Have you ever had that family member or friend who always let you down? But, you loved them so much you couldn’t quit loving them?

Well, for many of us, that’s been Aggie Football for 25 years. There have been a few moments of elation and excitement, but there has been a lot more head-shaking in disappointment.

I don’t know if what we saw on Saturday is the moment things will finally be different than they used to be. Or, that game was just a blip like we’ve seen before, and we’ll return to things being just as they used to be.

Nobody has any idea. I hope this moment is different, but we’ll have to wait 3 more weeks until LSU comes to Kyle Field for a better idea.

We haven’t seen a game in which we dominated a quality opponent from start to finish since South Carolina in 2014. Yes, it’s been a decade in which the game was never in question against a quality opponent.

What we saw on Saturday was a molly whopping. If you’ve ever wanted a visual definition of a molly whopping, you saw it on Saturday. We went bell to bell and hammered Missouri the entire game.

I had my concerns going into the game, but I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the elation and excitement from that game. We looked like a team that could beat anyone in the country. As the clock struck midnight on Saturday, it looked more and more like it. Every team in college football looks beatable this season.

I don’t know if this game was a case of the team taking extra motivation from everything Missouri said and did, but I hope the Aggies can bottle what they did and use it for the rest of the season.

If so, things are gonna turn much better for the Aggies.

With that win, the floor for calling this a successful season is now 9-3. 8-4 seems like a lock, as we need to find 2 wins out of Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Auburn. I’d like to think those are possible wins, but as you saw on Saturday, you can’t take anything for granted in the SEC.

It’s very possible we can go 10-2 and sneak into the college football playoff. It’s also possible we go 11-1 and find ourselves in Atlanta the first weekend in December.

Because our lone loss is to Notre Dame, we may also find our way to Atlanta at 10-2. We would only have one SEC loss, but a lot would have to be shaken loose.

We actually control our own destiny to Atlanta and the College Football Playoff. I would have NEVER guessed that after the Bowling Green game.

Say that again – We have a legit shot at controlling our own destiny to Atlanta and the College Football Playoff. College Football is WILD!

Let’s talk about the game.

Offense:

Welcome back, Conner Weigman. Completing 18 of 22 passes for 276 passes is flat-out having a day.

I don’t expect him to complete 82% of his passes the rest of the game, but the Conner we saw on Saturday should complete between 60% and 70% the rest of the way.

He completed passes to 10 guys. That’s spreading it out. He wasn’t just honed in with one guy.

He didn’t hit a ton of big passes, but he did have passes of 40, 33, and 29 yards. He was VERY methodical and surgical in carving up the Missouri defense. He didn’t have guys running wide open but they had enough separation and he was putting balls in the perfect spot.

My favorite pass from him was the 32-yarder to Terry Bussey on the second drive of the third quarter.

Thanks to a holding call, we had a 2nd and 20. Bussey had man coverage and was streaking down the field. When Conner let it go, I thought he was going for a deep ball. I quickly realized it was vastly underthrown, but then Bussey saw the ball and adjusted to it for a completion.

For the first time since I can’t remember, the Aggie offense completed a deep back shoulder fade. I’ve seen countless other college teams run that on Saturdays, and we finally did it!

It was the perfect play call in the moment and perfect execution.

I don’t know who this Collin Klein is. In the previous five games, I feel like we would have run some kind of screen or draw to hopefully get it to 2nd and 10 at best. It was definitely not a pass over 5 yards.

Instead, we threw caution to the wind and went for the big hit.

I LOVED IT!

Maybe Klein was just playing it conservatively due to Reed’s apparent passing limitations. Perhaps he read this blog and realized he needed to open things up. Whatever it was, I’m glad he did.

I sure hope there’s more of this Collin Klein in the second half of the season.

As for the rest of the offense, I can’t say enough great things about Le’Veon Moss. The dude carried the ball 12 times for 138 yards and 3 touchdowns.

His 75-yard run to open the second half was an absolute gut punch. The way he’s running, he will find himself playing on Sundays.

A part of me wants him to get more carries, but if we’re better off giving him fewer carries to keep him fresh, I’m okay with that. He’s clearly the best running back on this team.

As for the offensive line, I’m not saying anything bad about them. They had some frustrating holds and false starts, but they gave Conner plenty of time to throw and opened enough holes for 236 rushing yards.

They were magnificent. The progress we’ve made from last year is outstanding. I hope they continue to get better each week.

On the receiving side, nobody did anything truly special, but they all contributed to catching balls and moving downfield. I know that’s really generic-sounding, but the way Conner distributed the ball was truly an entire unit effort.

I’d like to think Noah Thomas and Conner will become a very reliable pass-and-catch duo in the second half. Coming into the season, I said their connection would be the biggest benefit to this offense. I hope it comes to fruition with those two.

I also hope Terry Bussey’s use in this game continues for the second half of the season. The formations where we had Moss and Bussey in the backfield had me salivating. Bussey’s athleticism and versatility in motioning in and out of the backfield will keep defenses guessing.

I have no idea why Collin Klein waited until the sixth game of the year to try new things on offense. I’m just glad he did.

I hope he’s not a turtle and goes back into his shell for the rest of the season.

Defense:

My biggest fear coming into this game was that Missouri, like Bama last year, would be able to neutralize the pressure from our defensive front after watching them destroy the Arkansas offensive line the week before.

Boy, was I wrong.

This defensive line destroyed the Missouri offensive line and pressured Brady Cook all game. Cook was a miserable 13 for 31 with only 186 yards passing. 52 yards came on Missouri’s final drive when the game was over. 59 came on the big touchdown catch.

75 yards of passing the rest of the game.

He was sacked five times and pressured the entire game. He never got comfortable in the pocket, and it was clear he was hearing footsteps the whole game.

I know Nic Scourton got a pretty good NIL deal to come to A&M, but he’s making himself a TON of money with his play on the field. He looks like a top 10 draft pick. The dude is an absolute beast and terrorizes offensive tackles. He wasn’t officially credited with a sack but he was in the backfield the entire game.

His three other buddies on the defensive line aren’t far behind him. What the four of them did against Missouri was domination. I don’t have any reason to think they can’t continue this.

My main reason for that belief is that Elko and Bateman are helping them. Unlike D.J. Durkin, who put last year’s defensive line on an island, Elko and Bateman are dialing up pressure from the second level. They’re putting at least two additional guys on the edge or gaps to confuse the offensive lineman about who’s coming.

You have no idea how helpful that is to the defensive front. That’s the biggest difference between last year’s defense and this year’s defense.

Speaking of those second-level guys, the whole rotation of York, Sanford, Williams, Kennedy, and Howell has been working really well. In that Missouri game, everyone seemed to know their assignments and execute them.

I was concerned with this unit coming into the season because Edge Cooper is such a talent. Not one of these guys has Edge’s talent, but they have progressed from the start of the season, at least from an applying pressure standpoint. I still have concerns with their coverage ability, but if they’re applying pressure, that helps a ton in coverage.

The coaching staff’s scheme is helping these guys. However, these guys deserve a ton of credit for executing the plan. Jimbo has to be so proud watching these guys execute.

Elko’s specialty is bringing pressure from areas that are hard to tell pre-snap. I know Bateman is the defensive coordinator, but I have to imagine Elko has some influence on the blitz packages and timing.

Dalton Brooks had the game of his young career on Saturday. The dude is a true sophomore, so he’s still developing, but he was all over the field on Saturday. He led the team in tackles and was laying the hammer. Fortunately, he’s doing it with his head up, so he doesn’t get called for targeting.

I guess Bryce Anderson is hurt. He doesn’t show up on the injury report, and I also don’t remember hearing his name called. He didn’t show up on the stat sheet, either. I’m not sure what’s going on with Anderson, but he and Brooks could be quite the duo.

As for coverage, we looked pretty damn good. Ricks got burned on a touchdown, but for the most part, our corners locked down their receivers.

I know the whole drama with Will Lee and the blanket for Theo Rease. That’s all stupid stuff because play on the field matters more than silly motivation tactics off the field. Especially when they wind up motivating the wrong guy. Lee got the better of all the Missouri receivers in the game. That’s what matters most.

I think Elko handled that nonsense well. Elko used it to motivate Lee and then accurately told people to ask the Missouri head coach about it. It was a clear motivation tactic from the Missouri side. It fell flat on the Missouri side.

I still have a feeling we’re going to bust coverage occasionally, but we shut down some pretty good receivers on Saturday. That was by far the best we’ve looked all season.

The most impressive thing from this defense was Missouri’s final drive. I believe we let our foot off the gas a bit, and Missouri drove down the field with a couple of nice passes to Luther Burden and a facemask by the Aggies.

Missouri got to first and 10 at the Aggie 11-yard line. They gained 8 yards on the first down, so they had second and 2 on the Aggie 3-yard line.

At that point, the Aggie defense decided to make a statement.

Missouri gained 1 yard on the next play and then stopped for no yards on the third play. The guys making the tackles on those two plays? The Shemar Brothers.

On 4th and 1, they gained a yard with a tackle by Albert Regis. That got them a first down at the Aggie 1.

In three plays on the three-yard line, Missouri only got 2 yards. It was a meaningless drive and meaningless points, but the Aggie front four was determined not to let them score up the middle.

That set up 1st and goal from Aggie 1 yard line. Missouri didn’t want to try up the middle again for whatever reason. They went outside to Luther Burden on a swing pass. Dalton Brooks read the play the entire way and took Burden down for a five-yard loss.

It’s 2nd and goal from the 6-yard line. Two incomplete passes later, Drinkwitz is running the field goal unit out there.

That was a massive goal-line stand in a meaningless moment. The Aggie defense was playing with a lot of pride.

Looking Forward:

So here’s the $20 million question: Was that game a Jimbo Blip, or are things finally going to be different than they used to be?

I’m putting on my maroon-colored glasses but leaving the maroon Kool-Aid on the counter for now. I’m hopeful but not certain. I’ve seen this situation before, and I’m hoping for a different outcome.

I know we control our own destiny for Atlanta and are in excellent shape. However, I’m gonna tap the brakes for just a bit.

We really have to win out to make Atlanta. We’re started too far back in the pack, and we’re not a blue blood. If we have 1 SEC loss and there are a couple other 1 loss teams that are blue bloods, we’ll find ourselves on the outside looking in.

I don’t see us winning out because the SEC is so tough. I don’t think we make Atlanta.

Even if we have 1 SEC loss, which I think is attainable, that still puts us in a 10-2 football program and likely in the College Football Playoff. That’s REALLY DAMN GOOD in Elko’s first season.

Losing two SEC games puts us at 9-3, a massive improvement over what we’ve seen. I want more than 9-3 right now, but I won’t complain about 9-3.

Let’s get through Starkville in two weeks because that place has been tough on us. I would love to see a convincing win on the road in the SEC, even if it’s Starkville.

Let’s get through that, and then we can focus on the swamp kitties coming to town.

Maybe, just maybe, things aren’t going to be like they used to be.