Texas A&M’s offense puked on its shoes in an excruciating Playoff loss to Miami
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Well before Texas A&M finally completed a pass in the end zone on Saturday, a disastrous offensive day had been had.
Whipping, swirling winds or not, nothing the Aggies offense did worked consistently. The downfield passing attack was virtually non-existent outside of a miraculous Mario Craver grab, the versatile A&M ground game couldn’t stay on schedule and Marcel Reed took 7 sacks. Oh, and just in case that wasn’t enough, A&M’s field-goal kicking included a mid-game switch.
But in the moments before A&M finally completed that first pass in the end zone, there was still hope. After all, it was a home Playoff game after an 11-1 regular season. Anybody in maroon would’ve signed up for that heading into 2025. If you could’ve gone back to the moment when Jimbo Fisher was paid a $76 million buyout to go away — he returned to College Station with ACC Network on Saturday — and told anybody that in Year 2 of the Mike Elko era, the Aggies would be a 5-yard touchdown away from forcing overtime or potentially winning the game with a 2-point conversion, they would’ve contributed to that buyout.
Unfortunately for A&M, that first completed pass in the end zone went to the wrong team. As a result, A&M’s golden opportunity in its first Playoff game was blown in excruciating fashion.
Miami’s 10-3 win in College Station won’t inspire documentaries. Well, at least it won’t on the A&M side. Lord knows that Miami has already had a pair of “30 for 30” docs made, and after its biggest win since those famed teams, let’s not rule out the idea that Saturday’s 10-3 rock fight could show up in a longer format someday.
It wasn’t a storybook ending for A&M’s season; it was a torturous death by a thousand paper cuts
Where were the offensive adjustments? Remember, as bad as the Texas showing was, that was a game played 3 weeks ago on the road. This was at home with the A&M offense who yes, benefitted from a favorable schedule, but it also averaged 33.6 points vs. Power Conference competition, which included a 41-point showing at Notre Dame back in September. As talented as Miami is up front with a top-6 scoring defense, how did A&M not muster a single touchdown?
Go figure that it was Irish fans who probably felt most bitter watching Saturday’s 1-touchdown showing at Kyle Field. Then again, beating either Miami or A&M would’ve punched their ticket instead of revolting against the system.
Even if A&M felt wronged by the system to get a 7-seed instead of the 6-seed that fellow 11-1 SEC squad Ole Miss got — the meant facing Miami instead of Tulane — there was no excuse for Saturday’s inept offensive showing. And yes, you could argue that A&M’s run defense issues led to that Miami touchdown drive late. That group definitely deserved at least a tiny piece of the blame after it became a 1-dimensional Miami attack that seemingly only had success when Mark Fletcher Jr. touched the ball.
At the same time, 3 turnovers and 4.3 yards/play won’t win you a Playoff game. A&M didn’t deserve to win with that offensive effort.
It’s almost inconceivable that it was still on the table when Reed dropped back to pass on 3rd-and-goal. On that game-deciding throw, Reed was somehow late and off-target to a covered receiver.
A messy play to end a messy game.
In some ways, you could argue that anything that A&M did in the Playoff was gravy. Again, seeing that atmosphere with a national championship still on the table will be remembered by those who witnessed it. Elko looks more like a coach with a clue than his predecessor, and gone are the 8-4 jokes.
But as A&M fans know all too well, assuming anything is imminent is a fool’s errand. Reed is set to return for another season, though that took a different turn after a pair of horrendous performances to close the season. He’ll have a new play caller in Holmon Wiggins, who was promoted to offensive coordinator after Collin Klein returned to his alma mater, Kansas State, for his first head coaching opportunity. How that shakes out remains to be seen, though the pre-Playoff announcement that Mario Craver signed a deal to return for another year — a sentence that’s still weird to process at the college level — bodes well for Reed’s 2026 surroundings.
A veteran A&M defensive front will reload, but that will likely include replacing SEC Defensive Player of the Year Cashius Howell. Whether Elko’s defense can repeat the nation’s best 3rd-down defense remains to be seen, as well.
For now, all we know is that Saturday should sting. The opportunities were there, and on a stage that A&M didn’t quite reach even with Johnny Manziel, they came and went. As Cole Cubelic pointed out, teams had been 0-9 in Playoff games when scoring 10 points or less. Make that 1-9 after Miami survived Kyle Field and became the first ACC team to win a Playoff game in the 2020s. If not for Oklahoma blowing a 17-point lead last night vs. Alabama, A&M would’ve been the first team to lose a home Playoff game. The Aggies narrowly avoided that dubious distinction.
Still, though. Saturday was indeed historic. It turned out to be historic for the wrong reasons for A&M in its first Playoff game. It should top the 2 Texas losses on the unofficial, but all too real “Battered Aggie Syndrome” index. Perhaps the only silver lining is that A&M is again relevant enough to actually feel pain instead of 8-4 apathy. That’s in the eye of the beholder.
Anyone could’ve seen that A&M’s offensive showing was torture. Just a whole lot of paper cuts.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
