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Texas A&M Football: 3 overreactions from Week 1 win over Texas State

By Shelbie Warr

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - AUGUST 29: Isaiah Spiller #28 of the Texas A&M Aggies breaks loose for a 85 yard run in the third quarter as JaShon Waddy #16 and Nikolas Daniels #30 of the Texas State Bobcats pursue at Kyle Field on August 29, 2019 in College Station, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - AUGUST 29: Isaiah Spiller #28 of the Texas A&M Aggies breaks loose for a 85 yard run in the third quarter as JaShon Waddy #16 and Nikolas Daniels #30 of the Texas State Bobcats pursue at Kyle Field on August 29, 2019 in College Station, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /

1. This defense is going to be just fine this season

There was quite a bit of doubt going into this season surrounding the defensive side of the ball for Texas A&M football. They lost a lot of their defensive line and both starting linebackers to the NFL draft and even though they only lost a few members of the secondary, that unit struggled all season long and that is putting it mildly.

This game was already a radical growth for the entire defense. Let’s start with the secondary though. In 2018, this unit struggled in pass defense and in grabbing interceptions. That changed in a hurry against Texas State, putting together four interceptions throughout the night.

One of those is shown below and is likely the most impressive of the night. Add in a sack for cornerback Roney Elam to cap off an all-around great night for the senior.

That moves us to the linebackers. You didn’t hear their names called much throughout the night, but they were sneaky good and showed a lot of promise for the rest of the season.

Buddy Johnson was very quiet about his outing but put together a seven tackle performance and was instrumental in a strong performance by the run defense, only allowing eight total rushing yards by the Bobcats throughout the night. Anthony Hines added four tackles.

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The defensive line played extremely well in my opinion in terms of rush defense — a strength of the Aggies in 2018, only allowing eight rush yards in total. However, what we didn’t see is a lot of pass rush and that is going to have to get better against Clemson in Week 2 and beyond as the schedule gets tougher and tougher.