Texas A&M football: Red zone, 3rd down struggles doom Aggies in loss

Texas A&M football couldn’t score in the red zone and their third down defense took a huge step backwards in the loss to Mississippi State.

Here we go again. Texas A&M football got off to a good start in 2018 as they have in each of their last six seasons, and as has been the case in the past three, Mississippi State identified and exposed a weakness in the Aggie defense and the offense struggled to do much of anything against the Bulldog defense, but specifically couldn’t score touchdowns when they got close.

The Aggies came into the game as one of the best rush defenses in the country and the No. 1 team at getting off the field on third down, but were No. 84 in passing yards allowed. Despite Nick Fitzgerald looking like one of the worst Power 5 quarterbacks in 2018, he went off on the Aggies and hit three huge third down passes that led to points.

In the first quarter, he hit Stephen Guidry for a 25-yard touchdown on a 3rd-and-12, then hit Osirus Mitchell for a 38-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-11, then hit Guidry again on a 3rd-and-21 in the third quarter that went 84 yards to the 1-yard line. These weren’t the only 3rd down conversions given up by the Aggies but they were by far the biggest.

Mississippi State went 7-for-12 on third down. A&M came into the game allowing teams to convert just 22.8 percent of their third downs.