Weigman’s return spurred an offensive explosion
On Saturday, the Texas A&M offense put together it’s first complete game of the 2024 season, as they crushed Mizzou 41-10. Conner Weigman returned from injury and put up a 93.7 QBR with over 300 yards of total offense, 12.5 yards per attempt, and an adjusted completion percentage of 90%. Le’veon Moss rushed for 138 yards on just 12 carries.
The flash plays were there. Moss opened the second half with a 75-yard touchdown run. Weigman and his receivers hit plays of 40, 33, and 29 yards through the air (with the receivers making some very impressive catches). They were completing passes down the field, not just dinking and dunking.
However, the major theme of this film study is how they did the little things. The offensive line picked up stunts. The running backs were patient. Weigman made quick decisions and fired off accurate passes. There was some flash involved, but Saturday’s brand of football was more methodical dominance.
The Good
This is a simple pin-and-pull run for a first down, but I wanted to call out the technique of the offensive line here. I froze the video a few seconds in, look at Zuhn and Reed-Adams. It’s a thing of beauty. They attack the play side shoulder of the guy in front of them and work their feet around to cut off penetration.
Bisontis takes care of one linebacker, Koli and Crownover take care of the other one. If Theo could have kept his guy outside just a tad longer, Moss may have taken this one the distance. But the synchrony of Zuhn and Reed-Adams was awesome to see here. This is offensive line is a well-coached group.
These next few videos involve big-time blocking on the perimeter. The Mizzou defensive line runs a twist on our right side and kind of mucks this play up, but look at the vision by Moss. He doesn’t just dive forward for a few yards, he bounces it outside for an easy first down. But that’s not all, because CYRUS ALLEN drives his man clean out of bounds, clearing the way for Moss to walk into the end zone!
That is exactly the kind of effort you want to see out of your team. We’re up 34-7 in the 4th quarter, Allen has only caught one pass all game, doesn’t matter. He does his job on this play and it leads to 6.
True freshman Terry Bussey made a lot of plays in this game (breaking up a would-be interception by Conner Weigman may have been the biggest), but here he shows off his blocking.
We run an orbit motion with Jabre Barber, no one follows him, easy decision for Conner. Barber is probably getting a first down anyway due to how much space he has in front of him, but my goodness, look at this block from Bussey. That’s Toriano Pride he’s blocking, he’s a junior and a really good player for Mizzou. Bussey just out-physicals him and escorts him to the sideline. You love seeing that from your freshman receiver.
Mizzou sends a corner blitz here and Weigman makes an immediate decision to throw where he was and hit Noah Thomas on a little stop route. I really like how smooth Bisontis and Zuhn pick up the twist on the left side without giving up any ground.
Noah Thomas decides to do his best Mike Evans impression by breaking tackles and spinning his way down the field, but my favorite part of this play is Theodore Melin-Ohrstrom planting a defender in the Kyle Field grass. That’s three different skill guys we have called out for their blocking on three different plays. This level of blocking from the receivers is something we may not have seen since 2012, and it’s a credit to the coaching staff for setting the standard and to the kids for buying in and playing with effort.
One of the biggest plays of the game and it doesn’t happen without the offensive line. Trey Zuhn has been playing at a high level all season and he dominates on this play. Keeps his hands inside, gets extension, it’s text book. At right guard, Kam Dewberry (subbing in for Armaj Reed-Adams) and Rueben Fatheree handle the twist to perfection. Look at the pocket Weigman has!
A&M has been horrible at picking up stunts for the last two seasons and they have been so sound in that regard this year. To add, Dewberry is our 5th option on the interior and Fatheree technically isn’t a starter. The turnaround of the O-line and the overall depth they have now is nothing short of a miracle. Huge credit to Adam Cushing.
Back to the play, this was a really nice route by Jahdae Walker and a heck of a job adjusting to the ball and bringing it down over the defender. This was a good enough pass from Weigman, but if he lays it out there a little farther, Walker is celebrating in the end zone. On a day where he was nearly perfect, the deep ball is something Conner can continue to improve at during the bye week.
Collin Klein is starting to get Terry Bussey involved in more creative ways and not just on jet sweeps. We have run this concept before, the play side receivers run inside routes to create space for the RB who runs a wheel route out of the backfield. The linebacker has to cover a lot of ground and sort through the trash to be able to make the play.
Except this time, we motioned Bussey into the backfield, and having a linebacker cover Terry Bussey is a clear mismatch. The linebacker never stood a chance here and Bussey took this one up the sideline for a big gain.
The Bad
It was pretty tough to find many bad plays for the offense in this game, but this screen on 3rd down early in the game stood out. Screens in general are something A&M needs to get better at executing and this is a good example of that.
You can’t blame the offensive line for allowing pressure here, that’s what they are coached to do on screens. Invite the defense upfield, bail out and find someone to block in open space. Plus, the QB will always drift backwards, making traditional pass sets an impossible task.
I’m not positive on this, but my thinking is that Amari was supposed to release in between Zuhn and Bisontis. Instead, he ends up trying to go around Koli who is also trying to release to get downfield and block. By then, a Mizzou blitzer is in Conner’s face and he has to throw it away.
One thing is for sure, Coach Elko was not pleased after this play.
All in all, this was the best showing from an A&M offense against a power conference team in a long time. However, this was just one data point and this team needs to keep getting better and come out and play at that same level against Mississippi State next week. But damn if it didn’t feel good to watch that offense last week after what we’ve seen the last three seasons.