No. 17 Texas A&M fell to No. 8 Auburn 28-20, with 17 points coming in the fourth quarter. Here’s what we learned.
Scoring struggles
Much like in their Week 2 game against Clemson, the Aggies had several opportunities to score, but were only able to find success in the second half. Despite accumulating nearly 400 total offensive yards — almost 100 more than Auburn had — A&M was forced to settle for two field goals from the red zone, which was also a major point of concern for the Aggies. While both teams had three drives into the red zone, Auburn had 21 points result from those red zone attempts to A&M’s 13.
“As an offense, something we need to do better is converting in the red zone,” junior quarterback Kellen Mond said. “As a collective unit we have to just do better and find out what we do best.”
First quarter troubles
The Aggies had a slow start to the game, both offensively and defensively. The A&M offense managed only 96 yards to Auburn’s 135 in the first quarter. Though production increased as the game went on, the slow first quarter hurt the Aggies in the long run. The A&M defense also faced uncharacteristic struggles early in the game, allowing two scores in the first quarter, which was the first time they allowed the opposing team to score in the first quarter this season. In the first quarter, Auburn climbed to 135 total yards — 91 rushing and 44 passing.
“Going up against a team like Auburn, we have to understand that they’re on the road and they were going to come out and play,” junior defensive back Keldrick Carper said. “We weren’t as sound as we were supposed to be early on and we had to pay for it.”
Battle of the defenses
With the exception of the first quarter, the game was a defensive battle between A&M and Auburn, but in different ways. Auburn prevented the Aggies from utilizing the run game, which had been a key piece of their offense thus far. Meanwhile, the Aggies found success in shutting down the Tigers’ passing. A&M gained only 56 rushing yards in the game, while Auburn had 106 yards passing. A&M held the Tigers to zero passing yards in the second quarter, with four unsuccessful passing attempts. In the same quarter, Auburn held the Aggies to minus two rushing yards.
“We let them get the lead and never put the pressure where you could [make] them have to throw the football,” A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher said.