On today's episode of Locked On Aggies, host Andrew Stefaniak talks about some takeaways from Texas A&M's narrow victory over BGSU. Marcel Reed made some great plays but also struggled with accuracy at some points. For the Aggies to have a solid record in SEC play, he needs to get dialed in throwing the football with more accuracy.
Stefaniak went on to talk about how Arkansas looks better than many would have thought, and this is going to be a more challenging game for the Aggies than many imagined.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. OK. You can do this. I know, I know, Carvana makes it so convenient to sell your car. It's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. But look, you already have a great offer from Carvana. That was fast. Well, I know my lessons played in my heart, and those questions were easy. You're almost there now to just accept the offer and schedule a pick up or drop off. How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? Well, I already made up my mind, and Carvana's so easy. Oh, yeah. True. And sold. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. The Aggies find the way to beat Bowling Green, but Mars sorry comes back down to Earth a little bit. [MUSIC PLAYING] You are locked on Aggies, your daily podcast on the Texas A&M Aggies, part of the locked on podcast network. Your team, every day. Welcome on into locked on Aggies. I'm your host, Andrew. It's the funny guy. Thanks for making my own Aggies. You're first listening every single day. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Down on the Game Time app, create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Ladies and gentlemen, it was a weird, weird football game on Saturday. We're going to talk about it. We're going to break it down. We're going to have some takeaways from this game. We're going to talk about maybe should we be a little bit more concerned about Arkansas than I previously thought. We'll talk about all that on the show today. But first, want to get right into it. Marcel Reed comes back down to Earth a little bit, like I said, against Bowling Green. He still has some plays where he shows those flashes. And you go, oh, man, this kid's special. This kid's a great quarterback for a long time. And then he has some plays where you're left scratching your head. And look into the numbers for Reed in this football game. He was 16 for 29 through the air, 173 yards and two touchdowns. And then he was 12 for 91 on the ground, 7.6 yards per carry. Lev, the team in rushing, had one more yards when Lev Young lost his long rush of 18 yards in this game. So once again, I mean, was Marcel Reed terrible in this game? I don't think so. I think that he looks a tad bit inaccurate throwing the football. And his ability to use his legs makes him valuable. And when you watch him play, every time he makes a bad throw, but then the next play takes off and gets a huge chunk play with his legs, I always just tell myself, man, if he could just dial in a little bit, a little bit accuracy-wise, the dual threat of Marcel Reed would make him an absolutely dominant quarterback in college football. And well, you got to remember, this was the dude's second-start, third game. He got launched into action last year against Okelem, saying the ball game wasn't really a start. Play the ball game wasn't really a start. And then last week against Florida, and then now build the bowling green game. And he's young. He's still figuring it out. I think that people are going to be quick to be concerned about this. But at the end of the day, I think the upside he brings you with his ability to run and his ability to throw the football are what make Marcel Reed such a special type of player. And that's kind of what gets me fired up about him as a whole, and him as a player, is if he can once again just dial in just a little bit, just a little bit, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not asking for him to be prime Brady throwing the football. But if he can just give you a little bit, throwing the ball when it comes to a little bit better accuracy-wise, he's going to be special because his legs are a weapon, an absolute weapon. And if you add that with his ability to some play action passing, it's just going to make the run game better and the passing game better. It's going to give this team balance. I mean, once again, it's another week where the Aggies may they want to run the football 29 passing attempts compared to 40-year rushing attempts. I actually think that was a little bit closer to balance even than last week. Let me double check on that. Last week, yeah, Marcel Reed had 17 passing attempts last week compared to 55 rushing attempts. So yeah, they threw the ball a little bit more in this game. 29 passing attempts compared to 17 the week before. And then, of course, 40-year rushing attempts compared to 55-year before. So a little bit closer to balance this week. But Coach Klein's made it very clear what he wants to do offensively. He wants to run the rock. So that's my thoughts on-- Marcel Reed took care of the football. There were no picks. There were no-- he took care of it, didn't put the ball on the ground. We'll get to that in a little bit. But I mean, you see where I'm coming from? Is this Marcel Reed's best performance ever? No, no. Could he have been a lot better? Yes, he could have been. But at the end of the day, I think that there's the flashes, there's the shines, the signs of greatness. And you can see the upside he possesses. And the upside, his legs give him. So-- and I'll tell you, I mean, I don't-- my confidence in Connor Reed being out on the field anytime soon really, really decreases day by day. I mean, I just think that he's weeks away. I think it's going to be the Marcel Reed show for a little bit longer if not the rest of the season. You know, when Coach Uckham made it very clear they're not going to rush Connor out there. They're going to make sure he's healthy. They're going to make sure he's Connor before they throw him back out there. So I think Marcel Reed's going to be your guy for a long time. And he needs to continue to settle in the game. Continue to settle in the game. Settle in to what he's doing. Once again, that was his second career start, third career game. He's still figuring this out as he goes. So there's going to be those who freak out after this football game. And I get it, but games like this happen. When games like this happen, you just want to find a way to win. That's all that matters. At the end of the day, when games like this happen, you just find a way to win. It's kind of like when you get a blue single. You've got to make softball game right. So blue singles are on the mind because that's my bread and butter. But it's kind of like a blue single. They don't draw pictures in the stat book. It's just a single. It had an exit below a 113 in the stat book. This is a win. Is it pretty? No. Would you have liked it to have been prettier? Maybe give you some more confidence as you get deeper in SEC play? Yes. But you find a way to sneak it out. And that's all that matters at the end of the day. So those are my thoughts on Marcel Reed. I believe that he can be better. He needs to be better. And he will be better. So he'll dial it in, he'll figure it out. I believe that accuracy is what's going to need to be fixed for Marcel Reed. He's going to have to get better when it comes to the accuracy because we know he can run the football. So if he gets a little bit more accurate, he's going to be a star. So the next conversation I want to have-- and this could be one that extends over the weekend over this week here, locked on Aggies, but is this-- the defense top to bottom has got to be better in the second half. OK, so let's do-- let's look at this. So against Notre Dame, you give up 17 second half points. I'm going to write this down so we get the exact numbers. Notre Dame, 17 second half points. McNeese, 10 second half points. All 10 of their points came in the second half. Florida, literally all 20 of their points come in the second half. And then Bowling Green, 17 points in the second half. So 17 plus 10 plus 20 plus 17. That is 64 second half points the Aggies have given up. And that is of a total-- the Aggies have only given up a total of 73 points. Almost all of these points are coming in the second half. And you can't have that happen. You can't be the team that comes out of the gate strong, you get shut out of a cannon, and then you just can't find a way to slow teams down in the second half. And I'll tell you this, I don't believe it's a conditioning issue. Conditioning issue would put that on Coach Moffat. And I don't believe that's the case. I think that it could be second half adjustments for the opposing teams, potentially. There's a lot that it could be, but it needs to get dialed in. You cannot, especially when you get deeper in SEC play, especially when you try to play better football teams, you cannot just cannot give up a ton of second half points. That is a recipe for a loss. That is how you lose football games. We're going to talk more about giving up a lot of points the second half. We're going to talk about did this game help your confidence like you needed to talk about putting the ball on the ground. We have a lot to talk about on today's episode of Lockdown Aggies. We'll continue this conversation when I'm right here. I'm locked on Aggies. But first, I got to tell you about our friends over at Fandool. Hey NHL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandool, America's number one sports book. So when you get a bunch, when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play and play, play by play, and so much more the same page where your bets are. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. I love Fandool. Hey, hockey's getting started here. The puck's dropping soon, but if you're not in the hockey, there's so much you can do football-wise. We're getting into MLB playoffs. There's a lot you can do there, make your world series prediction, go put a little money there. A lot you can do on Fandool right now. Go check it out, promise you won't regret it, and you can head over to Fandool.com. OK, you can do this. I know, I know, Carvana makes it so convenient to sell your car. It's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. But look, you already have a great offer from Carvana. That was fast. Well, I know my lessons played in my heart, and those questions were easy. You're almost there. Now to just accept the offer and schedule a pickup or drop off. How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? Well, I already made up my mind, and Carvana's so easy. Yeah, true. And sold. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. So I do think this is something you got to dial in. I'm like, I'm sure it's like, this is not a joke. This is not, oh, well, it's no big deal. I'm not too worried about it. They'll get it figured out. No, this is a legitimate, legitimate issue. If you cannot stop giving up points in the second half, you are going to lose some football games. I mean, you really are. You're going to lose some games even. Maybe you look good in the first half. You're going to first half up. You're going to have to up 17-7 somewhere. Maybe you do that, and then you look at the scoreboard and you end up losing 24-20 or something. You go, what happened? The offense slowed. The defense started giving up points. That's the trail, the track you're on here. If you can't start playing better second half defense, luckily, aside from the Notre Dame game, the poor second half defense hasn't cost the Aggies yet. I mean, it was close to costing here. Florida had a few opportunities to get back in that football game and then they had missed some opportunities to make some kicks. So, I mean, these second half points have yet. And obviously, McNees wasn't never in question. But, point here is that we see a team, we see a football team that is giving up these second half points, and I'm telling you, it will cost you games if you can't get it figured out. So, that's something that has got to get better, especially as you get deeper into the heart of SEC play. I mean, we're getting into it now. You got Arkansas, you got Mizzou, you got Mississippi State, you got LSU, you got South Carolina, you are getting into the deeper part of your SEC schedule, can't be given up these second half points. You know, and once again, I wanted to take away for me is, and I said this a little bit, but I wanted to reiterate this, because it's important, games like this are going to happen. You know, they're going to happen, you're going to have games where you just flat out, "Hey, don't play well." This stuff happens all the time. The key there is don't end up being an Appalachian State, as we remember from a few years ago. Don't end up being a New Mexico State being Auburn last year. Don't end up being a whoever wins steam roll, Mississippi State, who was that, was it Toledo? Toledo, don't end up being that, okay? You're going to, these games are going to happen, you're going to have the ugly, ugly football games here and stuff's going to happen. Win the game, that's what happened here. So, is it one to be proud of? No, I'm not saying that at all, not at all what I'm saying. But it is one to, you know, be happy about it. It is one to be happy about that you just left with the victory. That's all that matters here. You move on, they don't draw pictures, it's over, you're three and one, there's positives to look forward to. You got a huge game coming up this weekend, forget it happened. But on the flip side of this, you know, I talked about this game being a real, the final tune up, the final confidence booster for this Texas A&M football team. And I don't know how confident you feel on both ends of the field, you know, on both sides of the ball. I don't know, I don't know how you feel right now. I mean if you're Texas A&M, you, it's hard to say that you're extremely confident right now after that performance against, against Bowling Green. I just, I don't know how you feel super confident right now. So, am I like worried about the team's confidence? No, but I'm just saying like, that was a game that was supposed to, okay, man, Marcel Reed stacked back to back incredible performances, we're moving into the heart of SEC play, feeling really, really good, we're three in one, we just blew the doors off of Florida, we blew the doors off of Bowling Green, and now it's time to get rock and rollin' with the win over Arkansas. And I don't know how you could say that this team's feelin' that you're more confident after that. No, I, oh, I also, I was, I was pretty happy with how this team did against the run. I thought it was better this week. You look at the numbers, Bowling Green had 23 carries for 89 yards, that's 2.9 yards per carry. And then obviously you had the long run to Smith, the, you know, the receiver, that was 40 yards, that chunk play can hurt you a little bit, but aside from that play, you did a good job, not lettin' up any really huge chunks, the next long run of those 14 yards. So I was happy with that. The, the, you know, we need the rushing attack to be better than it has been so much in the season. So I was happy with the way that worked out in this game. The next thing I have here is, is Leville Moss needs to take care of the football. I know it's one fumble, I get it, I'm not saying, I'm not gonna say it's a fumble prone, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that was a bad spot to put the football on the ground. You gave your team a chance to lose. And, you know, you're gonna get in games lit in the year where you're up nine points on LSU or something, right? And they're gonna, they're doing everything in their power to punch football out, you know, in the last 10 minutes, the game, try and create an opportunity for their offense. You gotta take care of the football in late game situations. If you don't, it will cost you wins. It's the same thing that I'm talking about with the defense giving up second points. You will lose football games if you turn the football over late and you fumble it when you're just trying to run the game out, you know, you will lose games. Leville Moss has got to take care of the football. I'm not long-term concerned about it, but it is something, you know, that you can't see happen anymore. Lastly, Randy Bond got back on track. You know, he missed a couple 40 yarders against Florida. They didn't end up costing me Aggies, but they were in a spot where it was like, okay, you're trying to really put this team away with some extra points on the board and you missed some field goals. That can't happen once again, that is a recipe to losing football games. But in this game, Randy was much better. He was dialed. He had a 28 yarder, 29 yarder, 34 yarder and a 42 yarder. Not the longest kick saver, but once again, he did his job. If he didn't do his job, this game would have been a lot scarier than it was. So good job, Randy making his kicks, you know, and obviously did fine when it comes to the point afters. But that once again, really, really, really matters. It really does matter. You have to have a kicker who can make his kicks. We talked about the 240 yard misses against Florida. Could have cost you, luckily it didn't, could have cost you. So you need your kicker to be good. Randy was good in this game. He needed to be good moving forward in SEC, the rest of SEC play. Is Arkansas a little bit better than we thought? I think, yeah. We'll talk about that coming up right here. Unlocked on Aggies. But first, I want to tell you about our friends over at Game Time. Once again, y'all, every day is here marked on Aggies. I know that I love the Game Time app. It is so easy to use. It is so easy to go get your tickets. I love every feature within this app. My favorite feature is when you are going to buy your tickets, you can see what your seat looks like, whether it's a football game, whether it's a sporting event, whether it is the theater, whether it's a concert, whether you're going to see a comedian or a show, whatever it is, Game Time's got your tickets, Game Time has them at the best price, and on top of all that, they can help you see your seat before you buy your tickets. And I love that. It's a feature I use every time I use the Game Time app. And once again, Game Time is the only app I will ever use to buy tickets. And I recommend you doing the same. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time, done with the Game Time app, create an account, and you just go to Lockton College for $20 off your first purchase. In terms of apply, again, create an account, and redeem code, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Download Game Time today. What time is it, Game Time? (upbeat music) - Well, we got a minute, and I'm gonna buy that truck I've been wanting. - Wait, don't you need like weeks to shop for a car? - I don't. Carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. - Hold up, you're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? - You can shop wherever you want. - I like to do my research, read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? - Because I like it. - Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. - So, Arkansas is better than I think we're giving 'em credit to be. I mean, let's listen to these numbers, especially from their quarterback, Taylor Greene. Now, Arkansas went on the road and beat Auburn 24-14 in one of the ugliest football games anyone's ever had to watch. How many total interceptions were there in this game? You had four, six interceptions, and a couple fumbles. Yeah, and a fumble. There was like a million turnovers in this game. But, Taylor Greene, now listen, I know, I know that he, the numbers in this game weren't great. He was 12 to 27, 151 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions. He was also 18 for 80 on the ground, but, man, he looks really, he just looks good. And it's funny, he looks really good. And it's funny, 'cause I just, I looked at the, watching him play, and then looking at the stat sheet, it was a little bit surprising, 'cause he looked so much better than he was. I mean, on the year, he has 957 passing yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, but he also has, let me find it, versus rushing yards. He also has, how many yards on the ground? Hold on, here we go. 325 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. And that is kind of the point here, is he can use his legs really well. And they run the option to where, you know, he looks like he's gonna give it to the running back, Jackson, and then, you know, he pulls it, and he goes, and he's a really good run in the ball. He's a huge quarterback, about 666, 230, 66, 230, and he just looks good run in the rock. So, I'm telling you, it might not have been the cleanest game ever against Auburn, and I also think Auburn is very bad. But, I think, Taylor Greene's a solid quarterback, and, Jackson, he needs to be ready. And they need to understand what he brings to the table. He's gonna pick up third downs with his legs, and he's going to be able to push the ball downfield. But, you know, once again, Arkansas throws the ball 28 times and runs at 55 times. They want to run the football. It's, you know, these are two somewhat similar, you know, rushing offenses. We, the coach, Patrino, he's out here wanting to run the rock. So, this is something I'm paying attention to. You have got to be able to stop that quarterback running the ball and throwing the ball. I think Arkansas is, I think, texting is a better team. But, I think Arkansas is better than people give a credit for. And I think this game is gonna be a lot closer than I previously imagined. So, it's gonna be really fun breaking this game down all week, because I think it's gonna be a better football game than many, many imagines. So, I'm looking forward to breaking it down this week here at Lockdown Aggies. That's gonna do it for today's episode. Thank you all so much for being here every single day. Hope everyone has an outstanding rest of their Monday. And we'll see you tomorrow, right here on Lockdown Aggies. (upbeat music) - A Prime members, you can listen to this Lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
