Texas A&M Aggies loss to Miami Hurricanes demonstrated an unacceptable problem for the Aggies that they should have already solved
The Texas A&M Aggies were completely dominated in the trenches in their College Football Playoff loss to Miami.
The Texas A&M Aggies lost their first College Football Playoff game in heartbreaking fashion to the Miami Hurricanes 10-3 in a defensive slugfest. The Aggies had opportunities to win, but missed field goals and turnovers repeatedly doomed promising drives, including the potential game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps more damning than the turnovers however was A&M’s inability to compete in the trenches on both sides of the ball. For a team at the top of the SEC, they were pushed around by Miami all game long, and it proved to be the difference-maker in this game.
Mike Elko visibly frustrated at trench play
After the game, A&M head coach Mike Elko was beyond furious at their inability to control the game up front. For a team that boasts the talent and experience it does on both sides of the ball, A&M was simply pushed around, and it killed their momentum.
“When you can’t establish the run, it makes it hard on Marcel, and we haven’t been able to establish the run these last two games,” Elko said. “It starts with our inability to run the football. We’ve got to go into the offseason and figure some things out….We have to control the line of scrimmage better than we did this season and that’s really what it comes down to.”
Elko also commented on their poor run defense, a factor that bit A&M all season long and ultimately ended up costing them the game this weekend.
“Clearly that was a weakness of ours,” Elko added. “It’s hard to make a weakness a strength in the middle of the season. We’ve got to look at what we’re doing it and how we’re doing it. We have to figure some things out this offseason.”
Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman partially defended their run defense by citing that A&M went into the game with a light box on purpose to defend Miami’s air-raid attack, but those words ring a bit hollow after Miami went up the field on their defense on the ground to ice the game. It doesn’t excuse their offensive line, led by years of experience, getting pushed around by Miami either.
Regardless, it’s a frustrating end to a promising season for the Aggies. All the strengths of the team throughout the season in their run game and Marcel Reed seemed to be largely negated by Miami, and the Hurricanes were able to capitalize on the most glaring weakness A&M had entering the game. There’s going to be a lot of hard looks in the mirror throughout the offseason for the Aggies after this one.
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