How Texas A&M's Defense Is Shaping Up To Be Elite

With Texas A&M hosting the other Aggies of Utah State on Saturday, September 6, Texas A&M had a lot of positive takeaways, the biggest one being its defense. Last weekend against UTSA, we saw defensive struggles, including a 75-yard rushing touchdown, yet this weekend the Aggies attacked the opposing offense and came up with six sacks to end the afternoon.

Texas A&M had six sacks against Utah State spread across four different players, with Cashius Howell leading the pack with three. Not only did Howell have three sacks on Utah State's Bryson Barnes, but they all came in a row, as he accomplished back-to-back-to-back sacks, forcing Utah State to punt from its own endzone.

BACK 2⃣ BACK 2⃣ BACK SACKS FOR CASHIUS HOWELL#GigEm | 📺 SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/suwhsYoaoB
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) September 6, 2025

The defense was a huge improvement from last weekend as Texas A&M could only muster up one sack on UTSA, coming from Rylan Kennedy, who was quiet this week with only one tackle compared to his four last week.

How Cashius Howell Stepped It Up

After last week, Aggie fans were a little bit worried about Texas A&M's defense as it allowed the Roadrunners to score 24 points, and let Robert Henry Jr. pick up 177 rushing yards, making for more yards than UTSA had passing.

The defense was a struggle last year as well for Texas A&M, as it ended the season ranked No. 13 in Southeastern Conference play in passing yards given up per game with 232.2. After losing four of their next five games of the 2024 season, the Aggies buckled down and focused on improving their defense all offseason and during fall camps.

Last week against the Roadrunners, Howell picked up one solo tackle, but the rest of the evening was quiet for him. It could not be more different this week. Howell was on fire, attacking the quarterback throughout the entire game, but especially in the second quarter when he recorded three consecutive sacks for the Aggies' defense.

"Only way I can describe it is like a flow state," Howell said to the media postgame.

With his impressive three consecutive sacks, Howell forced Utah State further and further into negative yards, as they ended the drive practically in its own end zone. By the time the drive was over, Utah State was looking at fourth down from their own four yard line.

All in all, Texas A&M certainly cleaned up its defense this week, especially when it came to pressuring the quarterback and getting sacks and tackles for loss. It was a huge improvement from last week, but the real test comes next weekend when Texas A&M takes on Notre Dame on the road.