COLLEGE STATION — On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, UTSA running back Robert Henry blew through the Texas A&M defense and ran 75 yards for a touchdown. That made the game a 21-17 affair with the Aggies in the lead — though it looked very much in doubt.
And then it wasn’t.
“We had our come to Jesus moment,” linebacker Taurean York said. “(We said) we’re giving these guys too much. We’re giving these guys to much free stuff.”
The No. 19 Aggies scored 21 straight points while holding the Roadrunners (0-1) to a total of 13 yards on their next six drives put the game out of reach.
A garbage time touchdown for UTSA made the final score 42-24, but A&M had dominated nearly all of the second half after being pushed hard.
“It was an interesting game,” coach Mike Elko said. “I think a lot of the big question marks, I think, showed to be good, you know, I think we wanted to get more explosive on offense; we did. We wanted to get more explosive in the return game; we did. We wanted to see Marcel (Reed) throw the ball a little bit better. He did.”
Concepcion strikes quickly
After failing to respond well to pressure down the stretch last year, Elko and the Aggies went looking for players who could change the makeup of an offense that had been bland and conservative last season. Their two big acquisitions, receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, both had huge nights in their A&M debuts.
It didn’t take long for Concepcion to make his mark. After a five-play drive stalled at their own 38, UTSA punter Caile Hogan hit a line drive that Concepcion fielded at his own 20. He broke up the middle, then to the right sideline and took it the distance for A&M’s first score of the season.
“That dude’s crazy,” Reed said. “I haven’t seen a punt return like that since Ainias Smith was here.”
The Aggies led 7-0 with 7:21 remaining in the first quarter, but the Roadrunners would hit back on their next drive. Henry would break off a 21-yard run right up the middle on a 3rd and 10 from the UTSA 44 to get in field goal range, and Michael Petro would make a 36-yard to make it a 7-3 game.
On A&M’s next drive, it was Craver’s turn to grab the spotlight. After a 26-yard completion from Reed to Concepcion on 3rd and 17 from the Aggie 45 kept the drive alive, Reed threw a quick out that the Mississippi State transfer turned upfield and sprinted past multiple Roadrunners on his way to a 24-yard touchdown on his first reception in an A&M uniform.
“(It was) Definitely a good full circle moment for me,” he said. “I’ve been trying to … these last nine months, I’ve been focused on this first game, trying to put good stuff on tape, because I feel like last year I didn’t do that.”
He would do plenty of good stuff on tape, catching eight passes for 122 yards, both game highs. Concepcion’s first receiving touchdown would come a drive later, but it would come after Henry capped a nine-play, 75-yard drive with an easy run off the left side for a 15-yard touchdown.
“We had some missed fits show up again,” Elko said, harkening back to last year’s consistent issue with outside runs.
The Aggie offense would pick up the defense with a six-play, 69-yard drive to push the lead back to 21-10. It was capped off by Concepcion’s 31-yard catch and run on a quick slant that he took all the way across the field to pay dirt. It was the second scoring pass for Reed, who would complete 22 of 34 passes for 289 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.
UTSA would mount another drive before halftime, but Petro shanked a 43-yard field goal attempt and the score would remain 21-10 at the half.
Defense stiffens while offense keeps rolling
The Roadrunners got within four on Henry’s big run, which Elko attributed to another mental mistake.
“We had a kid run the wrong defense on the first play of the second half, he looked at the wrong signal. He ran the wrong defense. He was his first play this season, and that kind of caused problems. So that’s what happened on the first play,” he said. “I think after that, we played well.”
While Elko wouldn’t admit it, York said there were some impassioned discussions amongst the defense after Henry’s long run.
“This is not what we’re going to do. We’re not gonna have a close game with UTSA,” he said.
The defense would not have to wait long to turn things around, as the offense went three and out on their next possession. The Roadrunners picked up a first down on a defensive holding penalty, but picked up only three yards otherwise.
The Aggies took over at their own 15 and Reed immediately fired a quick pass to Craver, who caught it at the line of scrimmage, broke one tackle and sprinted for a 23-yard gain. After running back Rueben Owens broke off a 30-yard run — A&M’s longest of the night — a 15-yard pass to tight end Theo Melin-Ohrstrom moved the ball to the UTSA 7. After a touchdown pass to Concepcion was nullified due to him stepping out of bounds before catching the ball, runs by Amari Daniels and Reed moved the ball to the 1 on fourth and goal.
Instead of repeating the nightmares of last season, offensive coordinator Collin Klein got tricky. With Reed operating out of the shotgun, he ran Ashton Bethel-Roman in motion, and Reed faked a handoff to him as he came by. He also faked a handoff to Le’Veon Moss, before rolling to his left and finding a wide open Ohrstrom, who had come all the way across the line, for a touchdown.
Craver strikes again
UTSA would not be able to respond, as they would begin a run of six straight three and out possessions, during which they would have a total of -6 yards of total offense. When A&M got the ball back, they scored quickly, moving 67 yards in five plays. The big plays came from Craver, who started the drive with a 24-yard catch and run, then finished it with a 22-yarder for his second score of the day to put the Aggies up 35-17 with 2:48 to go in the third quarter.
“Rio, you throw him the ball behind the line of scrimmage, and you go look and he turns into 60 yard gain,” Reed said. “I mean, you can’t ask for anything better.”
Forced to throw, UTSA found themselves unable to do anything against an A&M secondary that was much-maligned a year ago. Quarterback Owen McCown, who threw for more than 3,000 yards last season, completed 19 of 32 passes for a mere 121 yards as the Roadrunners relied on extremely quick passes all game long to avoid the Aggie pass rush.
“It was nice to see Rylan Kennedy, the one time they did try to take a play action pass and actually push it down field, get the sack,” Elko said.
A&M’s final score came courtesy of another huge punt return, with Terry Bussey returning a 51-yard effort from Hogan 29 yards to set the Aggies up at the UTSA 29 yard line. Reed would find tight end Amari Niblack for a 23-yard gain on the first play of the drive before EJ Smith carried it twice to pick up the final six yards for the graduate student’s first touchdown in an Aggie uniform.
UTSA would score on a 34-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Brandon Tennison to receiver AJ Wilson with 14 seconds remaining, a score that only mattered to people who had the Aggies covering a 22.5-point spread.
“They’re a good team. They’re going to have a really good year,” Elko said of UTSA. “We’ve got a lot of things that we’re going to have to do to get better at between week one and week two to go where we want to go, but it’s a good start.”