Texas A&M Aggies 'Physically Annihilated' By Texas Longhorns

The Texas A&M Aggies struggled in the trenches against their biggest rival.

Jon Alfano | 3 Hours Ago

Texas Longhorns running back Quintrevion Wisner (26) runs the ball during the Lone Star Showdown against the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024 in College Station, Texas. / Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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All season long, the Texas A&M Aggies' greatest strength was their impressive ground game. Through 11 games, the Aggies ranked second in the SEC with 208.4 rushing yards per game, and looked to keep the train rolling into the highly-anticipated regular season finale against the Texas Longhorns.

Unfortunately, their greatest strength became a weakness in their biggest game of the season.

A&M could not get anything going on the ground, finishing with just 102 yards on three yards per attempt. The Aggies had just one run of more than 10 yards on the night, a 24-yard scamper by quarterback Marcel Reed early in the third quarter.

After the game, Aggies head coach Mike Elko attributed the problem to the Texas' defensive front manhandling A&M's offensive line.

"Offensively, just ‑‑ we lost the line of scrimmage all night," Elko said. We weren't able to get anything going. Really disappointing. We just didn't play well enough on offense at all to have any chance at having success."

The offensive line woes were most apparent in short-yardage situations. Most notably, the Longhorns stuffed Aggies running back Amari Daniels on a 4th and goal from the 1-yard line, all but ending A&M's comeback hopes late in the fourth quarter.

On the other side of the ball, the Aggies were also ouclassed physically. The Longhorns ran the ball at will, finishing with 243 rushing yards on 5.2 yards per carry. Quintrevion Wisner did most of the damage with 186 rushing yards (5.6 yards per carry), but other Longhorns feasted as well. Texas also converted seven of its 15 third-down opportunities, and in a gritty, defensive game, that makes a world of difference.

"Defensively, just not good enough in the run game," Elko said. "Way too many rushing yards. Didn't win the line of scrimmage. Didn't really fit things particularly well. Weren't good enough on third down. Didn't do the things we needed to do to get off the field, but I thought we showed tremendous heart and fight to continue to battle and gave ourselves a lot of chances in that second half to win with just grit and toughness."

Unfortunately, this has been a trend for the Aggies throughout a rough November. They averaged 3.4 yards per carry against South Carolina, 3.2 against Auburn and now just three against Texas. Meanwhile, they allowed 6.7 yards per carry against South Carolina, 4.1 against Auburn and now 5.2 against Texas. No way around it, that's not a recipe for winning football.

With the Aggies' playoff hopes officially dead (they survived longer than expected to be fair), all they can do now is focus on fixing the problem next season.

"Tonight we just got way too many misfits, way too many lack of leverage, way too many just simple execution errors," Elko said. "And they're good, they're talented, and hat's off to them because they physically annihilated us."