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For starters, if it hadn’t been for some horrible officiating, this game would not have been as close as it was. Le’Veon Moss had at least 75 yards rushing wiped out on BS penalties. The SEC really needs to take out the trash, but they won’t.

Conner Weigman had an up and down game. He was really good in the first half, and not so good after halftime. He was 15-25 for 217 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, and he was lucky he didn’t have a couple more. But he also made some really big plays: the 58-yard completion to Jabre Barber after he bobbled the snap; a pretty pass to Tre Watson that ended up as a conversion on 3rd and 23 and a touchdown to Noah Thomas. He made some really clutch throws on 3rd downs to keep scoring drives alive.

Weigman’s issue is his consistency. He got rattled some when the game got close after halftime, but eventually shook it off. It was, after all, just his third road start — and I don’t know what it is, but there is some bad juju in Starkville for the Aggies. But if you win, big things happen.

I was very disappointed in the running game today. I expected the Aggies to come out and shove the ball down State’s throat — they were, after all, 124th against the run. Instead, they ran for a pretty pedestrian 136 yards at 3.7 yards a carry. Moss had those two big runs wiped out, which would have changed things, but the Aggies should have abused this bunch. I think Moss was a little nicked up, but he was mortal with 17 carries and 65 yards. He also carried the Mississippi State defense into the end zone with him twice, so I’m not going to gripe too loudly. Amari Daniels was ok, but not great. But he really does a nice job with 3rd and intermediate draws. He ripped Missouri with them two weeks ago and did it again today. EJ Smith just doesn’t have the vision or burst to really compete with the first two guys.

The receivers were a mixed bag today. Barber showed he’s finally healthy, with 6 catches for 92 yards. Noah Thomas had a couple of big catches, but had what would have been a 64-yard touchdown just glance off his hand early in the first half. The same with Cyrus Allen, who dropped a big throw that would have been huge. Jahdae Walker made a huge mistake with an offensive pass interference call, but had a 16-yard catch and run on the possession that led to Randy Bond’s final field goal. And it was good to see Tre Watson start getting into the gameplan a bit, as he had that spectacular 26-yard catch, run and hurdle on 3rd and 23.

Elko said the offense was “choppy”, and that’s a good word for it. They didn’t have any trouble moving the ball, but also didn’t take full advantage of their opportunities. Weigman had some big throws, and some horrible ones. Moss should have had his output doubled. The offensive line didn’t do a good job in run blocking, but Weigman had an incredible amount of time to throw.

The Aggies put up 34 points, and that’s not bad. But they remain a group that hasn’t put it all together yet.

It was a tale of two halves: the defense gave up 274 yards of offense and 17 points in the first half, and 94 and just 7 — on a short field — after halftime. Mississippi State had 95 yards rushing in the first quarter, and 30 for the rest of the game. The Aggies had 4 sacks and 11 tackles for loss and essentially dominated in the second half. It’s just bizarre it took so long.

The defense came out flat and State ran right over them — literally — on their first drive. A team that didn’t have a run over 19 yards all season had one for 40 right out of the gate. The Aggies were using a 3-man front, or a small 4-man front, and State took advantage when A&M got sloppy, allowed some big holes and didn’t tackle well. And then, after the end of the first quarter, there was no more running. State had 13 yards rushing in the second and third quarter, and then picked up a few yards when A&M let up late.

The linebackers had excellent games. Taurean York had 12 tackles, 1.5 TFL and half a sack, and he was where he needed to be when he needed to be there. Scooby Williams had maybe the best game of his career, with 6 tackles, 2 TFL, a sack wiped out by a BS penalty and an interception. Daymion Sanford had 7 tackles and a sack. When A&M started to really apply pressure, the linebackers did a good job with it.

The defensive line was strong for most of the game, especially on the interior. Albert Regis and Shemar Turner both had really good games, and there was no room for State to run on the interior after the first quarter. Nic Scourton only had two tackles and a TFL, but he affected the game in ways that didn’t show up on the stat sheet. He helped force the interception Williams got by simply bull rushing right into Michael Van Buren’s face. He would have had a better game, but he was banged up several times. Shemar Stewart was in a similar situation, where he didn’t get to Van Buren a lot but caused all kinds of trouble for him all the same. And the rough the passer call on him was absolute trash.

The JACK guys got a lot more work today, and Cashius Howell and Rylan Kennedy responded. Howell had a sack, 3 tackles and 3 passes broken up, which is not something you’d expect from him. Kennedy had two tackles and half a sack, and both guys were simply too fast for State’s tackles.

The secondary was the real letdown. Jaydon Hill, once again, got burned on a deep ball. He’s just not capable of handling SEC receivers. BJ Mayes got the lion’s share of the snaps after that and he did a much better job in coverage.

I didn’t like how soft A&M played in coverage, and that allowed State to convert a few third downs where they probably shouldn’t have. But, after halftime, the clamps were put on and State didn’t do much of anything.

The Aggies got a ton of pressure all night, but Van Buren is the real deal. But when it mattered, late in the game, the defense showed why they’re an elite group. So, while you’re not pleased with the first half and giving up 24 points, you’ll take it.

No complaints about special teams this week. Randy Bond nailed his two field goal attempts, Tyler White was fine and coverage teams were good. And, most importantly, they were ready and waiting when Lebby tried a fake punt in the third quarter.

I don’t think Collin Klein called that bad of a game. They saw some opportunities in the passing game and exploited them early, but Weigman had some stumbles. That’s not on Klein. The running game never really got on track, save for the two big runs wiped out from Moss. That’s not on him either. I didn’t like the rut of running the ball up the middle on second downs that we saw for a while there, but in the end, it’s still 34 points and 353 yards of offense — and only a single tackle for loss.

Jay Bateman was beaten by Jeff Lebby in the first half. He flipped the script on Lebby in the second half, as his guys just dominated by applying constant pressure. They got in Van Buren’s face and made him really uncomfortable. And with no running game to help him, it was just too much in the end. It was like something being put in a vise — the pressure just keeps being turned up until you break.