A sea of maroon covered Ford Stadium in Dallas as the Texas A&M Aggies beat the SMU Mustangs Saturday afternoon 48-3. It proved to be a defensive matchup early on as there was no score in the game until 8:31 left in the second quarter.
Junior defensive lineman Damontre Moore said that it’s just the defense’s job to to have the offense’s back when they’re struggling.
“We expected our offense to score,” Moore said. “But Defensively we couldn’t really worry about what the offense was doing. It was nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Field position for the Aggies kept them in tough situations as they started from an average of their own 17 yard line in the first quarter. However, that all changed as senior defensive back Dustin Harris returned a punt to the 40, he fumbled the ball on the punt but it was picked up by fellow senior defensive back CJ Jones who was tackled at the Mustangs 42 yard line.
The Aggies still failed to score a touchdown on the drive and Taylor Bertolet missed a 23 yard field goal leaving the score tied at zero with 13 minutes left in the second quarter.
Texas A&M finally found the end zone on their next drive. After starting off at their own 39, they drove 61 yards ending the drive with freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel hitting senior receiver Ryan Swope across the middle of the field for a 29 yard touchdown. Swope said it felt really good to get on the board personally and for the team.
“It was very exciting,” Swope said. “After last week, not only me but as a team we wanted to get a spark to the offense and to get that first touchdown was huge.”
Not only did Swope have a couple of touchdowns but the whole receiving squad put up decent numbers. Freshman receiver Mike Evans made impact full and key plays making 6 catches for 123 yards.
Head coach Kevin Sumlin said it was great to see Evans step up especially in such a short football career thus far.
“[Evans] is another one of those young guys,” Sumlin said. “He played one year of high school football and was redshirted last year. His confidence level has increased, he’s gotta be that guy.”
The defense recorded their first takeaway of the season with junior defensive back Tramain Jacobs pulling down an interception. Manziel also broke the freshman passing record with 294 yards.
The team emphasized on multiple occasions the need to get better and looking forward to their next opponent despite the excitement of victory. The next game will be at Kyle Field for the Aggies where they will face South Carolina State. Kickoff is set for Saturday at 6 pm.