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Halftime observations

Mark Passwaters

Well-Known Member
Staff
Dec 4, 2003
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147,699
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This is going about as expected, but it's also been frustrating. A&M has been sharp at times, but sloppy at others. And you can't have any letdown against any team if you intend to play for an SEC championship or the CFP.
Six penalties for 51 yards is unacceptable. 70 yards rushing for NMSU is unacceptable. We've got more missed tackles and more stupid penalties. Mike Elko will probably have the paint peeling off the walls at halftime.

Marcel Reed started off well, and then got sloppy. He was forcing passes he shouldn't, not running when he had plenty of room and the interception at the end of the half was awful. He does have 235 yards and two scores, along with 36 rushing yards, but still. This is a bad team and you shouldn't be turning the ball over to a team that is -15 in +/- turnover ratio.
Amari Daniels carried 5 times for 84 yards, got his 71-yard touchdown and that was it for him. His day seems to be done. EJ Smith has been, bluntly, terrible. He's got big holes to run through and he can't hit them. He loses his balance going through the line of scrimmage over and over. It's a real problem now.
We've been waiting for the tight ends to get involved and they are tonight. Tre Watson and Theo Ohrstrom have combined for seven catches for 140 yards. They're running wide open through the deep middle.
Cyrus Allen looks like he's hurt, so Moose Muhammad is going to get playing time for the next couple of games (probably). He has a touchdown catch in this one, so maybe he can be a contributor. Noah Thomas made an awesome catch for the game's first score.

Defensively, they're not impressive. They haven't gotten any pressure on NMSU's (terrible) quarterbacks and only have four tackles for loss. They seem to playing pretty vanilla. But the missed tackles have continued to show up and they let Seth McGowan get outside on them again. McGowan has runs of 25 and 18 yards and is averaging 7.6 yards a carry.

One thing A&M has done well is bat down balls at the line of scrimmage. They've done that several times. They should still be dominating the line of scrimmage, and they aren't to the level they should.

I hope Elko really lights these guys up, because really, this should be much worse than 24-0. But after the first three possessions, they seemed like they lost their edge. That absolutely cannot happen, and they will probably get a loud reminder of that.
 
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