No. 6 Aggies never flinch in second-half domination of Mississippi State

Click HERE to view Texas A&M’s postgame press conference.

Game #5: No. 6 Texas A&M 31, Mississippi State 9
Records: Texas A&M (5-0, 2-0), Mississippi State (4-2, 0-2)
Box Score

At halftime, Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko’s disposition was much different than yours.

Admit it. You were upset. You were frustrated. You were maybe even angry.

Another rash of penalties. A failure to score from the 1-yard line. An interception. Quarterback Marcel Reed completed just 5-of-12 passes with an interception. Even with a 34-yard touchdown pass to KC Concepcion, the Aggies had a precarious 7-3 lead. That was more than enough to put you in a sour mood.

Not Elko. He was calm, cool and collected as he addressed the Aggies in the locker room. Nary a chair was thrown.

That was Elko’s story, anyway.

“(I) was very calm,” he said after the No. 6 Aggies (5-0, 2-0) had secured a 31-9 Southeastern Conference victory over Mississippi State (4-2, 0-2). “The thought that coaches come and start throwing things… It really wasn’t that.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

With the victory, Mike Elko is now 17-1 at home as a head coach vs. unranked opponents.

Star receiver Mario Craver begged to differ.

“Oh, he was fired up,” Craver said in a postgame press conference. “He was on our butts about penalties. He definitely wasn’t happy.”

Thirty minutes later — after A&M dominated the second half — Elko (and you) was much happier.

Why not? The No. 6 Aggies more than doubled the offensive production of Mississippi State, scored on three consecutive possessions in the second half and neutered the Bulldogs’ vaunted running game.

“Proud of our guys,” Elko said. “Thought we came out tonight with the right energy and the right mentality to stay consistent and keep this thing moving forward.

“We wound up winning an SEC game going away. That’s hard to do and really impressive.”

Any victory in the hazardous SEC is indeed impressive. But A&M’s second-half performance was more than that. It was tremendous.

A&M rolled up 300 yards of offense in the second half alone. Meanwhile, the Aggies limited Mississippi State to 112. Almost half of those came on a meaningless 44-yard touchdown pass after A&M had taken a 28-3 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Consequently, A&M gave up just one touchdown for the second consecutive game. They also allowed Mississippi State to convert just once on 10 third-down opportunities. In two SEC games, A&M’s opponents have converted on one of 23 third-down situations.

Actually, A&M’s defense, which dominated Auburn a week ago, was again remarkable almost from the outset.

Mississippi State did launch a 15-play, 83-yard drive for a short-lived 3-0 lead in the first quarter, but the visitors did very little afterward.

The Bulldogs, behind running back Fluff Bothwell, rolled up 203 rushing yards in an overtime loss to Tennessee. Bothwell had 134 yards and two touchdowns against the Volunteers.

But the Aggies rebuffed Fluff. He managed only 60 yards. All but 14 were gained in the first half. Overall, Mississippi State managed a mere 77 rushing yards. Two-thirds (52) was gained on the drive for the field goal.

“They had a big run on us in the first drive, so I felt like they had momentum,” said linebacker Daymion Sanford, who had a spectacular showing with nine tackles, two for losses, a sack and an interception. “After that, we stopped the run and stopped their momentum.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

With an interception, a sack and two TFLs, linebacker Daymion Sanford established himself as a candidate to win the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Week award.

Meanwhile, Reed, Rueben Owens II and A&M’s offense picked up momentum in the second half.

Reed completed eight of 11 for 119 yards in the second half. That included a 2-yard touchdown pass to Concepcion with 3:36 left in the third quarter.

Reed ran for a 7-yard touchdown to cap A&M’s next series. Then, Craver, a transfer from Mississippi State, ended A&M’s next possession on a 7-yard run to give A&M a 28-3 lead with 9:13 remaining.

Mississippi State managed a 44-yard touchdown pass, but A&M leaned on Owens, who rushed three times for 50 yards, on a drive for a Randy Bond field goal.

Owens finished with a career-high 142 rushing yards. As was the theme of the night, 95 were gained in he second half.

“As the game goes on, you could tell they were getting tired,” Owens said. “In the first half, their safeties were coming down trying to lay a hit on you. As the game came down, they don’t want to keep doing that. It’s body blows and body blows. Like [running backs coach Trooper Taylor] says, ‘We’re gonna see who flinches first.’ They flinched first.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Rueben Owens II fan for a career-high 142 yards.

The Aggies never flinched. Not even when Elko delivered his halftime speech.

“It wasn’t all negative in the first half, but we had to find ways to get into a rhythm,” he said. “And so (the message) was really more just about, like, ‘You’re in an SEC football game. SEC football games are not easy. They’re going to be four-quarter football games. … so get this out of your mind that this thing is going to be smooth and just go out there and compete and grind.’”

The Aggies did. Elko was happy. And so were you.