Last night’s write up was a short term, quick reaction response to what happened to things. Today I’m taking a longer term view of everything that happened in the Aggies’ 38-17 win over Arizona State.

- Actions speak louder than words although both can suffice in our discussion of the quarterback situation.

Junior defensive end Daeshon Hall and the defense are going to do nothing but get better as the Aggies make a transition to winning games with defense

Actions….does sophomore Kyle Allen come back into the game if freshman Kyler Murray doesn’t get dinged? Probably not. Murray was moving the team with his feet and didn’t get yanked even after he threw an interception in which he failed to look off a safety.

Words….after the game, A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was asked about Kyle Allen’s performance by an ESPN reporter immediately following the game and talked about playing both Allen and Murray going forward even though the Aggies had scored 21 fourth quarter points with Allen at quarterback to win the game.

It’s pretty apparent how the A&M staff feels about Murray and his potential. He’s less limited by what’s going on around him (both in terms of the play calls and his teammates, he’s got all of five fewer games of playing time at the college level, and if A&M is going to make a national championship run in 2016 then Murray has a higher ceiling.

We can argue about this all we want but it’s pretty apparent where this is headed… by the end of the season it’s going to be tough for Allen to hold off a more talented guy who’s much more acclimated to the speed of the game.

- A&M’s defense isn’t going to be facing new starting offensive tackles every game and offensive coordinators who have no idea what it’s like to game plan for defensive ends Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall. Thus, it’s unlikely that they will combine for six sacks in every game for the remainder of the season.

Even so, the Aggies are going to get healthier behind them and also get people back from suspension. Their sack totals will go down as people double Garrett from early on in games and learn to run plays at him and move the pocket away from him. The overall production of the defense isn’t going to change a whole lot. It’s going to be the most dominant group that A&M has fielded in a long time, probably dating back to the late 1990’s. They’re going to keep A&M in games and probably win one or two along the way. In fact, Kevin Sumlin is going to have to make an adjustment because he’s not used to winning with defense and special teams and now he can do so like most good SEC coaches.

- A&M’s defense isn’t going to give up a lot of big plays even though they play a lot of man coverage and blitz. That’s because you’ll see two high safeties much of the time behind them which allows A&M to double deeper throws or act as a deterrent to them. In addition, it’s hard for quarterbacks to throw when they are running for their lives and can’t get their feet set or are on their backs. As a result, offenses are going to feel like that they are suffocating against the Aggies because there’s no easy button.

- Someone brought this up on the boards this morning but with the injury to James White do you move corner Brandon Williams back to running back for depth purposes?

Perhaps, but I’ll answer no for right now in two parts.

First, you win games with defense and that needs to be an emphasis within the program. You don’t de-emphasize that unless perhaps starter Tra Carson goes down too.

Second, Williams is a much better corner than he ever was a running back. He has a much greater impact on the game by helping to take away one side of the field in coverage and coming up in screen/run support.

- Play calling…always easy to fix in theory, not so much in reality. You’re always limited as a play caller by your personnel and A&M is limited via its young quarterbacks, outside receivers who struggle to get off the line and make plays down the field, and an offensive line that’s still trying to work things out among themselves and lost a lot of great personnel in recent years.

Deep handoffs on fourth and short out of four receiver sets isn’t optimal and I understand that there’s a hesitancy to put your quarterbacks in harm’s way by using them as runners. You do want to limit their hits, particularly Murray’s when he’s liable to take off moreso than Allen at this stage of his career.

But outside of Christian Kirk and Murray’s legs, there’s no quick fix from a big play perspective on that side of the ball. If nothing else, find ways to get the ball to Kirk, get the quarterback moving in the passing game, and use Caden Smith as a blocker to help in the running game and on play action.

- The offensive line is what it is. The left side will get better as they get more acclimated to the speed of the game and picking up stunts and blitzes but the overall athleticism of the unit is diminished via personnel losses. They’re also not as big as what A&M has been trotting out there from 2010-2014.

It’s a group that’s going to struggle versus the better defenses on A&M’s schedule. They’re going to have a hard time moving people and dealing with athletic fronts.

- Finally, we saw A&M deal with a lot of the same things that many other teams dealt with yesterday…new offensive linemen, young quarterbacks struggling with turnovers, injuries, etc. I’ll have more tomorrow on how A&M compared with other SEC teams but for the most part I thought the Aggies were in mid season form and looked pretty good for a first game performance. They had just five penalties and most of them involved physical rather than mental issues. Their special teams didn’t have any lapses in coverage. Overall, they were much more physical than in past years because they were bigger, hit with velocity, and had confidence in what they were doing.

Overall, A&M is just going to have to win games differently in 2015 and even 2016 than what we’re used to seeing under Kevin Sumlin. In terms of the development of the program, that’s a good thing.

