Despite Win, Self-Inflicted Wounds Continue To Pile Up For Texas A&M

Throughout the last several seasons, Randy Bond has been the primary kicker, but that changed this season when senior Jared Zirkel was announced by Elko as having won the starting job. 

Bond moved up the depth chart after Zirkel was dealing with a groin injury. The word "opportunity" is special to Bond because, at one point in his life, he was a walk-on, thinking that the 12th Man would not embrace him like they had. 

Earlier this season, Bond broke the record for most consecutive extra points made in school history. In his senior year, he was recognized for being ranked 15th in the country and fifth in the SEC with 20 made field goals, so Aggie fans know he has the goods. Saturday afternoon, he showed off his leg but only drilled three of his five kicks through the uprights. 

If the two unsuccessful kicks get converted into points, the Aggies would not be sweating in the last two minutes and biting their fingers. It’s easier said than done, but don’t dig a hole that creates trouble. 

“Our special teams, we have to get cleaned up immensely,” Elko said. “Too many penalties. Too many bad kicks. I think the ceiling for this team is a lot higher if we can figure out how to go put four quarters together so that will be our challenge heading into next week.”

Missed Plays and Penalties 

There was a total of 23 penalties accumulated in an old-fashioned game that consisted of a lot of physicality and a ton of frustration. 

“We made a lot of mistakes today,” Elko said. “We didn’t do things that we needed to do on offense.”

It all started piling up with a holding call that finished with a total of six holding penalties. There were also two unsportsmanlike conduct flags, a personal foul, a false start, an intentional grounding, an ineligible receiver downfield, and a running into the kicker. 

The holding calls went against Mark Nabou Jr., Dametrious Crownover, Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Chase Bisontis, Bravion Rogers and Tyreek Chappell.

“We have to stop killing ourselves a little bit,” Reed said. “Executing the call. We are not trying to focus on getting all the yards back in one play. We have to limit those penalties.” 

Blaming the holding calls was not the only issue that A&M had. Auburn was able to create pressure up front and tally four sacks to press quarterback Marcel Reed to scramble or make an uncharacteristic decision. 

“I feel a couple of times I missed a couple of opportunities, to run a little bit, and I field the ball in the pocket too long,” Reed said.

There were a few long balls that Reed barely missed that had to be made in a ginormous conference game. Freshman receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman was in stride and beat a defender that was in coverage, but Reed overthrew his target. Another example occurred in the second quarter, when Reed targeted his top target, Mario Craver, but was unable to complete the pass in the middle of the field, unlike he had in past games. 

“He had another deep ball that he would like to have back,” Elko said. 

The Aggies' next opportunity to correct the mistakes comes next Saturday against Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.