I spent 30 hours in two hospitals across Southeast Texas to get out and watch THAT?!?

An absolute stinker, a humiliation before 105,000 people, the Secretary of War and The Most Interesting Man in the World?

The Texas A&M football team and its coaching staff got a literal, and proverbial, bloody nose today at the hands of a very average Kentucky team. And they got humiliated by a defensive coordinator they thought wasn’t good enough.

This wasn’t a loss on the scale of Appalachian State, but it’s on par with the Iowa State loss in 2005 when the Cyclones came in and physically battered the Aggies. It’s embarrassing. It’s inexcusable and it raises a lot of very serious questions that have to be addressed fast or this season is toast.

Forget the CFP. Forget a New Year’s Six bowl. This is a challenge to make sure you’re not Texas 8-4 or worse.

Offense

If there was any question about whether Texas A&M has a quarterback problem, it’s not debatable anymore. Marcel Reed has tremendous gifts, is a smart young man and has a big arm, but his play has regressed from the middle of last season. It’s not even close. 

I’m not talking about overthrowing deep balls. I’m talking about failing to execute very simple throws with costly results. 

Reed botched an easy thrown on 4th and 2 that should have been a first down for Carsyn Baker and continued the drive. Instead, it became a touchdown for Kentucky. He threw an incredibly bad interception that took the air out of a first quarter the Aggies dominated, then threw another one to kill a potential scoring drive in the fourth quarter. There’s likely 21 posts. There’s your ballgame.

We heard about the quarterback coach working with Reed all summer. We saw the results in the spring and this summer. And it hasn’t mattered. When the lights have come on to this point, he’s wilted. And the bad thing is that his mechanics, which were supposed to be fixed, are a mess again. He himself said it after the game, that his lower body mechanics were bad and inconsistent Saturday.

Inconsistency, whether we like it or not, has become Reed’s hallmark. I went back and looked and the last time he finished a game against a Power Four opponent without an interception was the Missouri game last Nov. 8. Since then, he has thrown seven touchdowns and nine interceptions against Power Four four teams. You can’t win that way.

If you’re going to win big in the SEC, or anywhere, you have to have a consistent quarterback. A&M does not have that. So I think you’re down to two options: you either go uptempo, no huddle all the time, because that’s where he’s at his best, or you start Brady Hart. Honestly, the way the plays are being called right now, this offense fits Hart better than Reed anyway.

I don’t want Marcel Reed to be benched. I hate that situation. I want him to succeed, but right now he’s fighting his own demons and he’s not getting much help. And that’s having disastrous results.

The bad thing about today was Reed really wasn’t pressured all that much. It wasn’t anything that a player of his ability to couldn’t handle. Kentucky had two tackles for loss all day. Two. That’s it. The Aggie offensive line finally did its job. But I have complaints about that too. On the first scoring drive of the fourth quarter, Lamont Rogers and Tyler Thomas were in at left tackle and right guard, respectively. They played fine. Rogers, actually, impressed me. Next possession, Rogers is out and Tyree Adams is back in. I’m not sure about Thomas, but I think Trovon Baugh did come back in as well. You’re down 21 points, you’re trying to mount a comeback and you’re still rotating offensive linemen? I know Mike Elko likes the luxury of doing that, but at some point, settle on your best five and go!  

Losing Terry Bussey and Ashton Bethel-Roman was crippling. Let’s not forget about that. And then Isaiah Horton and Mario Craver both got banged up and missed a little time. Losing Bussey is devastating if he’s out long-term. He was really getting into a groove and would have been a big time weapon. Bethel-Roman needs to get healthy and fast, because Aaron Gregory did not have a good game. TK Norman doesn’t scare anyone. I like Kelshaun Johnson, but I don’t know if he’s ready for big time snaps yet either. The passing game with the tight ends is non-existent. The leading tight end as far as coaches go is Micah Riley, who has five balls, including one for a score, so far. The big additions, Richie Anderson and Houston Thomas, have one catch each. Kiotti Armstrong had his first career reception today, so there’s that. Richie Anderson blew a block on the first 4th and 1 and that was it for him.

A&M’s depth is already being tested. Madden Williams is out for the year. Jerome Myles is gone. Bussey may miss a lot of time, even though I have a little faith he may return faster than most people expect because he was walking around without assistance later in the game. ABR wasn’t playing well before he missed today, so that needs to change. Gregory, Johnson and Jayden Warren may be getting a lot more snaps than they ever anticipated in short order.

The running game really wasn’t all that bad, but it also suffered from player shortages. The loss of KJ Edwards in the first half was another injury that changed the complexion of the game. You went from having a bruiser in Rueben Owens and an explosive runner in Edwards to Owens and Carsyn Baker, a very similar back. The running backs were supposed to have deep depth. When you’re down 60% of your running back stable, you’ve got an issue. And it hurt.

I’m beginning to give up on the idea of Owens as a consistent RB1, and I know I’m late to that party so save it. He ran for 74 yards on 18 carries, or 4.1 YPC. That’s average. Actually, below average. The explosiveness we saw last year at times is not there. He’s running hard, and he’s physical, but he’s still hesitant to the hole — something I thought he’d fixed, admittedly — and sometimes picks the wrong one. Edwards can’t stay healthy in his freshman season. He was out there for the first couple of practices of the spring then got hurt. Started the spring game and got hurt. Gets first real playing time and gets hurt. They’ve got a problem.

Defense

The Most Interesting Part of the Game was how, bluntly, Kentucky kicked A&M’s ass in the trenches. Elko said as much after the game. There wasn’t anything subtle about it, either: UK lined up and shoved the ball down A&M’s throat and they couldn’t stop it. The Aggies outgained UK 187-156 on the ground, but when it mattered — the third quarter — they could not be stopped. CJ Baxter and James Patterson plowed through the Aggie front, which more than a few times either got physically moved or looked like they didn’t know where they were supposed to be. 

The pass rush was lethargic again. There’s just no other way to put it. Elko and Reggie Hemphill seems intent on getting pressure with four guys and, while they’re putting a push on the pocket, they’re not getting in. Kenny Minchey did not handle pressure well in Kentucky’s loss to Alabama, especially right in his face. I don’t recall a single blitz like that today from he Aggies. It was a soft defense and lacking aggression. It looked absolutely nothing like the defense we saw last year. A&M had two sacks — yay. They had three total tackles for loss. Nope, not gonna do it.

I think T.J. Searcy had a good game: 6 tackles and a sack. DJ Hicks had a pretty decent game. Nobody else did. They just got throttled.

The linebackers weren’t any better. They were getting met at the second level and getting wiped out, or struggled to make plays when they had the chance. Daymion Sanford returned, but wasn’t used in any aggressive manner. 

What makes an Elko defense special is the attacking nature of it. You cut off holes for running backs and frustrate quarterbacks with multiple looks. Kentucky picked apart the Aggie zone and Minchey, largely able to do what he wanted in the pocket, picked the Aggies apart: 14-18, 252 yards, 2 TD. He started off 1-3, so that meant, in his last 15 attempts, he completed 13 of them. 

Remember, Elko said this is the best secondary he’s had at A&M. Well, for the second straight week, that secondary was a liability. Julio Humphrey is a nice story. Rickey Gibson was really good at Tennessee two years ago. But they’ve both been cooked the last couple of weeks. DJ Miller and Kenny Darby did whatever they wanted all day, and again, most of the time Minchey didn’t bother with Dezz Ricks. He didn’t need to. 

The safety play was atrocious. They weren’t effective in the running game and both Marcus Ratcliffe and Dalton Brooks were painfully out of position on some big plays. That’s twice now that opponents have essentially run the same play over the deep middle and nobody’s picked them up. Both times were touchdowns.

Today, the Aggies saw a quarterback who knew how to handle pressure, make accurate throws and command the offense. Unfortunately, he was the other guy.

Coaching

I love Mike Elko. I think he’s a good man and he’s got a plan for this program. That being said, and he said as much today, he did not have this team ready to play today. They got flat out whipped. They dominated most of the first half, met with some adversity and folded. That’s very un-Elko-like. But it’s the truth and he has to wear it. It’s not a big secret, either. He took his medicine postgame, unlike some other coaches I knew (Sumlin, Kevin).

I’ve been on the pro-Holmon Wiggins, but today I was underwhelmed. Your quarterback is struggling – help him out! What happened to the rollouts, moving the pocket to get him a better look at the field? Reed is a mobile quarterback. Using him as a pocket passer is a disservice. He looked better going no-huddle, so I hope that may be something they considering moving forward. But you can’t play scared and you can’t coach scared.

At least Wiggins has a bit of an excuse in that he was down three running backs, two starting receivers and lord knows what else. What’s the defense’s excuse? They don’t have one. A&M ran twice as many plays in the first half as Kentucky did, and it was the Wildcats that came out and pushed the Aggies around after halftime. It wasn’t anything exotic, it was hat on a hat, let’s see how bad you want it. And A&M didn’t. And that’s shameful. You can’t come out flat in the SEC ANY week, much less in the conference opener in front of the Most Interesting Man in the World. 

And they did. It’s time for the Aggies to get healthy, if they can, and do some serious soul search. Because they were fundamentally lacking in all facets today.

Stay thirsty, my friends.