Losing Control: After Perfect SEC Start, 'The Moment' Caught up to Texas A&M

The Texas A&M Aggies are the last team to join the SEC's weekly carnage after falling short on the road to the South Carolina Gamecocks. And while it seemed to be a one-off meltdown, it might have been bound to happen.

Nov 2, 2024; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko directs his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

The SEC no longer has an undefeated team to boast.

The South Carolina Gamecocks no longer have to worry about not having a signature win, and the Texas A&M Aggies no longer have control.

In fact, they didn't from the opening kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Entering Week 10, Mike Elko and company had been living a dream. They'd been dealt a punch in the mouth, as it was described inside AT&T Stadium after a come-from-behind win over the Arkansas Razorbacks, in Week 1 against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but it only made them better.

In week 2, they took care of business. Week 3, they hit the road and notched their first conference win of the year. Week 4-9? Same story. The Aggies were undefeated in SEC play, held control over their own destiny and suddenly had targets on their backs.

LSU, the first team to face them in such a state, couldn't hit the mark. But South Carolina did.

Oh, did South Carolina do it. By 24 points, in fact.

The Aggies are new to this, yfet, they're all too familiar with it at the same time. In the past 10 games prior to Saturday's matchup, they'd knocked off South Carolina nine times and lost just once. Normally, those games were inconsequential — just another victory on a 7-to-8 win season.

This time, it meant much more.

Not only have the Aggies dropped to one loss away from likely being shut out of the College Football Playoff, but they've also lost control of their season. Instead of sitting back for three weeks watching the carnage that's become SEC Saturdays, they're in it.

That result came in the form of a scoreless second half that became a blowout: One interception and lost fumble, and one more loss on the record for Texas A&M.

How did it reach that point?

Penalties, for one. On the night, the Aggies were called for nearly 70 yards while the Gamecocks didn't notch their first infraction until the third quarter.

"We have to be smarter," Marcel Reed explained simply. "Coach tells us all the time that penalties can cost you the game."

They certainly played a part, but didn't tell the whole story.

Raheim Sanders and LaNorris Sellers together put the Gamecocks at nearly 300 rushing yards for the contest — over 100 yards higher than the Aggies' weekly average. And when desperation mode kicked in late in the second half, tackle attempts became strip attempts.

And those strip attempts became 25 missed tackles, a team-high since 2016.

"It felt like one man beat us," Aggies linebacker Taurean York said of the defensive miscues. "We weren't tackling with our technique."

It gets uglier. For a team between two quarterbacks — Marcel Reed got the nod Saturday after being the difference-maker against LSU — a natural response to one performing poorly would be to put the other one in, as has been done all season.

After Reed was benched in favor of the original starter against Missouri, Conner Weigman proved why. Then, when Weigman struggled to generate offense against LSU, Reed saved the day.

This time, Reed had no answer. Yet he was the only one who got playing time.

"He is the starter now," Elko said, giving the first concrete update at the quarterback position since Weigman was named the starter in training camp. "(Now), we will see where we go."

As much as Reed struggled, he remained under center, even when the Aggies got a taste of their own medicine as their offense crumbled in a hostile environment with the game on the line.

In a week's time, they'd become like LSU. And joined them, too, among the list of now-beaten SEC teams.

Perhaps the biggest difference from week to week, however, came in the form of a crowd.

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Shane Beamer, speaking with a TV reporter following his team's signature win of the season, couldn't help but notice the spectacle.

"USC" chants had begun to ring out on the field at Williams-Brice, and, at times, overpowered the audio of his answers. He spoke on his team's win. How they'd persevered. Taken advantage of turnovers.

As the camera began to widen, the crowd of Gamecocks fans expanded with it.

Beamer, the mastermind behind the win, was surrounded by a crowd who wanted nothing more than to be there with him. For the Aggies, already preparing for what they knew would be a long trip back to College Station, it was all-too familiar.

"We still have a lot of ball left." York said, sharing what Elko had preached to the team after the loss.

Texas A&M's season isn't over, yet. It's still tied for first in the conference, as Elko optimistically put it, but now faces the task of going through the Texas Longhorns if it wants a shot at the SEC title game and an automatic playoff berth.

About as fast as South Carolina's crowd rushed the field, the Aggies' margin for error has shrunk. After a storybook seven weeks, "the moment" caught up to them. They're no longer atop the SEC ladder, no longer in control and no longer invincible — though it seems as if they never were.

Meanwhile, the Gamecocks got their moment in the spotlight; the premiere upset of the week, beating the one team without a conference blemish.

Though, if that win meant that much, maybe it's a good sign for the Aggies. Maybe they were the team to beat in the SEC. Or maybe they were exposed.

And maybe it was bound to happen.

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