Three Key Moments that Decided Texas A&M Football vs. Alabama

Alabama Prevents Texas A&M Football from Taking Advantage of Turnovers

The Tide (essentially) opened the half with two straight touchdown drives, with the first one briefly interrupted by the exchange of interceptions I just mentioned. The Aggies were having trouble generating pressure as reliably as they had been in the first half, so Milroe had time to make the necessary throws. Things needed to flip, and quickly, as the Aggies had fallen behind and the Bama offense showed no signs of slowing down.

The defense for Texas A&M football decided to step up at this point. Milroe connected with Burton on a route to the sideline, and as he fought for more yardage, the Aggies punched the ball out, with Bryce Anderson falling on it. This set up the Ags in an advantageous position, taking possession well within Alabama’s territory.

They were unable, however, to capitalize: three plays went only five yards, and the Aggies were forced into a field goal try to cut the score to 24-20. The try never made it; Chris Braswell came screaming through the line to block the kick, and only a completely unnecessary blindside block by Dallas Turner stopped the Tide from scoring yet another touchdown.

To their credit, the defense stepped up after this, forcing a punt on the next two possessions, even after the offense would give up a safety. They only allowed a total of 12 yards the rest of the game, but with the offense largely unable to operate, it didn’t matter.

This will go down as a game where Texas A&M football won the turnover battle, but this is only nominal. The blocked field goal might as well have been a turnover, just as with the fourth down failure on the first drive. The inability to generate any points off of the opportunities you had was the margin in this game. The success rate was almost even for these two teams—it was a toss-up at the end of the day; one where Alabama found the inches and the Aggies failed to.