Three storylines to watch for in Texas A&M-Missouri

Texas A&M football is about to go through their toughest test since facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Missouri Tigers come into Kyle Field as a top 10 team in the land.

The Aggies know their identity now. They're going to have to come in strong against Missouri, who's facing a test themselves as well.

Here are three storylines to watch for when the Tigers face the Aggies this weekend.

Missouri is on their heels

Missouri fans were on high alert against Vanderbilt this season.

There were plenty of errors that the Tigers were responsible for. On special teams, the Tigers had were forced into awful field position in the first half. Near the end of the first half, the Tigers chose to go for it on fourth down, but quarterback Brady Cook was sacked.

This led to a late successful field goal for Vanderbilt. From then, Vanderbilt played a tough game but fell in double overtime.

Vanderbilt might be showing themselves as a sleeper this year, but nonetheless, the Tigers will need to work on plenty of fundamentals.

This is prime position for Texas A&M. If the A&M defense can get to Cook and rattle his game, there is a nice shot for the Aggies to get an upset win. The AP clearly thought Missouri didn't need to be as high as seven, so now they're at nine.

Stop the pass if you're A&M

We've talked so much about how the Aggies have stopped the run, and they're quietly turning into one of the best defenses in the country.

If A&M stops the run like they've been doing, Missouri is going to be expected to pass the ball a lot if the Tigers are rattled off their running game.

Nate Noel carried the ball 24 times for 199 rushing yards. He averaged 8.3 yards per carry.

A&M will have to slash that number by about five if they want to force the ball into Cook's hands more.

Thie Tigers will try and mix up the play selection has much as they can. If they do, expect another tight and close game.

Extending the question at quarterback

Since their loss against Notre Dame, Marcel Reed has been riding the hot hand.

Conner Weigman has been out since week two and fans have been wondering when Weigman is going to be back.

Mike Elko has said that he's a game-time decision, so we'll keep our eye out on the status going into gametime.

We've heard this too many times at this point, that maybe it's going to be just natural for Reed to get the starting nod.

At least the depth chart says that Weigman will get the start.

There's a concern that downfield passing will eventually be necessary, and that hasn't been Reed's game.

Now, when it comes to just moving the sticks, A&M has been great. The question is: can they depend on that for much of the season?

Reed has been a hot hand, no doubt about it. The play calling has been expanding more with Reed in the game, and the run game has been very effective too.

Eventually, the receivers will need to get involved. But what A&M has right now is not necessarily a bad problem.