A lot went wrong in Saturday’s performance against South Carolina for coach Mike Elko and Co. Redshirt freshman quarterback Marcel Reed finally crashed down to earth, junior running back Le’Veon Moss was lost early in the contest and, perhaps the most annoying for Texas A&M fans was the Aggie defense’s inability to get redshirt freshman QB LaNorris Sellers and the South Carolina offense down to the ground.
The first Aggie upon contact was typically not the one to bring down their foe, a fact that was highlighted by the Gamecocks averaging 6.7 yards per carry, by far the highest average the Maroon and White defense has conceded this season.
The uncharacteristic play of the Aggies’ defense started soon into the Gamecocks’ first drive in an instance where junior linebacker Scooby Williams had Sellers dead-to-rights in the backfield, running in unblocked to what appeared to be a sure-fire sack. Instead, Sellers shrugged off his would-be tackler and dropped a 20-yard bomb to a wide-open senior RB Raheim Sanders.
Every drive seemed to feature some version of this first-drive blunder, and unfortunately for the Aggies, these issues would survive halftime adjustments.
It would not be the only instance where Sellers got the best of the Aggies in the passing game, none so being harsher than an exploding 57-yard touchdown run by sixth-year tight end Joshua Simon in the fourth quarter. Junior cornerback Will Lee III was in a position to render a check-down pass to Simon to a minimal gain. Instead, Lee was quickly brushed aside as the South Carolina tight end barreled to the end zone, sticking to the narrative of the game.
A few plays like this are to be expected. Sometimes a quarterback just lucks his way out of a tight situation. South Carolina’s offensive line ranked second-worst in sacks allowed in FBS with 32 this season. This matchup, however, would feature zero sacks from the A&M defense, and Sellers would be given an embarrassment of “lucky” opportunities.
Not to mention the Aggies missed 25 tackles on the night, surpassing their previous high of 19 in their loss to Notre Dame to start the season.
“We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to fix these problems and we’ve got to never play like this again,” said Elko. “We didn’t tackle the way you need to take down big backs. You’ve got to bring your body through the tackle and we didn’t do that today.”
Junior defensive end Shemar Stewart would be another Aggie that fell victim to Sellers’ elite escape ability. After winning his left-side battle on the offensive line, Stewart came rumbling into the backfield and engulfed Sellers behind the line of scrimmage. Instead, a dazzling run became a first down for South Carolina, leaving Aggie fans everywhere speechless.
Forty-four points were the most the Maroon and White had given up all season, including 24 unanswered second-half points. The fundamentals that had made the team strong throughout the season were seemingly abandoned as the Aggies were left searching for answers each drive, somehow giving up chunk play after chunk play.
“Hats off to South Carolina, they beat us,” Elko said. “They beat us on the line of scrimmage, we couldn’t tackle, we couldn’t control the quarterback. We didn’t do anything you need to do to win a football game.”
A&M looked like a completely different team in its loss and will enter the second bye week with many question marks to be addressed as the season draws to a close. If the Aggies win out the rest of the season, a 10-2 record could carry them to their first SEC Championship appearance. Following such a gut-wrenching loss, though, it is apparent that the team has quite a few hurdles to overcome first.
