Texas A&M made plenty of mistakes Saturday night, but the 6th-ranked Aggies got a huge 3rd-quarter play from their defense, which sparked a season-opening 41-10 win at home against Kent State.

Jimbo Fisher’s team jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the 1st quarter but that remained the score at halftime, as the Aggies were unable to score again despite piling up more than 270 yards of total offense in the opening 30 minutes.

Most costly for the Aggies were 2 second-quarter interceptions thrown by redshirt freshman quarterback Haynes King, a highly touted recruit who was making his first career start.

King did, however, throw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Ainias Smith to account for the lone first-half touchdown.

The Aggies finally got the spark they needed midway through the 3rd quarter when senior safety Leon O-Neal, just one play after having a targeting penalty against him overturned, picked off Kent State quarterback Dustin Crum and scampered 85 yards for a touchdown that put A&M ahead 20-3.

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After O’Neal’s game-changing play, the Aggies defense forced a 3-and-out and the offense responded with a 5-play, 82-yard scoring drive, culminated by sophomore running back Devon Achane’s 63-yard touchdown run that made it 27-3 with 3:49 to play in the third quarter.

King and Smith then hooked up for another TD pass, this time from 14 yards, pushing the lead to 34-3 with 11:31 to play in the game, ending any suspense that might have existed earlier in the night.

For the night, King finished 21-of-33 for 292 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions, while Smith had 8 catches for 100 yards and 2 scores.

Achane also had a huge night for A&M, finishing with 12 carries for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns, while All-SEC running back Isaiah Spiller, who rushed for 1,036 yards and 9 touchdowns in 2020, added  117 yards on 13 carries.

Texas A&M will head to Denver next Saturday to play Colorado at Mile High Stadium, the Aggies only game outside of the state of Texas in their first 6 contests.