Texas A&M football: 4 takeaways from embarrassing loss to Mississippi State
By Jeff Shull
Red Zone offense isn’t getting better
Texas A&M has struggled in the red zone in conference play and it finally came back to bite them in the rear end. The defense couldn’t save the offense this time around.
A&M took a drive inside the 10 yard line in the first quarter, but couldn’t punch it in for a touchdown after taking a sack on 3rd-and-goal from the four.
Later, a great punt return set them up at the Mississippi State 28-yard line. A first down pass to Camron Buckley got them into the red zone only to lose yards from there. A false start gave them a 3rd-and-16 and Mond made a great throw that could have been a first down, but Hezekiah Jones ran an incorrect route that got in the way of the intended pass to Jace Sternberger.
Finally, with the game essentially on the line, A&M set themselves up with a first down at the 10 yard line, but the wide receivers weren’t on the same page and committed a substitution infraction that brought them back five yards. Already in a tough spot, a first-down sack made it nearly impossible to score. The drive ended with an interception in the end zone on 4th-and-goal from the 10.
Mental errors such as false starts and substitution penalties are death sentences to touchdown drives. This is especially the case with an offense already struggling to run the ball and protect the quarterback. Fisher has a lot of work to do.