Instant reaction as Texas A&M football emerges from hard-fought game against Bowling Green with a win
I think there are a lot of disgruntled Texas A&M football fans out there after that performance by the Aggies. On its face, winning by six points over a MAC team sounds like the kind of thing that fans would be mad about, so I get it.
Marcel Reed was not great tonight. He missed receivers badly throughout the game, couldn't get much going on the ground consistently, and bailed on clean pockets quickly.
The defense also frustrated Aggie fans. It felt like Bowling Green was able to work up and down the field with ease, foiling the A&M front.
You even had fans complaining about the play calling—shocking, I know. Klein was labeled as having no creativity, and Bateman's zone calls were questioned again and again.
I came away with a different point of view. Pretty simply, I wasn't too terribly miffed with the defensive performance. BGSU put up 27 on a very, very stout Penn State defense, and the Ags held them to fewer points, yards, first downs, third down efficiency... essentially every single statistical category.
I was not really upset with the play calling, either. I thought Klein was working with what he had, and I didn't have an issue with what Bateman did for the most part, though some guys got lost in the flats at points.
I think the issue stems from the fact that many fans had a far higher expectation for Marcel Reed than I did coming into this game. Too many fans saw him as the savior after a game against an extremely poorly-coached UF defense where he didn't pass the ball hardly at all.
Against a veteran squad (I don't know if you heard the announcers say this, but that was a veteran squad we played!) who is far better-coached than the Gators, Reed struggled. I thought he would.
There was almost zero passing game outside of about five yards down the field. When Reed did look to stretch the defense vertically, as they were challenging him to do, he missed time and time again.
It looks increasingly clear that he is not at a point in his development where he can progress through reads and make tough throws down the field. The Ags were far more talented than the Falcons, but they were unable to make hay with regard to that disparity because of being limited in that regard.
The most concerning thing, in my book, was the offensive line being unable to consistently enforce their will up front. Part of that was the aforementioned scheme decision that the BGSU staff made to load up the box and bring one more guy than you could block (which, again, the Ags were unable to punish them for since they couldn't pass downfield), but there were some busts up front.
At the end of the day, though, you don't apologize for wins. This well could be the worst offensive performance that BGSU has all year. Things could look far better for the Aggies when they get their starting QB back. There's still a lot we don't know yet.