The Texas A&M Aggies scraped out a win over the Bowling Green Falcons Saturday evening at Kyle Field, and while it was anything but pretty, it was a win.
That was the overwhelming feeling coursing through the locker room afterward.
“The positive is we won the game,” Aggies coach Mike Elko said when asked what he took away from the contest. “We did the things that we needed to do.”
What did that look like?
Marcel Reed, filling in for a still-hampered Conner Weigman, threw for two touchdowns and led the Aggies in rushing yards. Theo Melin Ohrstrom and Jahdae Walker reeled in a score each and the Maroon & White’s defense staved off the Falcons in the fourth quarter, save for one late field goal.
“When you get into those moments and those situations and it feels like it’s spiraling out of control, you see a lot of teams not find ways to win that football game,” Elko said. “Credit to our guys that we found a way to win it.”
In essence, the Aggies looked fine. They came through when it mattered and ended up in the left column. But they didn’t feel fine. Far from it, actually.
“I thought there were just times in the middle of the game where we didn’t operate the way we needed to,” Elko explained. “Some of that was on Marcel; some of that was on other people.”
Indeed it was. Texas A&M was just 6-15 on third down on the evening, lost a fumble and gave up nearly 50 yards of penalties. Add in three red zone field goals and one from the 25-yard line, and you have a team with self-inflicted wounds.
“You put three touchdowns in there, you put two touchdowns in there, and it kind of changes the makeup of the game,” Elko said. “We couldn’t finish drives … so, many levels of frustration.”
What Elko expressed matched how the players felt as well. Sure, they got to celebrate a win, but they didn’t glean the momentum from it that they could have.
Again, it just didn’t feel good.
“We’re going to go back and watch the tape,” Aggies defensive lineman Nic Scourton said, “see what we got to improve on. Fix some things. Get some guys glued in.”
“It just got a little loose at the end,” Aggies offensive lineman Ar’maj Reed-Adams added. “We just got to do better, finish.”
The Aggies have a test ahead of them. With a trip to Arlington in the cards against an Arkansas Razorbacks squad fresh off a victory of its own, finding momentum might prove to be difficult.
After that, a highly-ranked Missouri Tigers squad will come to play in Kyle Field. That could be even harder. Yet, through it all, the Aggies know they need to remain poised, and remain themselves.
They also need to finish drives. And if that goes well, they’ll put themselves in a much better place.
It might not be pretty, but a win’s a win.
If you ever think you’ve got this game, you don’t.” Elko said. “That’s human nature sometimes … you want to relax, (but) … you can’t do that. If you do that, you’re going to put yourself at risk.”
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