TexAgs Post Game Wrap: No. 7 Notre Dame 23, No. 20 Texas A&M 13

hello everyone and welcome into the texax postgame R brought to you by Alpha Paving where A&M Falls 23 to13 to Notre Dame Alpha pavings an award-winning Paving contractor serving Texas ready to deliver excellent customer service meticulous project management quality workmanship and all of your asphalt and concrete needs their projects include retail office multif family industrial for clients at the Dallas boys HB great star visit them at alphap paving.com and let them get to work for you Chris Harrington's with us hey Chris hey Brandon Leone is with us and Chris Taylor is gonna is with us as well and uh guys and my initial thoughts and I'd love for all of us to kind of just go back and forth when we do this my my initial thoughts are first off everybody's grumpy like right like let's be honest like this is not the the opening game that I think we had been waiting for eight nine months for credit to Notre Dame for being a team that got strong as the game went on and unfortunately A&M had one of their worst uh defensive drives of the entire game at the end of the game when they took the the lead and then offensively it just it just didn't click Brandon why don't you start us off yeah I mean it's just you feel sick for Coach Elco and the players obviously huge opportunity to kick off the season with game day in town and you know him his debut and bitman and Klein's debut I mean I think everybody anticipated a different ending than this but I mean first and foremost it's hard to win any game much less a top 10 game when you lose the turnover battle uh those turnovers were critical uh the lack of explosive plays I mean that was to me a big difference in the game they had a lot of I say a lot three or four big explosive games and even you know Fran used to say all the time three to five game three to five plays a game can change it and then I think you know our inability to create separation at wide receiver yeah that's something we have got to figure out uh Chris can talk obviously much better than me about the trenches but you know I'm watching the guys at wide out and we're just not creating any space You know guys weren't open we never stretched the field do look like we did anything across the middle and so you know it's hard Chris I know you'll feel the same when you don't watch the game film we just pop in here right off the top of the head initial thoughts yeah yeah just initial thoughts but you know for me I didn't see anybody that was a game breaker today at receiver now they have some great defensive backs I think this will be one of the best defenses if not the best we see all year but uh you know we got to be able to get open space uh get open in space and get some separation from the defensive back and the few times that our wide receivers were open we'd missed the throw yeah Conor missed the throw so and then the other thing you know last and I hate to say it but everybody knows it man 15 that was probably his worst outing as a quarterback and you know whether it's lack of protection lack of confidence timing new system whatever it was uh he's got to play better for us to have a successful season Chris uh you were mentioning like the defense is good but they didn't do anything that made you think wow this is a great defense it was just more they were disciplined and sound yeah I mean visually like looking at them um not overly impressive um but like consistently setting edges linebackers filling hard you know great you know like not allowing Separation on the you know the corners and like holding tough there but um yeah it was um you know you mentioned like Notre Dame getting better as they went through the game I felt like the Aggie defense got better as it went through the game 12th man got involved it got loud some really exciting things from a defensive perspective um you know it was really I mean the Shamar had some great plays scorton had a great play you know it just offense has to you know time of possession look at that I mean if you look at the passing yards like 100 yards 12 for 30 100 yards two two turnovers a turnover game is huge you know defense was on the field way too long I mean that's part of it so CT um I can't control if you're there but uh just your initial thoughts on what happened tonight and uh what you expected to see and what you ended up seeing I think for me tonight it was you know it's it's the frustration I think we all feel it we all feel the same way and it's you know we just haven't turned that corner and you know you look at it from an offensive standpoint and I'm not quite sure what was going on with with with you know because we started the game you know a ton of movement a ton of pre- snap movement being able to to you know understand what coverages and things that Notre Dame was going to be in pre- snap and it seemed that we got away from that a little bit as the game progressed and so I think it was a little harder for Connor to be able to read you know I I wrote a note with 7:30 to go in the game um we read it as manto man but it was cover too and you look and know it's running wide open down down our sideline and it's just those things not being on the same page not understanding what the defense is the defense is given to you in that moment so it is going to be go back was the tape and I think those guys are going to be sick because there are a ton of opportunities out there that I think we left on the field but you got to give credit to that Notre Dame team they came in tough environment opening night college game day uh they played well enough and made fewer mistakes not to lose the game and um you know I think it's a great teaching moment for ELO and that staff to go back and try to sh some things up because it's not going to get any easier for here so um tough loss tonight you know we start the fourth quarter game could swung either way they made more plays than we did and we start to see one so back to the drawing board ready to travel next week guys I wrote down like in the first half I'm like there was too many mistakes especially in the first quarter right you you've got the EJ Smith on Third and three I didn't have the benefit of Replay but he I don't know if it was overthrown or if he dropped oped but either way you got to get that one Dalton Brooks you can't have that mistake that early on right the targeting Jay Walker the false start on the uh QB snake which would have been a I think it was third and one if I remember correct first down it was a first down but it happened on the third and one they would have gotten in the first um and then obviously Conor's overthrow of Noah who's tall by the way he's very tall those mistakes I don't know if they're scoring on all those possessions I don't know you know I think you gave Notre Dame the I mean you gave them points on that Dalton Brooks play right yeah no I I you said it I think when we were visiting early on when it mattered most they made the plays and and we made a lot of midle mistakes that hurt us uh also you think about in the fourth quarter when we were driving you know we threw an out route to Levon Moss I think we had him out wide he catches the ball on the 30 and a half yard line and he runs out of bounds short of the sticks you know and so these little mental mistakes like no one down in distance you know like Chris said uh I think those those those two3 penalties that you talked about in the first quarter you know took away a first down and we didn't get into their Red Zone until the fourth quarter you know when we were driving the football and so these little mistakes like that man they come back to haunt a team in a big way and you know I think one of the things that I was excited about that we we somewhat took advantage of man our player of the game to me was probably our punter you know a big thing we used to talk about on the team was the Battle of hidden yardage and flipping the field and he put three back inside the 20 put our defense in a good position a couple punts that were 61 yards I think and so we had a lot of opportunities the defense had them backed up but you said it best man when it mattered most whether offensively or defensively they executed and we didn't and you just it's hard to win these big games when you don't execute when you're supposed to Chris when you think about Connor look I I have some empathy for Connor because and and Grace because he's coming back from a year of playing right unfortunately the last six quarters we've seen him play the first half against Auburn when he got hurt he wasn't his best and this game obviously wasn't his best today though he just didn't have that um The Moxy that I'm used to seeing from him I think that was missing I don't know if he wasn't feeling good I know there was video of him throwing up during the game I don't know what it was but something didn't seem like the Connor that I've seen in the past yeah no I mean as an athlete you're always chasing that that Perfection that perfect feeling when you're in the zone and you're feeling the game obviously you know that video of him throwing up is all over the Internet you know and I don't know if that has something to do with it but he definitely was not on his game um and I mean is it fair to to keep him out there I mean I I don't know you know what that I don't have to make those decisions those aren't my decisions but you know he's your starting quarterback you stick with him we're in position you know up until that fourth quarter to you know it was a close ball game like we talked about it was going to be a defensive battle up to the end you know you got a lowc scoring game you know defensive step and up but you know just pounding pounding pounding and then they pop a couple runs you know and that's it well CT I there's a question on the on the chat from the aie kid says David uh what Connor have you seen that I have and what game do I need to go back and watch to see Elite quarterback play genuinely asking and off the top of my head the Old Miss game where he made his debut and couple seasons ago right the Miami game last year I thought he was absolutely Elite 100% um I thought the LSU game at the end of 20 and by the way we're talking about he only played four games last year his eth game yeah is that right uh but Miami I thought he was Elite I thought he was Elite against Miss and he was Elite against LSU even though Deon uh Devon aain to me was the the story of that game but he was Elite enough yeah he managed the game well he made the throws he needed to he took care of the football right I and those were the things that he didn't do today he did not take care of the football um he didn't make the throws he needed to make he missed the throws that he should have made and so this it was uncharacteristic of him at his best and so I agree with you Nuno I mean he shown us that he has everything there's a reason all these guys all over Twitter and all over the media leading up to this game had him projected in the first round if he had the type of game that you and I are talking about Chris is talking about but he didn't have that game today and so like you said Chris whether he was sick whether he wasn't feeling well whether it was adrenaline whatever it was he was off today uh I don't expect to see him play that poorly again but again let's let's go back to this they weren't super impressive but that defense was well coached they were sound and I also think when we lost Mark nibu that that impacted the protection a little bit and so there's it's so hard to say you know these super strong opinions without going back and watching the tap but flat out I mean he just did not have if he plays like this the rest of the year one I don't think he finishes the season you know because you got to make a switch but two it's G to be tough to win in the SEC CT what what did you see from some from Wiggy and also like uh the uh Aggy kid says you got to be elite against Elite defenses for me to consider you Elite I don't know if anybody has called him Elite I think we've all said he feels like he's going to go in that direction um and he's had Elite I thought he had an Elite Performance against Miami I I do and I think Jordan Rogers said the exact same thing but CT what have you seen from from what did you see from Conor today and what do you think the biggest issue was well you know coming in to a season I can understand you know the Nerds and and being hyped up you know and that's the one position that that really can't afford to have that but you know once you get Midway through the first quarter you you expect those things to be you know to kind of have died down and you know I think there was something going on with him you know from a a health standpoint but you know in today's football n am you know it's it's big because you know you're able to go out and get players and so you know I look at college football game today much like the pros you know you're getting paid to do a to you know to play a game and so you know I think tonight what I saw from Conor it looked like you know footwork was was not as crisp as it has been uh he was unsure of some plays but again that Notre Dame Secondary man that they they were flying around they were sticky all night we couldn't create separation so part of that was the problem too but you know as I said before you've got to be able to to understand what's going on pre snap being able to figure out you know reading from those safeties down to make sure that you're making the right the right reads and I thought we missed a couple of those today so you know he's had some he's had some some moments where he has flashed that you he he he's supposed to be the guy but then you have one of those games tonight and that's for those Elite guys the guys that are in the Heisman conversations and the guys that are leading their teams to to that next level conference championships and eventually the playoffs you can't have these types of games and so um you know again go back to the tape they'll watch it hopefully they come out and and they're able to fix a lot of those things but I thought the old line play played solid tonight you know they I knowre Dame only had one sack U I didn't feel like Conor was running for his life I didn't think he got hit it was just he there was something off in the pocket all night he never seemed to have gotten comfortable and uh he just didn't play his he didn't play his best game tonight so hopefully we get some things fixed we go back and and and you know it's it's a one game season from here on that one in one next week Chris what what did you see from both lines offensive lines on on both sides cuz I saw Notre Dame team that we had hoped that that their inexperience would cause them problems I didn't see that part of that was the way I think that they designed their offense was quick throws quick throws quick throws don't allow that defense to get after him what' you see yeah I mean I saw a lot of there was a lot of screen game you know taking advantage of that aggressive Pursuit um I think I think I saw one false start like from them so from for a young group they did a great job in a hostile environment you know kind of keeping it together I just remember hearing my you know the thought that like man Connor's got so much time so I felt like the our offensive line gave him can you come say hi plenty of time that's the guy right there I'm sorry I just got I met you earlier and I was bragging everybody about you Shane Gillis in the house everybody how are you guys big fan of you my man how are you can we show this on when he when he said on game day when he's like what do you think president Trump's gonna say right now he's like what a loser that was the best I'm in a bad mood but you're here so I'm happy be honest you guys great it was so nice being here aw I don't know honestly when notame it it was very Notre D aesque yeah the way people treated me like as an outsider and to be honest when you lose because I'm a notame fan all we do is lose um usually when notame loses and everybody was nice the whole time I'm like what are we doing gotta be mean but anyway you guys were great yeah and uh I hope that made sense did that make sense 100% And I'm sorry to put you on the error live but you guys are awesome was about as as great great glad you're here Luchi you made my night Luchi thank you sir yeah 100% you gave me a boost right there that's the Shane don't bail on your off yeah there you go just said it right there yeah I agree that's pretty freaking cool that's really cool a great I'm a huge fan of that I'm not let me rephrase that I'm in a terrible mood that& M lost because they're gonna write about me on the boards they're already mad at me for saying don't bring up the weather again nun you brought it up 279 times it wasn't hot today no it wasn't it was early on like tailgating and hanging out earlier it was but by the time we got to the game and warm-ups down on the field it was cool we've been down there before when it's cooking it should be 10 or 15 degrees harder 100% early in the season yeah so uh and by the way weather can play a factor in the South that's why it's a factor it wasn't I'm sorry it wasn't and I'm sorry for asking the question the the other thing is offensively I don't know what I don't know what they were trying to do because I feel like when things weren't working early like then like even the game plan seemed a little bit off moving forward did you see that well I mean like Chris said I saw I feel like there was a decent amount of movement throughout the game but it seemed like more early on and again man I don't know if nibu being injured man losing your Center's tough I mean that's that's not a good thing and I don't know much about the backup I don't I know y'all talked about him a little bit in the offseason but I think that's a big loss especially when they best players lining up right in front of him or my you know minus the corner on the outside but uh you know it was it was disappointing because it just seemed like I was wondering we didn't see much tight end game and I think a part of that's probably because they were bringing pressure they were stacking it so we probably to keep them in the box and help so I thought we'd see more use of the tight ends uh I thought we'd test the Deep ball a little bit longer and I thought we'd test the middle a little bit more didn't seem like we did that and again I don't know if it's because we couldn't create separation and they weren't confident in giving Connor time but uh yeah I don't know much about it's my first time seeing Klein with our guys I'm going go back and watch it obviously but it wasn't consistent there was never a rhythm whether between quarterback and receiver o line whatever it was that it just never seemed they never found their groove they never got in their groove CT what the best drive for A&M at least in the initial Parts was that first drive and I thought they were going to score until EJ Smith wasn't able to get to that ball then it wasn't again until they tied it at 13 there was a lot of not moving of the football from the beginning to that middle part of the fourth yeah and and again it's just no separation um I I thought you know in the in the second and third I think in the third quarter I heard a stat that like 10 yards in offense it was brutal in the third but um we didn't get much movement during you know during the middle part of the game I thought Notre Dame was able to set settle in their defense was able to establish themselves and I thought they were able to give us a lot of exotic looks that you know quite frankly it confused us you know from the quarterback standpoint but you know being able to to you know steal be in the game you're you're in the fourth quarter you go down you tie the game um you know we force them to punt we get it and then you know like Leone said Le'Veon makes the catch runs backwards loses the first down but then we we have a great Punt and we Pinn them down on their 15 and they go 85 yards for that touchdown and that's just the back Breer so um yeah it's you know it's tough the the these are tough you know we've been hyping this game for eight months the excitement around this team has been there Elco the excitement around him and then we go out and we lose one that I felt that in the fourth quarter we were in control we had the football but I think six minutes and change to go with a chance to go down to to to do basically what they did to us to end the game and so that's the frustrating part we still haven't understood or we still haven't learned how to win in those clutch moments win those close football games I mean I think we F to realize know day was seven coming in tonight and we had a chance to make a statement early by knocking them off setting the tone for the season and and we fall 10o short so just the the frustration is there you know now let's just take it one game at a time get better every single day and you know I say we've gota we've got to look at our situation on the outside we got to get Terry busy he's got to be more involved uh we've got to get more speed on the field from a standpoint of of wide receiver give those guys an opportunity you know where it's Mo Muhammed um you know that seems to be always the question but we just got to we've got to look at that group on the outside they've got to be able to create separation make some plays down field and I think that will ease some of that you'll see our Run game start to take over yeah it's fair to say that I I thought the defense was really good but I thought it was going to be better and that's I feel like that that's a low blow I don't mean it that way I just thought the sacks were going to happen in this game and and part of it is a tip of the cap to Notre Dame what they were able to do but I thought we were going to be living A&M was going to be living in that back field they weren't but A&M's defense was solid I mean for until that last Drive where they scored to make it 20 to 13 I thought that they were the better defense outside of the turnovers well I mean there wasn't a lot of dropback pass I mean it was a lot of quick throws a lot of screen game you know and a couple of big runs like but I like homeboy said what's his name the yeah yeah like he said like don't give up on your defense like got an elite defense like up front don't give up on the offense you said too yeah and you know we just had off day on offense and it takes both sides of it and when you lose a turnover batter battle it's hard to hard to win the game I mean that's everybody knows that close game all the way to the end you know they pop a big run to go ahead and you know but I liked what I saw out of the defense I liked what I saw out of both lines I mean Conor had protection he had time you know we just weren't connecting on those throws so I you think he had time I think I think he had time I just remember thinking and it's hard to yeah we got watch it again it's one thing to watch it at home on TV it's another thing to be live and trying to remember all this stuff you know like kudos to y'all for doing this every week and remembering all this y'all this is really hard like coming from a game and write on my notes yeah but I was sitting with Stephen and I was sitting with gerro Johnson and Stephen's like man he's so much Wegman's so much better than this like because he's and he's been out at PR I've been out at practice I mean he didn't look like that at practice Yeah he wouldn't be in that position if he did he had an off night he had an off night yeah well now we gota we got to keep moving forward learn from the film defense is Stout Divas will put us in positions to win games correct offens has got to figure themselves out that's it I Chris said it earlier too one of his points he said is I I did feel like the defense was getting stronger in the third quarter leading into the fourth but man we kept putting them in so many bad positions you know we weren't moving the ball we weren't converting first down so they're getting back on the field quick they're playing their tails off and then those explosive plays if you remove a few of those explosive plays defense did every single thing possible you Hunter Billy all week long everybody talked about keep it close heading into the fourth quarter they did it's 13313 with what seven eight minutes left driving down I mean that's the money drive right there as a quarterback and we we don't convert and so I agree with Chris I'm not disappointed in the defense at all I do think the Run game they gave up a lot more explosive play that wasn't typical from an Elco defense again I know this is Elco baitman but uh I did not think they'd get those big explosive plays on the Run game uh and they also did a great job with Riley Leonard in the quarterback run game I felt like he did a good job they did but man I'm I'm with Chris on this uh offense has to figure it out um defense is going to be heck of a football team this year and I just I'm really really hoping that this was just an off night for 15 and they really get into a Groove because it was it was a big missed opportunity disappointing CT I was telling them before the show and I'll let you chime in on this I the only thing that that worried me was at the end of the second quarter it seemed like Notre Dame figured out okay we can run a little bit third quarter they ran and then at the end of the game it's like the more they ran the better it got it and then at the end of the game obviously they they broke those those few runs I should say I think on that final drive where when they made it 20 to 13 they had four first downs right a run from a pass from a run from Ry Leonard excuse me couple runs and a pass like and it just continued to get better as the game went on yeah timely place and you know that's that's the mark of a of a solid football team and you know I want y'all to think back to the third quarter um we have them fourth in a yard they get the first down they go for it on fourth down again we stop them at Midfield and we do nothing with that with that next Drive I mean the offense had opportunities we had chances to make plays and you know like you guys have said we we really you know defense can only you know they can only played so many plays and um you know on the long touchdown run it was one of those things that uh Toran just you know he just missed the tackle he's there he's there to make a play the running back made a play their own scholarship too and you know he made a better play he you know he was a better football player on that play than Toran was and and that was a long run and then that was the case down uh for the last touchdown they just you know they made a play so you know hats off to the defense but you know I'd be interested go back and see the stats of how many plays they played uh you know and what type of rotation they had from the defensive front standpoint but it's tough you know defense play that play their hearts out offense didn't help them out much but um it's a long season hopefully those things will will change both of those units be on the same page and we'll start to steam R guys let's um close out all of us with some final thoughts on all right you got MCN T up game I'm I hate saying it after after a loss but you got you got to clean up some things and then you got to go on the road where you haven't won since 21 yeah I mean you know got to clean it up on offense I need to hopefully we can get Martin theu back you know we'll get dton Brooks back we didn't get to see much of him it'll be nice to have him back I do think three played a good game I was impressed by him y'all talked about him a lot but yeah I mean you you're you're zero and zero heading into next week you got to focus up you cannot let this be something that sets you back all year long uh cuz now you know your backs against the the wall a little bit you had an opportunity to tee yourself up in front of the playoff committee you know all these things top 10 team at home and and you take an l and so they got to get back to Ground Zero get in there and watch film coach it up I agree with Chris I think they're going to watch film both Chris's uh but CT saying they're going to go watch film and clean it up there was just a lot there that we could have done from a mental standpoint can't have penalties on Third and one when you get a first down going to the Red Zone I mean that stuff cost you and you know that battle of hidden yardage again whether it's penalties and special teams uh we got to clean that up but um get focused again I mean you know how it is Chris you got to get back to the drawing board and hopefully everybody's healthy get back to it next week Chris any thoughts lick your wounds y you know deal with this one tonight and in the morning and then you know put it behind you and move on I mean that's that's life learn from it um I think defense put us in position to win the game um I think there was a couple of fits you know linebacker not filling um that they'll see on the film um I did see some rotation you know in that position like opposite Toran um so would like to see you know a starter settle in there so they can get consistent on that on the fits but you know I think scorton is who we thought he was you know as I look at the you know I think castes how had a couple good plays I saw they started rying K uh Kennedy and then you know Cal came in a little bit later cashes how came in a little bit later and like I mean I noticed him I mean he made a few few really good plays so I mean both shamar's did great I think our secondary you know played well enough to win the game um I think three I saw him come downhill like hard and Phil and that was really good to see I don't think these referees helped us out very much I think there was a couple of calls that um you know probably weren't the best I think I heard Uncle Dave say that I was in the restroom I think I heard him say that on the radio the these referees weren't doing us any favors um but you know two in team can still make the playoffs right I mean that's still possibility you know you got a Florida team got beat pretty soundly today by Miami I saw that so that and that was a must-win game for them so you know they're dealing with the same thing we're dealing with so you know regroup next week I look to see this team you know get better week over week that's Elco he is who he is he's not going anywhere they're going to you know be disciplined and hopefully correct some of the things that happened today CT any final thoughts before we get to the MCN game start thinking about that and of course Florida yeah it's a it's a long season so you know this is just one uh I think sain said it this morning you know that that teams with two and maybe three losses have an opportunity to get to the to the playoff now we don't want to keep dropping games that that we have chances and and that we for all in purposes we have a chance to win but you're going to have an opportunity to play a lot of good football teams coming down the stretch to put our eles in position to get to that ultimate goal and that's the playoffs but it starts next week at MCN can't look you know can't look pass those guys and and and look ahead to Florida we've got to go out make the corrections that that need to be made and um you know I hate that word but we got to execute a lot better on the on the offensive side of the football we got to make plays we got to block things up and you know we've got to be able to to read what the defense has giving us but you know tough loss tonight wash the tape as we've said all night and then get ready to go back and go one in one you know it's it's a one game season here on that CT I appreciate you sir Chris Harrington brand Leone thank you very much and thank you to Alpha Paving uh that's going to do it for our TCH postgame rap brought to you by Alpha Paving we will see you on the Luchador podcast tomorrow and of course on texags live on Monday morning see you then