What is the story about?
After
a stretch of games that all played out in similar fashion, Saturday’s showdown with South Carolina was anything but. It was hardly a smooth ride, but the Aggies found a way to get to 10-0 on the season and 7-0 in SEC play. Here are some of the numbers that tell the tale.
Salient Stats
- 2/2: On fourth down conversions for Texas A&M. By the end of the game, the A&M offense moving the ball felt inevitable, but the Aggies’ first two TD drives of the second half needed a fourth down conversion to get there, including a 4th and 12 on the opening drive of the third quarter when a comeback still seemed like a pipedream.
- 4: Second-half sacks for the Aggies (including two on SC’s final drive). It wasn’t a perfect defensive performance, but just like the offense, they absolutely showed out in the second half when they had zero margin for error.
- 19: South Carolina plays that went for 5 yards or less in the second half. After the defense got gashed pretty handily in the first half, limiting the big plays helped get them off the field and help make a comeback possible.
- 80%: Marcel Reed’s second-half completion percentage. After a first half that was by far his worst two quarters of football this season, Marcel Reed turned in easily his best. Obviously there’s tons of credit to go around for A&M’s comeback win, but the stellar play of No. 10 was a driving force behind it.
- 97.3%: South Carolina’s win probability at halftime. It wasn’t just likely A&M was going to lose this game, it was almost a statistical certainty. One that didn’t really shift dramatically until A&M’s third touchdown to pull within one score near the end of the third quarter.
- 286: Consecutive wins SEC teams had when holding a 27-point lead dating back to 2004. It’s not breaking news that teams with a four-score lead almost always win, but it’s one more data point of just how improbable this comeback was.
- +298: Yardage advantage for Texas A&M in the second half. Outgaining a team by nearly 300 yards in an entire game is a feat in and of itself. Doing so in a single half is unfathomable. It essentially involves you scoring a TD every time and the other team doing virtually nothing. And well, that’s more or less what happened (save for that one goal line play we won’t discuss).
- 10-0: Bottom line, no matter how it happened, the Aggies got the dub. The first half was a comedy of errors (a turnover that turned into a SC touchdown, a missed field goal, a dropped TD pass, another missed field goal, an INT in the end zone, and another INT to wrap up the first half). But for everything that went wrong in the first half, even more went right in the second. The Aggies showed they’re not perfect, but also flashed the potential that can make them a national title contender if they play to their standard consistently. Now it’s an FCS opponent and then a season finale in Austin on Black Friday.
