Alabama 41, Texas A&M 23: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_19483" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Will Leverett Photo by Will Leverett[/caption] No. 9 Texas A&M fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday in College Station when No. 10 Alabama took down the Aggies, 41-23. What did we learn from this one? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.Elite teams expose good teams’ weaknesses. On the whole, Texas A&M acquitted themselves very well against a Top 10 team in front of a national television audience. But at this point, it’s fair to say that Alabama is an elite team, and they looked the part by viciously attacking A&M’s weaknesses. Offensively, they went right after A&M’s linebackers, plowing forward with the big offensive line and running back Derrick Henry for 150+ yards and two scores in the first quarter. When A&M shored that up, they took to the air, dropping into max protect and letting Jake Coker expose the man-to-man coverage on the outside. Defensively, Alabama utilized an outrageous number of coverages to confuse and befuddle A&M quarterbacks Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray. They had both scouted to perfection — they knew Allen wasn’t much of a runner, so they would rush with four and drop seven into coverage, forcing him into bad throws; they knew Murray’s arm strength isn’t Allen’s, so they baited him into making throws they knew their secondary could get to. It won’t be much consolation to the Aggies, but they just went up against what was a master class in game prep. Alabama is an elite team; A&M is a good team; and the Crimson Tide did what elite teams do to good teams. John Chavis is turning A&M’s defense around. If there is a silver lining to the loss, it’s that the A&M defense is making big strides. Yes, Alabama had success early on the ground, gashing the Aggies for big chunks of yards and sending waves of “here we go again” around Kyle Field. But from there, the defensive front shored up, with youngsters like Daylon Mack and Myles Garrett putting on a show. Speaking of Garrett, he was his monstrous self for most of this game, notching a couple of sacks and a blocked punt. It’s clear that the entirety of the A&M defensive scheme starts up front, and once the Aggies’ defensive line got its feet underneath them, the rest seemed to fall into place. There are still some concerns in the secondary and in the linebacker corps, but anyone who watched the Aggies last year and this year can tell a noticeable, promising difference. So, about the quarterback situation… There’s no two ways around it: the Aggies’ quarterbacks stunk in this one. Whether it was Kyle Allen’s three interceptions (all returned for touchdowns) or Murray’s inconsistency, it was not a good day for the signal-callers in maroon. So where do the Aggies go from here? As unsatisfying as this will be to many, A&M’s best option is still Allen. Murray is a promising and electrifying dual-threat guy, but he’s still struggling with arm strength and reading more sophisticated coverage schemes (which the Aggies are likely to see the rest of the way). Allen was not good today, and a couple of his throws were inexcusable, but he still gives the Aggies the best chance to win in the rough-and-tumble SEC West.