Texas A&m leads Missouri State 19-0 at the half, but there’s as much reason for irritation as there is excitement.

Offense

Marcel Reed looks really good. Everyone else — especially the offensive line? Meh.

Reed is 11-17 for 148 yards and a pair of scores he had two great deep balls negated by a drop and a penalty. Terry Bussey could have had a touchdown but couldn’t pull in a pass that he should have had, even if it was imperfect. His accuracy is much, much improved. He’s only thrown one pass where he really missed badly.

Holmon wanted to get Bussey involved right off the bat and he has three catches in five targets for 34 yards. We knew that Reed would be looking for new arrival Isaiah Horton, and he has. Horton’s proven he can get deep, hauling in a pass of 36 yards; he’s also proven he could be physical as he just shoved a Missouri State corner aside on his 15-yard touchdown catch and run. He’s also had a brain fart, fumbling in the red zone.

The running game has been average. Rueben Owens has shown some flashes, but 12 carries for 47 yards is kind of average. On the plus side, he has been able to move the ball in fourth and short situation, which is a nice change. One for six on third downs ain’t good, though.

The offensive line has stunk at times. Mark Nabou has been busted for two penalties, both really bad ones. Tyree Adams got hit with a penalty. Trovon Baugh was totally whipped on a simple drop step and move inside. Backups Tyler Thomas and Lamont Rogers were bad too. Thomas get beaten badly for the second sack, and Rogers get embarrassed on a run blitz in the red zone that had Jamarion Morrow drilled for a loss.

The Aggies have weapons. Reed is playing well. But the line has to get better fast or it won’t matter.

Defense

Can’t complain much when you’ve given up 49 yards of total offense, forced a fumble that became a touchdown and the Bears are 1-6 on third and fourth downs. Missouri State’s longest play has been 10 yards. They haven’t picked up a sack yet, but the newcomers — Anto Saka, Ray Coney and Ryan Henderson — have all shown up. Saka has the fumble recoery, Coney has four tackles and a TFL, Henderson stuff the the fourth down RPO at midfield by being smart and staying home. Noah Mikhail has played in place of Daymion Sanford and has six tackles already.

The Bears tried both Julio Humphrey and Dezz Ricks early on and had zero success. Their receivers can’t get any separation. The Aggies have played more man, but really haven’t blitzed all that much. They may get a little more dynamic after halftime.

Missouri State has 26 yards of rushing at 2.2 yards a pop. That’s not going to do much for you. A long run of 7 yards isn’t going to do much either.

The Aggies have imposed their will defensively. They’ve pretty much negated the Missouri State offense. They just can’t make mistakes that would allow any big plays in the second half.

In the second half…

You get the kick. Go finish it off. Take it right down the field and score and make it 26-0 and force Missouri State to become totally one-dimensional (not that they’ve had a dimension yet). But your offensive line has something to prove and I’ll bet Mike Elko informed them of that. If they can lean on the Bears some and Reed has time to do things, they can put up points in bunches. But they need to stop killing themselves with stupid penalties and turnovers. Stop the self-sabotage and you can stroll away with this thing.