The Aggies are down one at the break, which is frustrating in and of itself. But A&M has a few things going its way through 30 minutes.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said at halftime that A&M was kicking his team’s butt, that the Aggies were running on them and they couldn’t run. That’s the physicality the Aggies have desperately looked for.

Marcel Reed hasn’t been great. But he hasn’t made any cataclysmic mistakes either. He’s 12-19 for 106 yards and he’s made some big passes to keep the chains moving on third down (20 yards to Isaiah Horton,17 yards to Kiotti Armstrong, 14 to Mario Craver), but he also missed a wide open Horton on a sideline route that could have been a big play.

The Aggies are 5 of 10 on 3rd down conversions, not shabby against a defense that has been good on third down. Reed has made plays with his feet — not necessarily running, but keeping his feet moving while looking downfield. South Carolina’s got a ferocious pass rush, so only giving up one sack isn’t bad. But Reed showing patience and isn’t losing his composure.

The running game has been stunningly good. South Carolina gives up 115 yards a game on the ground and the Aggies already have 101. Rueben Owens is having the best game of his season, with 64 yards on 10 carries. He had the biggest run by a back on the first drive of the game, a 38-yarder, and has been moving north and south with little hesitation. KJ Edwards may not be 100%, has 20 yards on 3 carries. Carsyn Baker has another 13 on 3 carries. The youngsters, Lamont Rogers and Sam Roseborough, had really good halves blocking in the running game. The line does have to do better against the pass, because you can’t expect Reed to keep making big plays as he’s moving.

Defensively, they’ve had one really bad drive. South Carolina has 187 yards of offense, and 104 of them came on two plays — that’s a very good example of what’s been wrong with this defense. One thing the Aggies did exceedingly well in the first half was not losing receivers when LaNorris Sellers scrambled. The Aggies got a lot of pressure in the first half, with a pair of sacks, another one that should have been called in the grasp. Bryce Perry-Wright got his first career sack and forced a fumble; Marco Jones got a sack for the second straight week.

The Aggies used multiple players to spy Sellers, which I mentioned in Tidbits yesterday, and that seemed to confuse him some. He didn’t want to run before he got hurt.

The secondary has been good. Tawfiq Byard has been up in the box a lot as we expected before the season, and Marcus Ratcliffe and Dalton Brooks have blitzed as well. The corners have not bit when Sellers leaves the pocket, which is good preparation.

This will likely change significantly after the half if Sellers does not return. Stopping the run, which they’ve done well so far (2.6 YPC), will become paramount.

I have no idea what the heck that fake field goal was.