{"id":69432,"date":"2025-11-29T08:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T08:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/69432\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T08:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T08:25:10","slug":"losing-to-texas-hurts-but-the-result-didnt-wreck-texas-ams-historic-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/69432\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing to Texas hurts, but the result didn\u2019t wreck Texas A&M\u2019s historic season"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2014 Amid a second-half Longhorn stampede, Texas A&M\u2019s<\/a> 7-point lead, unbeaten record and perhaps a berth in the SEC title game imploded.<\/p>\n

The CFP No. 3 Aggies\u2019 eventual 27-17 defeat here in Royal-Memorial Stadium<\/a> was indeed a Black Friday night in nearly every respect, except the most important one: It did not wreck A&M\u2019s historically great season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not even close.<\/p>\n

Unless, of course, the Aggies allow the emotional fallout of this loss to affect their hard-earned and much-deserved postseason bid.<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

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Texas A&M (11-1, 7-1) still would get a berth in the Dec. 6 SEC title game if Alabama loses Saturday\u2019s Iron Bowl game to Auburn. Regardless, the Aggies are considered as a lock to earn a College Football Playoff berth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still going to the playoffs; probably gonna get a good seed,\u201d Aggies linebacker Taurean York said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot to play for.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this one hurts. You want to win that trophy. You want to have the in-state rivalry bragging rights. But, you know, this wasn\u2019t our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

York and other Aggies kept referring to last November in College Station, when the A&M-Texas rivalry\u2019s 13-year hiatus ended with Texas\u2019 17-7 victory over the Aggies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

That certainly explained the frustration on York\u2019s face and in his voice late Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended the season like this last year, honestly,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t get that trophy and we\u2019re going to drive back to College Station for the next two hours. It hurts a lot, but we\u2019ve got to get ready for the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the final seconds ticked down, the euphoric Longhorns and their fans not only celebrated the victory, but rubbed it into their rivals\u2019 collective faces.<\/p>\n

On the giant video board in the south end zone, a video clip played of A&M coach Mike Elko<\/a> saying, \u201cWe\u2019re the state\u2019s flagship program.\u201d<\/p>\n

A camera zoomed in on a fan holding up a sign that read: \u201cIt\u2019s been 5,482 days since A&M beat Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they exited the stadium, many fans chanted, \u201cPooorrr Aggies!\u201d <\/p>\n

The way the second half turned, it was hard to believe the Aggies dominated the first half statistically.<\/p>\n

A&M took a 10-3 lead with 56 seconds left in the first half on KC Concepcion\u2019s 8-yard touchdown run.<\/p>\n

But in the next 16 minutes of game time, Texas outscored A&M 17-0 while outgaining the Aggies 218 yards to 43.<\/p>\n

The Aggies pulled within 20-17 on EJ Smith\u2019s 13-yard touchdown run with 9:15 left, but Arch Manning essentially put the game away with a 35-yard touchdown scramble up the middle \u2014 and the Longhorns intercepted two Marcel Reed passes to snuff out any potential rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be proud of,\u201d said Reed, who briefly left the game in the first half after, he said, stubbing his toe into the turf. He said the injury was more of a scare and didn\u2019t affect him the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an 11-1 regular season, first time this century,\u201d Reed added. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot to work for. We have an opportunity to have playoff games, potentially at home in front of our fans, and we\u2019re going to have to win out now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this team\u2019s really capable of it. We believe we can make it to the national championship, so we\u2019re going to put our heads down and grind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed said he told Manning after the game: \u201cY\u2019all have a really good team. You deserve to be in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That remains to be seen. It\u2019s up to the CFP playoff committee, as well as game results the next two weekends of other contenders. <\/p>\n

But the Longhorns certainly stated their case Friday night. The Aggies held the Longhorns to 61 rushing yards in the first half, but Texas rumbled for 157 second-half yards on the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just did a really, really poor job of executing,\u201d Elko said. \u201cIt\u2019s on me. It\u2019s my fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t get our feet set. They were getting the edges on us. . . . We busted some coverages that led to 14 points. So we\u2019ve got to look at what we\u2019re asking our kids to do; make sure they can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aggies had faced and overcome difficult road environments all season, particularly in wins at No. 8 Notre Dame<\/a>, No. 19 Missouri and No. 20 LSU.<\/p>\n

In the Sept. 13 victory in South Bend, Ind., A&M trailed 24-14 and rallied to win 41-40 on a fourth-and-goal Reed touchdown pass with 13 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

And though it didn\u2019t happen on the road, A&M\u2019s greatest adversity entering Friday occurred 13 days earlier, when it trailed South Carolina 30-3 at halftime and pulled out a 31-30 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Aggies couldn\u2019t rally from Texas\u2019 17-0 explosion to start Friday\u2019s second half, but A&M has plenty of time to rally emotionally from this loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t handle the atmosphere well enough,\u201d Elko said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes this league challenging. When you play night games in this atmosphere, it puts a lot of stress on you. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to handle it better.\u201d <\/p>\n

How Arch Manning shook off early struggles, led Longhorns\u2019 second-half rally vs. A&M<\/a>Is Texas a College Football Playoff team after upset of A&M? Longhorns make their case<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Texas A&M coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 Amid a second-half Longhorn stampede, Texas A&M\u2019s 7-point lead, unbeaten record and perhaps a berth in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,3688,260,537],"class_list":{"0":"post-69432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-colleges","12":"tag-texas-am-aggies","13":"tag-texas-longhorns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}