Texas A&M was reminded Saturday night how tough road games in the SEC can be. Give credit to South Carolina. This is a damn good and physical football team that is excited to play in front of a raucous home crowd. What went wrong at A&M? You could just say “everything,” but I’ll do my best to add some details.

Pass protection

Maybe this is just the latest thing on my mind, but it felt like it ultimately killed any chance of A&M being able to get back into this game. In the second half, Marcel Reed was under constant pressure, which led to sacks and turnovers. The domestic pressure was absolutely murderous. This team needs starting left guard Chase Bisontis ASAP.

Defense

By far the worst defensive performance of the Mike Elko era. A&M defenders refused to finish the entire game, they had LaNorris Sellers dead four or five times and couldn’t sack him, they allowed Rocket Sanders to run wild. It was piss poor everywhere. Additionally, the A&M defense was constantly out of position, leaving the receivers wide open and poor gap integrity. That’s the technical staff.

The Aggies have generally performed well this season, save for a few misses here and there. This was absolutely horrible. Hopefully it’s an outlier because it was ugly.

Short range decisions

I honestly don’t hate going for it on 4th in your own territory. Some people hate it. I can probably defend the second half decision better than the first because it felt like the momentum was with South Carolina at the time. But the play calling and execution were poor. When Le’veon Moss left the game due to an injury in the first quarter, A&M really struggled in close quarters situations. I would have liked to see something other than a run from the middle out of a shotgun formation, while our best backbone is in street clothes.

Sanctions

Completely undisciplined. It’s been there on and off this season, but tonight it was terrible. The late goal after the fumble recovery and the defensive play that negated a fumble stand out. Must get better.

Moving forward

This was a reality check. There are no two ways about it. I don’t know if it’s a letdown after the win over LSU, the grind of the season taking its toll, or if we just weren’t prepared.

What I do know is that Elko is angrier than any of us right now. Let’s hope he and his team can get this thing back on track, because believe it or not, there’s still a lot to play for this season.