Texas A&M walked into Baton Rouge with plenty already hanging over it, and left with even more damage after a 35-6 loss to LSU on Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.
What made this one sting wasn’t just the score. It was the way it fit the picture from the week before.
The miserable showing against Kentucky could have been brushed off as a one-off. Two straight losses, and the same flat response showing up again, starts to look a lot less like a bad night and a lot more like who this team is right now.
That is a brutal place for the Aggies to be after the kind of season they had in 2025. Texas A&M went 11-1 in the regular season and reached the College Football Playoff in Mike Elko’s second year in College Station.
That kind of run naturally raises expectations for what comes next. Instead, the early part of this season has sent things in the opposite direction.
The larger issue is that there doesn’t appear to be an easy answer. There isn’t some quick adjustment waiting in the wings to make this group look like the team people expected in August.
The Aggies have already slipped too far for the preseason conversation to matter much now. They are not winning the SEC, and a path back to the College Football Playoff would require a turnaround this team has not shown any reason to deliver.
Saturday gave another clear example of why. LSU led 14-3 early in the third quarter when the Tigers faced fourth-and-1 at their own 43-yard line and kept the offense on the field. It was the kind of moment Texas A&M needed to seize if it wanted to change the feel of the game.
Instead, the opposite happened. Sam Leavitt hit Jackson Harris wide open - and he was wide open - for a 57-yard touchdown that pushed LSU’s lead to three scores. From there, the game kept tilting harder and harder away from the Aggies, with LSU’s defense suffocating Texas A&M and the Tigers doing enough on offense to keep the pressure on.
That one play may not have been the only reason Texas A&M lost. Given how the rest of the night played out, it probably wouldn’t have been enough to save them anyway. But it did fit the pattern that has been forming: when the Aggies need something to stop the slide, too often nothing happens.
There has been no real response when things start to go wrong. No backbone.
No sign that this team can steady itself once the game starts slipping away. That’s the part that will keep costing Texas A&M until it changes.
The Aggies should at least get a chance to reset at home against Arkansas next week. But after the last two Saturdays, nothing feels guaranteed.
The margin for error is gone now. Every remaining game has to be sharp, clean and precise because Texas A&M has already burned through whatever cushion it once had.
Maybe the Aggies sort it out later. Maybe November brings a completely different version of this team and all of this looks overblown in hindsight.
Right now, there’s not much to support that hope. The same team that showed up against Kentucky showed up again in Baton Rouge. And at some point, you have to believe what you’re seeing.
In Other News...
Johnny Manziel Just Said What Texas A&M Fans Are Fearing
Johnny Manziels postgame criticism landed with the kind of force only a former Texas A&M star can bring. After the loss to LSU, he took to social media to question what the Aggies are doing right now, and the reaction was not hard to understand. The offense has struggled to find rhythm, the defense has had its own issues, and the overall look has been of a team still searching for something steady to hang onto in SEC play.
For Aggies fans, the uncomfortable part is that the problems do not seem isolated to one side of the ball. Coaching, cohesion and the lack of a clear offensive identity have all become part of the conversation, with the running game looking like one area that could help set a tone if it ever gets going. Until then, the concern Manziel voiced is the same one hovering over the program: the season feels like it needs a reset, and there is no obvious sign yet of where that comes from. [Read more 🡒]
Mario Craver Is Giving Texas A&M Fans A New Reason To Vent
Texas A&Ms rocky start has already left Aggies fans looking for answers after two straight losses erased the momentum of a 2-0 opening, and now receiver Mario Craver has given them another topic to grumble about. The latest frustration came off the field, where Craver drew criticism on social media after liking Instagram photos of Peyton Blomquist, the Florida Gators fan who went viral during Floridas win over Ole Miss.
For a fan base already uneasy about the direction of the season, the timing could hardly be worse. Even a small social media gesture can become a talking point when a team is trying to steady itself, and Cravers online activity landed in the middle of a week when Texas A&M supporters were already searching for reasons to feel better about a 2-2 start. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Fans Wont Love What Elko Is Facing After LSU Loss
A rough night in Baton Rouge left Texas A&M searching for answers after a 35-6 loss to LSU dropped the Aggies to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in SEC play. The offense never found much rhythm, the defense spent too much time on its heels, and the kind of complementary football Mike Elko has been trying to build was nowhere to be found.
Marcel Reeds uneven performance only added to the frustration, but Elko said he is not changing the starting quarterback for now. For a fan base already uneasy about the early conference skid, the bigger concern may be how many areas need fixing at once, from protection and execution on offense to a defense that could not generate pressure or keep LSU from piling up passing yards. [Read more 🡒]