For the second straight year, Texas A&M was playing in the Lone Star Showdown for a chance to get to the SEC Championship in Atlanta— and for the second straight year, they failed to do so. Admittedly, this game was far different than last year's, but the fact remains that they were still unable to get it done when they needed to.
There were a lot of factors on paper that favored the Aggies in this one— Texas's lack of rush offense up until this point in the year, the Aggies' excellent pass rush, A&M's heretofore great passing offense— and you saw some of those come through, but others failed to.
The pressure that the Aggies got up front on Arch in the late part of the first half seemed to bode well, especially given how much of a second-half team this has been, but the off-schedule plays were the kryptonite here. Things began to fade quickly in that second half, and a game that the Aggies should have won handily turned into a costly loss in a really uncharacteristic way.
Texas A&M comes apart in second half in Austin to fall just short of undefeated regular season
The biggest issue, though, was the wasted red zone possessions. Texas A&M had three red zone possessions in this game that ended up netting them only three points. Convert touchdowns in those possessions, and this is a blowout the other way— but for once, the Aggies' issues in wasted yardage came back to bite them.
This is something that the Aggies had flirted with all year, but this is the first time it really cost them. The Ags had a penchant for driving down the field and failing to get the score in certain games (see Auburn and Mississippi State), but they were always able to evade a scrape.
You can only do that so many times in big road environments and win, though. At some point, you need to play a full, four-quarter game. We still actually haven't even seen that yet out of this team, which is crazy to say, but it's the case.
This is one that Aggie fans will want to flush quickly, of course. A&M is in the playoff at this point, so it's just a question of how far the committee will have them tumble. There could be some bad news on that front, as it's not out of the question that they fall all the way to 8th or lower given the committee's poor way of calculating SOS.
We'll await selection Sunday to see just where the Aggies end up— hosting a first-round playoff game in Kyle Field isn't the worst fate by a long shot, but you desperately wish you had gotten this one across the finish line.