Texas A&M Football: 3 Takeaways from Bitter Loss on Rocky Top

3 Lessons from Disheartening Loss by Texas A&M Football

I spoke a lot this week about how important of a game this was for the Texas A&M football coaches and program. Whereas a win last week would have represented a step forward for the program, a loss this week represented a step backward. The Texas A&M football team has been a bit in limbo so far this year; coming off of a 5-7 year that was a huge red flag for the program’s direction, many saw this year as a bounce back opportunity. As it happens, though, there’s still many places where the coaches—the offensive coaches, mostly—are not getting the most out of the talent they are putting out on the field. Last year could be excused by the injuries, the general offensive tumult after trying to implement a new system to start the year only to switch back after a QB change, even more injuries, the flu wiping out half the team, etc.

Changes were made over the offseason. Petrino was brought in to spruce up the offense. Other assistants, including RB coach Marquel Blackwell and DB coach Bryant Gross-Armiento came on board. But it’s starting to feel like it wasn’t enough. It felt like it at the beginning of the season, but it hasn’t over the past two weeks (or even longer for some).

Let me be clear on this one thing: there’s a very good reason that it felt like enough had changed near the beginning of the season, and he wears #15 on offense. But when he went down, things went way downhill, and quick. As I wrote immediately following the game, though, this isn’t to excuse the coaching: if you need a NFL-level QB for your offense to work, then your offense doesn’t work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see Conner take this thing to its fullest potential, and I believe he will! But there’s something broken that needs fixing. If we learned one thing from this game, it’s that.

Let’s jump in and talk about what else we learned.