesterday, Stephen McGee and Jorvorskie Lane were absolute studs when it came to running the ball; towards the end of the game the Bulldogs knew that the Aggies had abandoned their paltry passing game outright, but they still couldn't stop the Aggies rushing attack. McGee is a badass, and he deserves more national press than he receives. The slight downer in the running game was that Michael Goodson got a decent set of carries and managed only 70 yards. Hopefully that was a one game setback, but if Goodson is going to live up to preseason hype as one of the premier running backs in the next wave of young backs, he needs to start tearing up yardage when he gets 20+ carries.

Speaking of the Aggies abandoning the passing game, I take that back--the Aggies had no passing attack to abandon. You know you've got no vertical game when your top receiver caught 40% of the passes (5 receptions) for a measly 35 yards, and he also happens to be your tight end. Considering that Martellus Bennett was the number one recruited tight end out of high school and was elected by ESPN to its pre-season All-American team, he's done jack squat in the first two games. He's got the height, the strength, and the speed to be a premier tight end, and he needs to start living up the hype.

But even Benett's numbers were Randy Moss-like compared to the Aggie receiving corp. It's not just that they combined for just 40 some yards between them, it's that they were constantly unable to get open. Time after time McGee had to throw the ball away even after receiving decent pass protection. And when they did get open, there were a couple of dropped balls that should have been caught. I'm not looking for the Aggies to become Texas Tech overnight, but we just need the possibility of a vertical threat to relieve some pressure off the running game.

Defense: D
Am I being too harsh on a defense that dominated in the first half? No, and it's because Fresno State absolutely torched the defense in the second half and the overtime periods. What was frustrating was that they weren't running anything fancy. Their running back Matthews repeatedly ran up the middle for 5 yard gains and made me want to gouge my eyes out. It's one thing for a school that produced the likes of David Carr to gains some yardage in the aerial game, but it's another thing for school from traditionally pass-happy WAC conference to shove the running game up the middle to us.

With their running game going, their QB got into a rhythm and burned the secondary as well. Our secondary looks as if it's taken a step back from last season, and they weren't exactly Wrecking Crew caliber either. After two games of getting lit up by decent but non Top 25 teams in the passing game, you have to wonder how the corners are going to hold up when the Aggies face the likes of Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and TU in the second half of the season. But you have to spread the blame as well to the defensive front, as there was little pressure put on the QB in the second half. There's been a lot of talk of new defensive coordinator Gary Darnell's 4-2-5 scheme, but so far I've yet to be impressed. Until we start putting some pressure on the quarterback and shutting down passing games, the Wrecking Crew is a long gone memory.

Special Teams: C
Give credit to our field goal kicker to Matt Symanski to recover two missed field goals to kick a huge one in overtime. But if he hadn't missed the first two field goals, it might have been a different game to begin with. Our punter and return guys did nothing special worth mentioning.

Coaching: C-
The coaching won't get anything higher than a C anytime the Aggies are at Kyle Field playing against a team that we should be beat and somehow squander a 19 point lead. Period, end of discussion. Give Franchione credit though for realizing in the fourth quarter that the Aggies passing attack was asstastic and resorting straight to the running game. His best call of the game was actually challenging the officials in overtime to get the 1 yard botched call overtime. But all of this is wiped out by the big picture fact that Aggies underachieved yet again against a team that they should have handily beat.

This was one of those games in which if you're an Aggie fan, you're screaming at the top of your lungs with joy on Saturday for escaping a game in which we should have lost, but the next morning you wake up pissed because it should have never been this close. Bottom line is that this Aggie team needs to wake up against Louisiana Monroe next week before heading out to Miami.