The Day After: Texas A&M 54, Louisiana Monroe 14

Well, the Aggies didn't win 56-0 (see my previous post), but this was exactly what the team needed. They spanked a hapless Warhawk team, ironed their passing game somewhat, and got to rest the starters in preparation for the big Miami game Thursday.

Offense: A-
Yes, McGee passed for over 200 yards. Yes, Martellus Bennett had a big game, and Kerry Franks caught 5 balls to show that Aggie wide receivers can contribute in a game. But before we start to wet our pants about this, let's keep in mind that the Warhawks came into the game with one of the worst passing defenses in the country and had given up over 300 yards in their previous two games. I'll have to see how the passing game does against the Hurricanes before declaring it out of the woods.

But the running attack continued to be strong. McGee ran for only 18 yards on 4 carries, and we still piled up 310 yards. Goodson came back to tear up yardage, and the back-ups Tarrant and Johnson showed glimpses of a promising future. I guess I can't complain too much about it when the score is 54-14, but the one downer was that the J-Train was stalled for 34 yards (albeit two touchdowns). If this tailback tandem really is supposed be the second coming of Bush and White, they need to be both dominant on the same days.

Defense: B-
Nice improvement from the debacle last week against Fresno State. The second touchdown that was scored was when the subs were in and the score had already been long decided. I've harped on the A&M secondary throughout this blog, but they deserve props for coming up with two big interceptions and limiting the ULM passing game to 110 yards.

But, I'm still giving them a B- because in the first half the Warhawks were able to march the length of the field with some ease, and one of the drives resulted in a touchdown while the other two drives were stalled by interceptions. The defense also gave up up over 200 yards on the ground. Granted, the Warhawks are better at their running game than their aerial attack, but for crying out loud, this isn't the USC Trojans with their armada of Parade All-American running backs--this is freakin' ULM who haven't had a winning season since joining Division I in 1994.

Special Teams: A-
Dammit, writing about special teams bores the hell out of me unless they screw something up. In this case, they had no real chances to screw things up. Szymanski scored on a 45-yarder, the return men of Kerry Franks and Arkeith Brown had some nice kick-off returns, and the punting unit never had to come out because the Aggies scored on every possession but one. I'm giving them an A- because they didn't do anything spectacular.

Coaching: A
Even shocking myself, I'm giving Coach Franny and his staff a flat-out A. The Aggies obviously came with an agenda of fixing the passing game by taking over 30 attempts, and on top of meeting that objective, they tacked on 54 points. Fran was also able to take the starters out to avoid any freak injuries, and the team is as tuned up as it could be for Thursday's matchup.

Quick hits across the board:
-Both USC and LSU looked damn good last night. If they're able to somehow run through their brutal schedules undefeated (and that's a big if), it's going to be another one of those "game of the century" match-ups between those two. I think there's already been three in the last 15 years.

-Nick Saban sure as hell knows how to coach. Down 38-31 with two minutes left and facing fourth down, he goes for the field goal and trusts his defense to hold, which they did. Either he's an evil genius who sold his soul to Satan, or he's a damn lucky sonuvofabitch with big cajones. I'm going with both. By the way, why did McFadden skip the NFL last year? What, did he think the Hogs were going all the way this year? Isn't there a slight possibility that Houston Nutt drugged up McFadden one night and took incriminating pictures? Why aren't we investigating this?

-Noel Devine looks like the reincarnation of Barry Sanders. Why did he get only 5 carries when he was averaging 20+ per touch against Maryland? Oh yeah, cuz they also got Patrick White and Steve Slaton who also both play like videogame characters sprung to life. If WVU had a decent defense, they'd be right there with USC and LSU. On a completely unrelated note, why anyone would even want to step foot in the state of West Virginia is beyond me.

-What was up with Tebow's roommate kissing him on the neck after the Florida-Tennesse game? Whatever's going on between them is none of my business, but fellas, let's keep that in your room.

-Texas sucks and blows. UCF should have had them, just like Arkansas State in the opener. I'm torn between wanting to see TU upset versus wanting to see them keep escaping by so that we can spank them later in the year. Colt McCoy is over-rated.

-Speaking of over-rated, if you were to look it up in the dictionary, you'd see Jimmy Clausen. And next to it, it'd read, "see also Charlie Weis."

Stay tuned for posts on the Miami game throughout this week.