POSTGAME: Texas A&M takes the scenic route to nine points vs. South Carolina
· Yahoo Sports
I thought getting the running game going would make this offense less aggravating to watch. How silly of me.
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Texas A&M rushed for 206 yards and outgained South Carolina 457-360. The Aggies didn’t throw an interception or lose a fumble. All that got them 9 points. You almost have to admire the amount of work involved to stink like this.
Saturday’s 17-9 loss dropped A&M to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in the SEC. There were enough opportunities to win this game that we’d probably spend the week arguing about different ones if we weren’t so tired of this.
Rueben Owens is excused from this portion of the meetingOwens finished with 137 yards on 19 carries, including a 40 yard run on A&M’s first offensive snap and a 44 yarder to open the second half. He gave the Aggies the sort of explosive rushing plays that should make a quarterback’s afternoon a lot easier.
Those two runs did a lot of the stats lifting, so I won’t pretend every handoff was a great result. But there were holes. There was a back getting through them. We had reasons to believe a touchdown might happen today.
Instead, the opening possession ended with a fake field goal. Facing 4th-and-7 at the South Carolina 30, A&M asked David Olano to run for it. He gained three yards.
I’m not automatically against a fake. I’m also not against leaving the offense on the field when you want seven yards. Rueben had just gone for 40. I guess we wanted to hear from more people. But Owens deserved better than being the nice paragraph in a postgame article nobody wanted to write.
First-and-goal, unfortunatelyThe third quarter possession that ended in Olano’s missed field goal deserves special attention, preferably from someone who’s being paid to fix it.
Leading 9-7, A&M reached 1st-and-goal at the seven. An Isaiah Horton drop was followed by consecutive false starts. Suddenly it was 2nd-and-goal from the 17. Another incompletion and a short run brought out Olano, who missed from 30. Fifteen plays and no points.
There’s your game more or less.
Olano made his other three attempts, from 40, 46, and 44 yards. Missing from 30 hurts. I’m still having trouble putting this loss on the only Aggie who contributed to the scoreboard. (still love ya, David)
Reed finished 25-of-43 for 251 yards, but the passing game’s problems weren’t his alone. Horton’s drops were costly. And Norman couldn’t secure a late 3rd-down pass with A&M trying to get into field goal range. Reed needed to be better too, a common theme this year.
Mike Elko and his offensive staff own the whole operation. We have to execute. Yes, we do need that.
The defense gave us chances.Bryce Perry-Wright’s stripsack erased a South Carolina scoring opportunity before halftime. A&M held the Gamecocks to seven points through three quarters, and South Carolina didn’t move ahead until a field goal with 8:14 remaining made it 10-9.
That ought to be enough help.
It doesn’t make the finish any easier to swallow. LaNorris Sellers played through an ankle injury and still delivered the decisive play, keeping the ball for a 41-yard touchdown with 1:19 left. A&M had just turned it over on downs. And the next snap turned a one-point deficit into eight.
Sellers deserves credit but we’re writing about who on the other team deserves credit every week. But watching him struggle physically and still make the play his team needed was impressive.
One last trip to the red zone (sigh)A&M moved the ball again. The final possession reached the South Carolina 10 with nine seconds left. The Aggies needed a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie. Two incompletions ended the afternoon.
It was an appropriate finish. Close enough to see exactly what we weren’t getting.
We watched the Aggies find another way not to take it.
The cesspool is calling from inside the house, Mr. Elko.