Texas A&M Football: 3 Takeaways from the Loss to South Carolina

This Texas A&M football team needs to start faster

As I mentioned in my opening, the Aggies were down 17-0 in the blink of an eye Saturday night.  The Gamecocks took the opening kickoff to the house, immediately nixing one of my keys to the game from my Friday piece— sound special teams play by A&M.  This galvanized a sellout crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium that was further jazzed up by an interception thrown on the ensuing drive by Haynes King which was returned to the Gamecock red zone.  The Aggie defense refused to budge, however, holding Carolina to a field goal.  Then, a bad snap flew right into the hands of the SC defensive line, and this time, the defense couldn’t hold them out of the end zone.

Slow starts offensively out of the bye week, have been a theme under Jimbo in the past (2020 LSU, 2018 MSU, 2021 Auburn), but this turned out to be a hole too big to dig out of.  The fact is that this offense simply hasn’t shown the ability to get itself out of deficits like this.  I say this with full knowledge that the team battled back to make it only a 3-point gap by the end of the half, but, as we saw in the final 30 minutes, the Aggies were ultimately unable to pull ahead.  A fast start will really be imperative this upcoming weekend against Ole Miss— a team that can bury you quickly.