What is the story about?
Texas
A&M got thoroughly outplayed in a demoralizing 31-21 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday. The stats don’t fully tell the tale, with A&M ending up with more total yards, rushing yards, yards per rush, first downs and time of possession (and fewer penalties), but we’ll do our best to call out the stats that actually paint the picture of how this game played out.
Salient Stats
- 2: Tackles for loss allowed by the A&M offensive line, including zero sacks. Perhaps the most infuriating part of A&M’s offensive ineptitude was that the offensive line showed considerable improvement. Marcel wasn’t getting hit. Running backs were finding holes. Receivers were getting open. The struggles offensively appeared to almost exclusively on Marcel Reed.
- 3: A&M turnovers inside the Kentucky 30. One of these was the missed 4th and inches on the first drive of the game and the other two were Marcel Reed interceptions. It’s pretty darn hard to win an SEC Game if you have three drives deep into enemy territory that net you zero points.
- 4.8: Yards per attempt for Marcel Reed. You’d have to double that number for this to be considered a decent day passing the football, and it’s made even worse by the fact that Kenny Minchey’s yards per attempt was 14.
- 3/6: A&M’s conversion rate on fourth down. I think the most telling thing here is that we HAD to go for it six times, most of which came from late-game catch up mode. But two of those misses were undoubtedly game-shifting moments: A&M getting stuffed on 4th and inches on their opening drive, and a miss on an EASY 4th down conversion late in the third quarter (more on that shortly).
- 8: Plays that went for 15+ yards for Kentucky, including three plays of 30+ yards. The A&M defense was simply gashed for the majority of the day, appearing to get both out-schemed and out-physicalled.
- 9: Third downs for Kentucky. Not third down conversions, total third downs. In a game in which they ran 54 plays, only having 9 third downs tells you how often they converted without even GETTING to third down. A simply unacceptable performance from a Texas A&M defense that was still very highly thought of headed into this game.
- 53%: Completion percentage for Marcel Reed. That’s simply an unacceptably low completion rate for an SEC QB, especially in a game where he didn’t even take a sack. Marcel’s dual-threat capability is obvious, but we have rapidly approached the point that you have to question if he is A&M’s best option, as too often he simply cannot be trusted to deliver accurate passes on a consistent basis (with this failed 4th down pitch and catch being a GLARING example).
- 119: In an effort to not be a total downer, it was nice to see them force-feeding Mario Craver, and for the most part it worked. Craver’s 11 catches for 119 yards paced all A&M pass catchers, and as always, he looked dangerous any time the ball was in his hands. But that’s little solace after a truly perception-changing performance from this team.
