I predicted a breakout game for Marcel Reed in this contest against Kentucky— and we saw the exact opposite. I predicted that Jay Bateman on the other side of this matchup would pose no real issues for the Aggies’ offense— and we saw the exact opposite.
This was a game that almost seemed doomed from the start— when Terry Bussey went down with an injury on the first play of the game (a play that looked like it ended in a turnover, as well), a pall was cast over the stadium. Things only got worse from there, as the Aggies had two drives end with zero points despite moving the ball pretty well.
One of those ended with an interception in the red zone— just like the last-ditch play for Texas A&M late in the fourth quarter did. Marcel looked shaky last week— in this one, he looked completely all over the place.
Texas A&M falls against Kentucky in shocking upset loss that turns fans’ expectations on their head
There were some injuries on the offensive side of the ball that seemed to limit the options for the Aggies— both Ashton Bethel-Roman and Jamarion Morrow missed this game. But that’s really not a sufficient explanation for what we saw in the second half of this one after A&M went to the break tied despite the first-half issues.
This really is a gut-check moment for the Aggies. This was a game that, while many considered tricky, a lot of people had penciled in as a win for A&M. I guess that’s the definition of a trap game, but it doesn’t lessen the blow of losing a game like this.
The coming weeks will show what this result really was. Was it a game that exposed that A&M was not near the team that most people thought in the preseason, or was it a trap game ahead of a showdown against LSU? Haters and naysayers will lean the former— and they certainly have a lot of evidence to think so.
Maybe the most shocking piece in this game was the way the Aggie defense got leaned on in the third quarter. That was such a confidence builder for Kentucky when it happened, and then the offense going three and out and putting the defense right back out there didn’t help things, leading to it happening again.
Marcel, frankly, has looked like he has regressed. He has not been consistent in the slightest— his running ability has really not been there early on in the season. Maybe he’s not so comfortable in this new offense, but part of the point of hiring Holmon Wiggins was for the sake of retaining some continuity from the previous regime.
No, with the number of off-target passes we’ve seen so far this year from Marcel, the indecision and double-clutching, it’s hard to see that the progress that has been discussed this offseason has really manifested. You’ve seen it in bright, quick spurts, but it has been nowhere near what it should be for a quarterback now more than 20 starts into his career.
There’s plenty of blame to go around— again, the defense was not near good enough for a lot of this game— but the quarterback position is where the most eyes are right now. Next week against LSU is now do-or-die for A&M’s College Football Playoff chances.
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