Recently, The New York Times published a profile of Floyd Money Mayweather's entourage and bodyguards. Mayweather makes them all wear "The Money Team" t-shirts. Texas A&M should have knitted The Manziel Team onto the front of their jerseys.
Johnny Manziel tried doing too much. That wasn’t a knock on Manziel rather than an indictment of their one-dimensional squad. One dimensional usually implies a team that is deficient on the offensive or defensive end. The Aggies problem runs much deeper than that. Manziel is their only viable source of offense and he faltered putting the weight of the offense on his shoulders.
It was also a role reversal for the two quarterbacks. Last season, A.J. McCarron threw only three interceptions all year. A pair of them came in their loss to A&M. McCarron was his usually error-free self this time around and Alabama is now 40-0 when they win the turnover battle over the last five years.
Manziel was constantly switching into evasive manuevers while McCarron sat in the pocket as Texas A&M’s defense gave him a clean pocket for the entire afternoon. So much fore talk of their offensive line looking suspect.
Instead of trying to slow up, wearing down 'Bama and milking the clock by running the football after they took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, A&M kept throwing. Eventually, their pace caught up to them. The 628 yards surrendered by Bama's defense was the most in school history, however, Manziel’s two first half turnovers put A&M in a hole.
Meanwhile, AJ McCarron slowly dink and dunked the ball downfield on quick screen throws before T.J. Yeldon rmmedn it down their throats while his offensive line cleared lanes wide enough for a mac truck to drive through.
A&M running backs Tra Carson and Ben Malena finished with only 60 yards on 16 carries. Manziel matriculated the offense downfield by evading Bama blitzers and giving his receivers time to find open space.
Ultimately, 494 yards, five touchdowns and 98 yards rushing by Manziel wasn't enough for A&M to beat Bama.
McCarron finished the afternoon with a jersey so clean it looked right out of a Tide commercial.
CBS didn’t even need a Manziel Cam. It seems like every time A&M made a big play of any type, Manziel was already in the center of the action. Mewanwhile, at the same time Oregon's was putting on a full-team clinic in a 59-14 rout of Tennessee.
Alabama’s defense has more holes in it than in years past, but they received contributions at the right time on both sides of the ball. The thought was that Saban had a Johnny Manziel problem. In truth, the Aggies have a Manziel problem. They rely too much on him to go out there and make plays. Manziel did what he could with his entourage. Alabama won because of the depth of talent and big-game experience on their team. Today, it bit A&M in the L column.
