Texas A&M Football: Biggest takeaways from win over Louisiana

1. The offensive line isn’t SEC-quality

Forget SEC quality, the Aggies front five might not be Power 5 quality. From the first whistle of this game they looked like the inferior unit when matchup up against the Ragin’ Cajun defensive front.

There isn’t one guy that stood out as having a particularly egregious outing. They all played rather poorly. Even Koda Martin, one of the veteran guys, was blown away on the second drive of the game. The resulting hit (and fumble) resulted in a ball that scooted across the turf and through the hands of a Ragin’ Cajun defender before Colton Prater recovered it.

On drive number three Prater hurled the snap well over Mond’s head. The Aggies fell on that one as well, but it resulted in a 24 yard loss. Some heroics from Mond would turn that huge negative play into a 76-yard bomb. He bailed them out, but the lack of protection was painful to watch. There were four or five noticeably bad snaps in the game. The Aggies can’t afford those kinds of mistakes when the level of competition rises.

Texas A&M isn’t that far removed from having a string of offensive lineman paraded at the very top of the NFL Draft. The so-called “O-Line-U” has taken a step back. The 2017 unit is young, but most of them have seen some playing experience in the SEC. Struggling against ULL might could be dismissed as early season rust, but it’s more likely the continuation of an alarming trend.

The Aggies play Arkansas next weekend. During the second quarter against ULL the entire starting offensive line was benched for poor performance. That’s not a bad day, that’s a massive problem. The Aggie offensive line needs help and there doesn’t seem to be any solution at hand.