An ugly conference win is still a conference win.
Road trips to Mississippi State have been fraught with danger throughout most of Texas A&M’s tenure in the SEC, with the Aggies just 2-4 in Starkville since 2012. Saturday’s game was eerily similar to some of those four losses, as A&M allowed some big plays, was careless with the football, and committed some very untimely penalties.
However, A&M was able to get out of there with a win this time. It wasn’t pretty, and there was plenty to criticize and plenty to praise. But in the SEC, you’ll take a win on the road any way you can get it.
Conner Weigman
After overthrowing Noah Thomas for what would have likely been a touchdown on the first drive, Weigman ended that first drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Thomas. Weigman seemed to be picking up where he left off in the Mizzou game, but some careless decisions made it an up-and-down day for the junior signal caller.
Weigman had two interceptions in A&M territory that Mississippi State turned into 10 points, and two passes on one drive that should have been picked off. He finished the day 15/25 with 217 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs.
The turnover-worthy plays are certainly not ideal, but Weigman played pretty well outside of those. He needs as many game reps as possible in this new offense, and if you can survive an SEC road game where he turned the ball over, you’ll take it. Here’s to a bounce-back next week. A
Second Half Adjustments
Mississippi State was carving up the A&M defense in the first half, especially through the air. After allowing a few explosive runs in the first quarter, the Aggie run defense returned to form and shut down the Bulldog rushing attack the rest of the day.
The secondary played poorly for the entire first half. A&M struggled to stay with the MSU receivers and freshman QB Michael Van Buren Jr made some key throws under pressure.
But like we have seen so many times under Mike Elko defenses, they made second half adjustments. Outside of the drive where a Weigman interception gave Mississippi State the ball on the A&M 12 yard line, the Aggies tightened things up and shut the Bulldogs out in the second half.
Elko and DC Jay Bateman really ramped up the pressure on Van Buren in the second half, with multiple sacks and QB pressures, and what had to be at least double-digit batted passes.
The secondary needs to bring their A game next week against an explosive LSU passing game.
Third Downs
Probably the difference in the game. A&M was 9/14 on 3rd downs, while State was just 5/16. The Aggies made plays on both sides of the ball when they needed to.
Overall
It wasn’t as poor of a performance as A&M fans probably thought when they were watching the game live. However, coming off a bye week, it was definitely too sloppy of a game and not near what this team is capable of. All in all, Collin Klein schemed up some nice plays on offense, the defensive line dominated in the second half, and you Mike Elko and Co. will take plenty from this game to work on an improve. Take the win and go #BTHOLSU next week.