It was a disappointing rivalry renewal for Texas A&M.
No. 3 Texas beat the No. 20 Aggies 17-7 on Saturday night to clinch a spot in the SEC title game against Georgia on Dec. 7. It was the first game between the longtime rivals since the two teams last shared a conference in 2011.
The Longhorns sealed the game with a fourth-quarter goal-line stand with 4:35 to go. Instead of kicking a field goal to cut the lead to one possession, Texas A&M elected to go for a TD on fourth down and cut the lead to three. It didn’t work and it didn’t even come close to working.
Texas (11-1 7-1 SEC) was then able to run the clock down inside the two-minute warning as Texas A&M used its timeouts. Once the Aggies got the ball back, Texas forced a fumble with 1:29 to go to seal the win.
Texas jumped out to a 17-0 lead at halftime and had multiple opportunities to put the game away in the second half. But mistakes allowed the Aggies to hang around in the second half. QB Quinn Ewers threw an interception and fumbled deep in Texas A&M territory and a blocked punt preceded the Longhorns’ goal-line stand.
Texas A&M’s only points of the night came on Will Lee’s pick-6 of Ewers. After a third-quarter pass was deflected, Lee ran 93 yards for a TD to give the Aggies a glimmer of hope.
But the Aggies’ offense simply couldn’t do anything. A&M had just 248 yards of offense on 57 plays. The Aggies (8-4, 5-3) failed on all three of their fourth-down attempts.
“Our defense was fantastic all night, they really shut them out,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game on ABC.
The Texas offense rode RB Quintrevion Wisner all evening. Wisner had a career-high 33 carries for 186 yards as Texas rushed 50 times for 240 yards and a TD. That score was provided by Arch Manning, who saw limited snaps in Texas A&M territory. Manning opened the scoring in the first quarter when he rushed 15 yards for a TD by diving over the pylon.
The Longhorns added to the lead in the second quarter when Ewers threw an inch-perfect pass to Jaydon Blue for a score and then Bert Auburn kicked a field goal.
The win should ensure that Texas is in 12-team College Football Playoff no matter what happens against the Bulldogs. An 11-2 Longhorns team with its only losses to the SEC champion would surely not be left out of the field. Especially given what’s happened across college football over the past two weekends.
A&M, meanwhile, has no shot at the playoff after ending the regular season on a two-game losing streak. The Aggies lost 43-41 at Auburn in four overtimes a week ago, and needed to beat Texas and Georgia to have any chance of making the playoff.
