Five takeaways from Texas A&M’s road win over Mississippi State

No. 14 Texas A&M extended its winning streak to six games and went 4-0 in SEC play for the first time since 2016 as they defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 34-24, their first win in Starkville since the 2020 season.

The Aggies are now 6-1 on the season, with six straight wins since their season-opening loss to Notre Dame.

On the other hand, Mississippi State now falls to 1-6 and is still looking for its first win against SEC competition this year.

The Aggies will return to College Station next week to host their other SEC rivals, the LSU Tigers, in the Texas A&M Black Out game.

Until then, here are five takeaways from the Aggies’ road win in Starkville:

Step back from the running game

When a team rushes for 136 yards and three touchdowns, it’s usually a season high, but for a Texas A&M team that averaged 232 rushing yards per game, some would call it a lackluster performance. The Bulldogs were ready for the Aggie attack, holding Le’Veon Moss to 65 yards and Amari Daniels to 47 yards. Yet, as mentioned, the Aggies still scored three touchdowns on the ground. Even if the yards weren’t there, the points certainly would be there.

Mid-term adjustments pay off

Mike Elko must have lit a fire among some of his players in the locker room at halftime. After allowing 273 yards of offense and 17 points in the first half, the Aggies only allowed 94 yards and 7 points in the second half. Of course, Elko doesn’t want his men to be giving up yards and points at any point in the game, but knowing that their defense can still play at its highest level late in the game has to be a positive going forward.

Nervous about the away game for Weigman?

Conner Weigman led his men to victory and threw his first touchdown pass since the McNeese State game, but he also threw two interceptions and completed only 60 percent of his passes. Obviously Starkville and the cowbells must have made it hard to concentrate, but perhaps Weigman was just a little rusty in his first road start of the year, so we’ll put that down to that for now.

Scooby Williams Career Day

Zoinks! Scooby Williams had quite a day in Starkville, totaling six tackles, two of which resulted in loss of yardage as part of the 11 tackles for loss that Texas A&M had. He also had the Aggies’ only interception of the day. Scooby went down towards the end of the fourth quarter and we’ll wait to see how he fares throughout the week.

“Business as usual” for run defense

The Aggie run defense got off to a bit of a slow start, allowing more than 60 yards on the game’s first drive, but improved as the contest went on, allowing just 125 yards in the entire game. The Aggies didn’t allow Michael Van Buren to get comfortable in the pocket, putting him at -1 rushing yards on the day and keeping the Bulldog run game out of the end zone.

The Aggies return to College Station this Saturday to take on the LSU Tigers. TV and radio details will be released later in the week.