Instant reaction: All of Texas A&M football’s worst habits come back to bite them

Texas A&M football collapses late against South Carolina after mounting first half comeback

Texas A&M football’s SEC championship dreams are not dead, but they hang on by a thread.

The Aggies opened this game with about as bad of a defensive series as we’ve seen from them this season. Fans hoped it was an aberration or first-half sleepiness, but it ended up being a harbinger of things to come.

The A&M defense was a no-show tonight. The tackling was the most egregious, including multiple missed sacks on Sellers, but the repeated penalties gave Carolina new life multiple times when the Aggies should have been taking over.

The Aggies gave up a huge amount of outside runs and explosive plays to a team that has not really been adept at creating them. The run defense, which has been really stout for a lot of the year, looked the opposite of what they did just one week ago.

The offense looked impressive at times in the first half, but they were unable to put together long drives. Due to the inability of the defense to put together stops, the offense rarely faced short fields.

Reed was okay tonight, but far from what we saw last week. He wasn’t even as good as he was down in Florida—albeit against a better defense, it should be said.

It seemed like Carolina was sitting on the QB run for a lot of the game—Reed rarely kept on option plays. It was a decent strategy, as the Moss-less Aggies weren’t picking up a whole lot from Amari Daniels down to down.

Interceptions, sacks, and fumbles came late in the game when the Ags needed him to step up. He’s shown poise before, but he, like the rest of this team, crumbled under the lights.

A&M will have a bye week to stew on this one. Their response will be telling.