r/CFB • u/CFB_Referee /r/CFB • Oct 05 '25

Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Texas A&M Defeats Mississippi State 31-9

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team 1 2 3 4 T
Mississippi State 3 0 0 6 9
Texas A&M 0 7 7 17 31
1.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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318

u/The_WanderingAggie Texas A&M Aggies • Texas Longhorns Oct 05 '25

Score is pretty misleading as to how tough that game was, Mississippi State is a good team that should've been ranked.

If- big if- A&M can clean up the penalties and have both the offense and defense clicking at the same time, the future looks bright. Hopefully Klein has learned some lessons on Reed's strengths

90

u/tatertot123420 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Notice how when we cleaned up penalties on offense in the second half we started to score every drive

109

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Good teams are gonna stack the box and dare Reed to beat them deep.. I don’t think he’s capable of doing it, unfortunately.

91

u/KyleOfShit Texas A&M • Lonestar Showdown Oct 05 '25

If he can learn some touch he could be so good with these WRs. He's missed like 4 wide open TDs because of overthrows on defenders getting beat

66

u/12thHam Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

4 is generous. I’m a big Reed fan for other reasons but the deep ball has been frustrating and inexplicable

7

u/MordredKLB Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

At this point I'm just sick of Klein calling it. Sure every now and then it turns into a TD, but the other 80% it's incomplete or worse. Keep him to throws 15 yards and under and we should be unstoppable.

27

u/TaxAg11 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

We have to keep calling it... it keeps the safeties back. We don't even need to hit it them often, just once or twice a game would make our offense work so much better.

6

u/MordredKLB Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Yeah, that's fair. Just frustrating that outside penalties, everything else is working so well on offense... and then we just put ourselves behind the chains, or end drives with incompletes that aren't close to catches.

1

u/Ace_6_Pirate Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

We just need Reed to start underthrowing those deep balls so we draw some PIs.

29

u/No11223456 Texas A&M Aggies • /r/CFB Poll Veteran Oct 05 '25

He also had open guys at much more manageable yardage when he took the deep shots.

9

u/DesNutz Texas A&M Aggies • Samford Bulldogs Oct 05 '25

That was my biggest take away. He had multiple opportunities at ~10yd wide open check down, and instead decided to toss a 40+yd bomb that was overthrown. I'd like to see a smarter progression, instead of focusing on the big plays all the time. He IS a good passer in that 10-20 range, and I'd like to see it utilized a bit more. If you can use that AND the run, it will leave opportunities for the big passes.

4

u/ChiefWatchesYouPee Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

I agree with this.

Multiple times I was telling my buddy he missed a check down for 5-7 yards

2

u/No11223456 Texas A&M Aggies • /r/CFB Poll Veteran Oct 05 '25

His check downs are also so electric. They can get YAC. It’s not normal for us, so we need to take advantage of it lol

1

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

“Learning” those touch throws is incredibly difficult. I think people underestimate the talent it takes to do that. It’s like asking Shaq to learn to shoot a 3 pointer.

maybe he can do it in practice, but he just doesn’t have the natural ability to do it at game speed, and that’s not really something you learn.

37

u/JL1v10 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

You don’t have to chuck it deep to beat a stacked box though. That’s something Klein could learn. Not every pass has to be a bomb or long developing route

16

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Corners will play man, safeties will play shallow and the box will be stuffed to stop the running game.

If he had a weak arm but was accurate, the receivers are good enough to get those quick throws. But Reed isn’t accurate. These receivers won’t be nearly as open against top SEC teams, and Reed hasn’t shown he can consistently throw into a tight window.

That in combination with the inability hit a deep pass is going to haunt us against playoff caliber teams.

8

u/JL1v10 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

I don’t disagree with this. I do think the offense however already is somewhat inexplicably operating in a manner that waits until they hit 1 in 8 deep passes and then they score that drive. Against better teams, I think you’re still functionally waiting for the same thing. I agree that the offense needs better qb play, but it also needs an overhaul in basic execution and play design.

2

u/tiredpapa7 Texas A&M Aggies • Rose-Hulman Engineers Oct 05 '25

Also, remember that Reed ultimately decides where to throw the ball. Unless it’s an all verticals play call, Reed goes through his read progressions before deciding where to throw. Not Klein.

A deep ball will always be the last (or maybe second to last if you leave an RB or TE in to block who then releases).

The only way to keep Reed from throwing that would be to take it out of the route tree, which results in more defenders in a smaller space and less room for receivers to get open. Which matters when your quarterback isn’t that accurate.

Now I didn’t live Klein’s play calling when we got stuffed at the goal line. But I also get it. We need to be able to get it in from there between the tackles. I think at least one of those play calls was a zone read by Reed that he should have kept.

Ultimately we can’t tell from the TV view if Reed is making the right decisions. You have to watch the all 22 for that.

25

u/TheBlackBaron Texas A&M • North Texas Oct 05 '25

Don't even need to beat them deep. Just beat them in the 10-20 zone. He's shown he can do that, Klein needs to put him in a position to succeed.

26

u/Euroranger Texas A&M Aggies • USF Bulls Oct 05 '25

Not yet.

But he was better today than last week. He's getting better.

4

u/LucidBetrayal Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

100% with you. His mechanics are not good. He doesn’t drive the ball with his legs so it’s a lot of upper body and core with his throws which kills his accuracy on the long balls.

2

u/gcfgjnbv Oct 05 '25

That’s what Klein basically did today. Take so many stupid ass deep shots that they stop loading the box to defend it.

Now it requires a really solid defense which isn’t always guaranteed so bad plan.

2

u/space-tech Texas A&M Aggies • Navy Midshipmen Oct 05 '25

My dude, did you watch the Notre Dame game?

1

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Yes he got hot in the 2nd half. Have you watched every other game? How do you not see the bigger picture?

2

u/tcox0010 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Did you watch the Notre Dame game? That’s pretty much all he did

2

u/discipleofbill Notre Dame • Laurier Oct 05 '25

Tbf, he probably could’ve had about 2 or 3 more TDS he just straight up missed. Guys were wide open that whole game.

1

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

He doesn’t do it consistently enough to win against the top teams. This will be evident if they make the playoffs. That was his best game by a mile and he only had 2 good quarters of football.

0

u/tcox0010 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

Well regardless he’s shown he’s capable. Still young, just needs to be more consistent

2

u/Automatic_Release_92 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Oct 05 '25

I mean it’s kind of what happens against ND. We clearly worked very hard to contain him, the only time he had decent runs that night too were kind of just plays where the DE got taken down and even those weren’t explosive plays.

Reed had the ugliest 360 yards against our secondary (something like 45%) but it was 360 yards and good enough for the win obviously.

1

u/NYsportsfan99 Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

That was his best passing game by a mile too. If that’s his ceiling we are in trouble and honestly it appears to be his ceiling lol.

1

u/Cred811 Texas A&M • Oklahoma State Oct 05 '25

You don’t need to go deep to stretch a stacked box. I think we saw the gameplan in the third quarter - spread the ball out wide and attack the outer thirds of the field. Once we got that quick outside passing game working suddenly the box opened up for Reuben.

16

u/Poohstrnak Texas State Bobcats • Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

The first half was driving me nuts, it was basically running plays or 40yd shots downfield that he couldn’t place the ball quite where it needed to be

3

u/TexasForever_ Texas A&M Aggies • Arizona Wildcats Oct 05 '25

If Reed can find his touch on deep balls, we’re gonna be extra dangerous.

3

u/R4gn4_r0k Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

A&M is now 6-0 under Elko when we receive at least 9 penalties... So don't clean them up too much. https://i.imgur.com/upLiLmP.jpeg

2

u/jfb1027 Texas A&M Aggies • Nebraska Cornhuskers Oct 05 '25

Great game by D and good job getting it together by offense. I’m wondering if the Cabo quote is going to bight us on the social medias.

1

u/PenisChugger Texas A&M Aggies Oct 05 '25

If they could stop calling phantom holds on us while never calling holding on the opposing O line, that would be great too.