5 Takeaways From Texas A&M's Heartbreaking Las Vegas Bowl Collapse vs. USC Trojans

What started as a hot start for the Texas A&M Aggies led to straight up heartbreak as the team's fall apart in the fourth quarter allowed the USC Trojans to score a touchdown with eight seconds left to take the 35-31 win in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl Friday night.
After being tied at seven apiece going into halftime, the Aggies would score 17 points in the third quarter to take a 24-7 lead, seemingly putting the game out of reach early, before USC would score 21 unanswered points to insert themselves right back into the game.
The Aggies would take the lead back, a 19-yard Marcel Reed rushing score, to go up 31-28, but Jayden Maiava would march the Trojans downfield and find his tight end Kyle Ford in the end zone to put the game on ice for Southern California.
As questions will now begin to build until next season's start in August, here are five takeaways from this year's hectic Las Vegas Bowl.
There Are Two Halves and Four Quarters In Football
Two halves. Four quarters. 60 minutes. The best teams play their best football for the entirety of those periods.
Sad to say, that could not be said for the Texas A&M Aggies Friday night.
Or really for most of this season.
The inconsistency on both sides of the ball was prominent, as the Aggies came out of the gate hot, scoring on the first drive, before the next two were ended prematurely after interceptions by Marcel Reed.
The third quarter saw a much-needed revival by the offense, putting up 17 points, before almost an entire quarter of three-and-outs in the fourth, which also included a missed Randy Bond field goal. They scored late to take back the lead, but the damage had already been done throughout the game.
Consistency is a big thing that Mike Elko needs to relay to his men this offseason.
Lack of Discipline Proves Costly
On the late third-quarter drive that got the Trojans back into the contest, the touchdown pass from Jayden Maiava to Ja'Kobi Lane was preceded by a facemask call on B.J. Mayes that gave USC a free 15 yards. The very next play, Dezz Ricks is tagged with a defensive pass interference call, setting up the Trojans on the A&M 17-yard line, where Maiava hit Lane for their second touchdown of the night, and sparked a comeback that very few thought would be possible at the time.
The Aggies were flagged eight times for a total of 73 yards, so it's probably safe to say that they beat themselves in Vegas.
Reed's Mishaps
Often praised for his passing, Marcel Reed's early interceptions proved to be detrimental to the Aggie game plan.
Granted the second pick wasn't necessarily his fault, it bounced off Noah Thomas' hands and right into USC cornerback Akili Arnold's, but still, an interception is an interception, and those are valuable points that the Aggies could have had in the game that got washed away early.
Defensive Duds Leads To Clutch Score
A season-long issue for the Aggies, the pass defense seemed to struggle with basic fundamentals of their positions. They were unable to force a mistake from Jayden Maiava on the final Trojan drive of the game. Maiava threw nine passes on the drive, and only one of them did not find the mark.
Knowing they needed a stop to put the game on ice, the Aggie defense allowed an eight-yard completion, then a 13-yard completion followed by a six-yard completion. A two-yard run and then a pass thrown by Maiava and tipped back to Maiava went for -3 yards, then finally an incompletion, and then the big play, a 33-yard connection between Maiava and Ja'Kobi Lane, then an 11-yard gain between the two again led to the go-ahead seven-yard touchdown to Kyle Ford.
Another part of the game the Aggies need to press during the offseason, coming up clutch on defense and putting games to rest.
What If?
What if Nic Scourton, Shemar Stewart, and Shemar Turner played in this game? What if there was a rule saying that NFL Draft declarers were still required to play in their respective bowl games? Would Bryan Jackson have been as aggressive of a runner as he was throughout the game? Would the Aggies have kept the USC run total in double digits instead of 105? Would they have kept it in single digits?
Of course, we'll never know, but there is always an endless game of "what if" to play in football, adding many questions to the ones fans already might have going into 2025.
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