re: 270 yards passing is why A&M lost!

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I thought our guys played their asses off, especially given the lack of talent we have.

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That's probably overstated (aTm's talent) - your defensive front 7 played well, overall. Fortunately for ya'll, we were unable to consistently exploit your DBs (probably your weak link, defensively, right now) in the passing game, and that very well could have tipped the balance in aTm's favor. We had to pound it on the ground for tough yardage, but our team is built to do just that.

I give our guys some credit - the defense definitely adjusted after the initial shock of dealing with your offense, and our offense was just productive and opportunistic enough to get the job done. Really, most competitive football games hinge on the outcome of 5 to 7 out of 120+ plays. We had lots of penalties and ya'll had lots of turnovers. We were able to overcome the penalties and ya'll could not overcome those turnovers. We were poor on 3rd down, but made up for it with big runs on 1st and 2nd down. Ya'll were able to move the ball through the air, but unable to score consistently. Manziel extended plays and showed us why he was so highly regarded - but also demonstrated why freshmen are sometimes liabilities in games like this.

At this level, "talent" advantages really mean one or two additional superstars. aTm's starters looked to be the quality of teams we play every week in the SEC. The real advantage teams like LSU have is depth - the luxury of having the 2nd or 3rd guy go in and not be much of a drop. We have this on the Dline, secondary, (for the first time in a while LB corps), WRs and RBs. We had depth like that on the Oline, but injury bug quashed that early this year. This shows in close, late-game struggles such as ours.