Friday, September 23, 2011

Aggies need defense to continue steady play

Going into Saturday's game against San Jose State, the Aggies need their defense to continue its steady play.

The Aggie defense has played better since the first three quarters of the Ohio game, when the team gave up 44 points.

NMSU played tough in its 28-21 win over Minnesota and gave up just 16 points to UTEP last weekend.

Granted these were good matchups for the Aggies — both teams didn't have good quarterback play and the Miners weren't able to run the ball going into last week's game.

But with that being said, the Aggies are playing the teams on their schedule and have improved.

NMSU has four sacks this year, which is better than last year when the team had just nine total. And the Aggies have forced six turnovers this season, which is halfway to last year's total of 12.

The team needs its defense to perform well again against San Jose State — particularly with NMSU minus starting quarterback Andrew Manley and running back Robert Clay.

On paper it seems like a good matchup once again for the Aggies. San Jose State doesn't have good offensive numbers this year, averaging just 11.3 points per game. I do think the team has some talent — I like the group of receivers and think quarterback Matt Faulkner throws a decent ball. He splits snaps with Dasmen Stewart, who's a running quarterback.

The Spartans are a tricky team to figure out — blown out Week 1 by Stanford, an elite program, before losing close games to UCLA and Nevada, two programs considered down, but still, in my eyes, are fair teams at least. SJSU enters Saturday's game against the Aggies as 10 1/2-point favorites, which I think is high.

I could see a low-scoring game between the Aggies and Spartans. The magic number is 21 — if the defense can hold SJSU to 21 points, the Aggies can win.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how steady the play is when you consider UTEP was starting a true freshman QB with about one quarter's worth of college game time under his belt. UTEP was also playing without one or two of it's starting offensive lineman and couldn't, until the Aggie game, rush for squat.

Steady defense in Saturday's game means another loss. Stellar defense might bring home a win on Saturday. Unfortunately, the Aggies haven't been stellar since beating ASU quite a while ago.

Anonymous said...

The Defense is playing amazing! Especially if you consider losing 3 starters on the D-line, even before the season started!

The offensive line has without doubt been the biggest disapointment. It was supposed to be the strength of the team. it is has been a bust.

Go Aggies beat sparty!

Jefe

Anonymous said...

Hey Teddy, there was talk about Manley getting a medical redshift in a previous post, yet I don't recall reading anywhere what his injury is. Can you please update us on his injury and impending status.

Teddy said...

Manley has a torn ACL in his right knee and is out for the season. Head coach DeWayne Walker said last week that a redshirt season seems likely for the sophomore QB.