COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Saturday night the Aggies hosted Bowling Green looking for their third straight win – and while they ultimately came away with the ‘W’ – there’s a lot the Maroon & White need to improve on before diving into their conference schedule.
“You know, I'm proud of our guys for making enough plays to win the game,” Aggie head coach Mike Elko said. “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. And I think a credit to our guys that we found a way to win it. Other than that, just so many things to fix and clean up. We got to get back to work Monday and get a lot better.”
While there is a lot to clean up – quarterback Marcel Reed was effective in his first start at Kyle Field. He threw for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns while rushing for 91 yards on 12 carries.
“I thought he made some plays with his feet, he kept some drives going, I thought he made some good throws,” Elko said “Obviously we started fast. The first drive going down the field and scoring the touchdown was good. I thought there were just times in the middle of the game where we just didn't operate the way we needed to. Some of that was on Marcel; some of that was on other people. But we just got to find ways to get him a little bit more comfortable operating on some of the stuff we're doing tonight.”
After missing 2 field goals last week against Florida, it was encouraging to see kicker Randy Bond bounce back and finish 4 for 4 on field goals Saturday night.
“I thought that was critical,” Elko said. “He made the ones that he needed to make. Then it was really good for him to go out in the fourth quarter and make the big one. Obviously, in the fourth quarter we had a couple of chances last week to put the game a little further in line. It didn't go right. It was good to see him bounce back the way he did. I thought he was a big part of the game tonight.”
The defense was able to hold the Falcons to just 89 yards on the ground but they still feel like they could apply more pressure.
“We're supposed to be a dominant force on the defense end,” defensive lineman Nic Scourton said. “I think for us to, you know, win and dominate game, we've got to dominate. Obviously, I think we played okay. But I think it's a lot of holes and stuff that we can fix so we can go out there and make plays and take some stress off those guys in the back.”
Scourton went on to say, “We got guys who are in position to go get drafted. I think we need to make more plays. I think we need to stop runs before they get to the second level. I think we're going to practice harder. We're going to go and work harder, and we're going to try to stop that.”
Elko did say the positive takeaway is that they won the game and now the Aggies sit at 3-1 as they get ready to take on Arkansas in the Southwest Classic, Saturday afternoon at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2:30pm.
