{"id":436397,"date":"2026-09-15T07:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436397\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T07:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:26:12","slug":"mike-elko-knows-that-work-has-to-be-done-on-texas-ams-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436397\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Elko Knows That Work Has To Be Done on Texas A&#038;M&#8217;s Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">The No. 10 Texas A&amp;M Aggies secured win number two to start the 2026 campaign in the form of a 48-20 blowout over the Arizona State Sun Devils this past Saturday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">Much similar to the season opener, Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s defense was the star of the show, especially in the fourth quarter, where they were able to force three straight turnovers, including two interceptions that turned into pick-sixes during a 24-point fourth quarter. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">The specialties on defense made up for the seemingly lackluster production on offense, as the game was tightly-knit 24-20 in favor of the Aggies at the beginning of the fourth quarter with Marcel Reed and the rest of the offense struggling to deliver a consistent level of play. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously Not Good Enough&#8221;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2hjpj223gm7en4vqs.jpg\" alt=\"Texas A&amp;M Aggies head coach Mike Elko \" title=\"Texas A&amp;M Aggies head coach Mike Elko \" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"76\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas A&amp;M Aggies head coach Mike Elko looks on during the first quarter against the Missouri State Bears at Kyle Field. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Monday afternoon, during his weekly pregame press conference, Elko gave his take on the offense&#8217;s performance against the Sun Devils, which, as many could presume, he also said there was much to be desired from his men. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">&#8220;Obviously, it wasn&#8217;t good enough for sure,&#8221; Elko said, speaking specifically on the rushing game. &#8220;It is certainly an area that needs to improve. We have to be able to run the ball more effectively than that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">One week removed from a 236-yard rushing attack in the season opener against Missouri State, the Maroon and White could only form 92 yards on the ground against the Sun Devils last Saturday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">Elko then shifted to talking about the offensive line, which he attributed to the faulty ground game. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">&#8220;I think when you look at the tape, you know, obviously I think we&#8217;ve got to do a better job of blocking up front. That&#8217;s part of it. We&#8217;ve got to do a better job of running behind the blocks,&#8221; Elko said. &#8220;We missed some blocks with perimeter guys having to block the extra guys that didn&#8217;t get done at the level it needs to, so it was kind of breakdowns at all three levels that I think caused the deficiency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">And with SEC play now starting this weekend against the Kentucky Wildcats, the head coach knows that this flaw needs to be corrected, and fast. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"86\">&#8220;We are not going to be very successful much longer if we don&#8217;t find better ways to run the football. There&#8217;s no doubt about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">The Aggies welcome the Wildcats to Kyle Field for their first meeting since 2018 when the two teams face off this Saturday at 2:30 PM.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8g\">Sign up to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tamu\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> our free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AggiesOnSI\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Facebook<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TAMUAggiesOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow\"> X<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tamuaggiesonsi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Instagram<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-BbZK0jV5.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-Cd4E7CfV.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-B8B4goP5.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-DCvrJiMh.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"8m\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 10 Texas A&amp;M Aggies secured win number two to start the 2026 campaign in the form&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-436397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}