Sunday morning breakdown: Why A&M couldn't blitz Ole Miss

Texas A&M’s has had two Achilles heels this season (which fittingly enough is one for each foot): the offensive line and the secondary. The line has been the most persistent of the two but just when that aspect of the team elevated its game yesterday the secondary was problematic again.

The Aggies have really depended on a couple of items to cover up their coverage issues. First off, they’ve been a big time blitzing team since the Miami game when they blitzed Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke on 34.4% of all drop backs per Pro Football Focus. Since then, they’ve generally blitzed at 50% of the time in most games and had contests when they blitzed about two thirds of the time. It’s accentuated the effectiveness of their talented defensive front because there’s too many people to block or there’s too many good matchups they can take advantage of. It’s allowed backers Edgerrin Cooper and Taurean York to double read backs and come late so it seems like the pressure never stops.

However, Ole Miss’ spread offense and ability to align its receivers outside of the numbers creates more room for them to work in one on one matchups. Their throws have more margin for error if they’re off and it’s harder to double receivers at the point of the catch.

More importantly, the people that the blitzes made more effective as rushers as opposed to coverage people….Cooper, York, and nickel Bryce Anderson…benefitted from teams using reduced formations where they could line up closer to the edge or to the ball. They had fewer reads and played downhill more often.

Ole Miss reduced its formations less and so instead of being in the box A&M defenders found themselves in the gray areas between slots and tackles. The difference might be measured in a couple of yards but might have been a couple of miles as far as A&M was concerned in terms of how this impacted their performance.

Thus, the Aggies had to blitz less and Rebels’ quarterback Jaxson Dart faced blitzes only 35% of the time on Saturday. As a result, he was under duress only a third of his drop backs.

When he was under duress, he couldn’t get rid of the ball and only hit nine of 11 throws for 58 yards. Unfortunately for A&M, he threw for over 300 yards at an 87% completion rate when his protection held up.

The second is this: A&M’s pass defense is feast or famine and their play depends more on who they're facing than who they're playing at the position. While it didn’t help yesterday that starting corners Tyreek Chappell and Deuce Harmon were out and that game time starter Sam McCall went to the bench, it’s been a problematic group when they’ve faced a good quarterback. Van Dyke and Alabama starter Jalen Milroe are among the top 20 rated passers in the nation and Dart was 12th. Those guys tend to make decisions and throws that guys like Spencer Rattler and KJ Jefferson can’t and it shows in the numbers.

About 1,082 of those yards have come versus those three passers. They’ve got ten touchdowns and one pick among them. They’ve generated passer ratings ranging from 169.29 to 229.72.

A&M’s numbers in their five other contests: 690 yards, four scores, three interceptions, a high in passer rating of 125.82.

A&M’s play at this corners this had been enough of an issue that it was thought that trotting out younger but better athletes in freshman Jayvon Thomas and FSU transfer Sam McCall might be an upgrade. However, Ole Miss’ offense isolated them to the extent that they couldn’t get much safety help and wideout Tre Harris made too many Sportscenter type catches. When combined with former starter Josh DeBerry, the trio allowed 18 receptions in 21 targets for 321 yards and more penalties (three) than pass breakups (zero).

Harmon and Chappell might have done better but they rank in the middle to the lower half of the SEC among all corners in NFL passer rating against. 

Finally, the primary reason (besides its superior size up front) that A&M’s run defense looks good is because they get numbers in the box and get going downhill on blitzes. Their two backers had their lowest run defense grades of the season (60.6 for York and 42.8 for Cooper). Not only that, A&M did force some holding calls and did have six stops for loss but they also didn’t grade out very well and without safety support on the last drive surrendered 36 yards on six carries and a score.

SOURCE: Tarpley, Jeff. "Sunday morning breakdown: Why A&M couldn't blitz Ole Miss." 247Sports.com - GIGEM247, 5 November 2023, https://247sports.com/college/texas-am/Article/sunday-morning-breakdown-why-am-couldnt-blitz-ole-miss-219627875/