{"id":442471,"date":"2026-09-21T01:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442471\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T01:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:08:21","slug":"the-biggest-concern-texas-am-cant-ignore-after-loss-to-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442471\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Concern Texas A&#038;M Can&#8217;t Ignore After Loss to Kentucky"},"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 Texas A&amp;M Aggies were stunned at home for the first loss of the season after the Kentucky Wildcats came into College Station and thumped the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tamu\/football\/5-immediate-takeaways-from-texas-am-dreadful-loss-to-kentucky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aggies in a 31-21<\/a> game that marked the first big win of the Will Stein era. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">It was no secret that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tamu\/football\/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-in-texas-am-s-loss-to-kentucky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aggies offense struggled mightily<\/a>, failing to establish any form of consistency or rhythm throughout the game, placing the early deficit as an uphill battle. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tamu\/football\/texas-a-m-s-loss-to-kentucky-exposed-an-uncomfortable-truth-about-marcel-reed-01m2xxpw1tpz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">quarterback Marcel Reed&#8217;s<\/a> issues were certainly highlighted, the problem goes deeper than that, and looks even worse on paper the more he is put under pressure this season. <\/p>\n<p>Marcel Reed&#8217;s Struggles Have Become Impossible to Ignore<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2zvxdnfnhemrtrkra.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 speaks with a member of his coaching staff during a time-out in the fourth quarter against the Kentucky Wildcats 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\">The Aggies entered the year with somewhat tempered expectations for the offense, but Reed, entering year four with the program, was expected to continue making strides in his play, the same way he did last season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">That jump in production they are looking for however, is yet to be seen. Reed is currently 70th in passing yards with 632, is tied for 36th with six passing touchdowns, and he is tied for 98th with three interceptions. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">The struggles are evident, and he has continued to miss open receivers, including a critical fourth down conversion against the Wildcats that would have reset the downs while the Aggies were already trailing by multiple scores.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">The problem grows deeper, however, when looking at Reed&#8217;s struggles while under pressure. This season, he has attempted 21 passes under pressure, and has completed just six of them, for a competion percentage of 28.6<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">Those six passes have attributed to 100 yards, while also adding one touchdown and one interception as well. His yards per attempt while facing pressure, sits at just 4.6 yards. The pressure isn&#8217;t faced often for Reed eiter, as it&#8217;s happening on just 30.1 percent of dropbacks, but it is having an effect on him. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">Perhaps more importantly, the book is out on Reed. Defenses can throw pressure at him, and watch him struggle. the offense is throwing screens 18.3 percent of the times, which could increase if teams ramp up the pressure, but for now, it&#8217;s been a problem that will linger all year. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"86\">The rebuilt offensive line hasn&#8217;t been stellar, and has struggled, but if Reed continues to show little growth behind center, the rest of the year outlook might not grow any better.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">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-COP7zT6j.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-CR27V2Qt.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-BkJ6v8Fp.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-DBywg9xr.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"8h\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas A&amp;M Aggies were stunned at home for the first loss of the season after the Kentucky&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-442471","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\/442471","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=442471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}