It was a disappointing rivalry renewal for Texas A&M.
No. 3 Texas beat the No. 20 Aggies 17-7 on Saturday night time to clinch a spot within the SEC title recreation in opposition to Georgia on Dec. 7. It was the primary recreation between the longtime rivals because the two groups final shared a convention in 2011.
The Longhorns sealed the sport with a fourth-quarter goal-line stand with 4:35 to go. Instead of kicking a discipline aim to chop the result in one possession, Texas A&M elected to go for a TD on fourth down and lower the result in three. It did not even come near understanding for the Aggies.
Texas (11-1, 7-1 SEC) was then capable of run the clock down contained in the two-minute warning as Texas A&M used its timeouts. Once the Aggies obtained the ball again, Texas pressured a fumble with 1:29 to go to seal the win.
Texas jumped out to a 17-0 lead at halftime and had a number of alternatives to place the sport away within the second half. But errors allowed the Aggies to hold round within 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 solely factors of the night time got here on Will Lee’s pick-6 of Ewers. After a third-quarter go was deflected, Lee ran 93 yards for a TD to offer the Aggies a glimmer of hope.
But the Aggies’ offense merely couldn’t do something. A&M had simply 248 yards of offense on 57 performs. The Aggies (8-4, 5-3) failed on all three of their fourth-down makes an attempt.
“Our protection was improbable all night time, they actually shut them out,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian mentioned after the sport on ABC.
The Texas offense rode RB Quintrevion Wisner all night. Wisner had a career-high 33 carries for 186 yards as Texas rushed 50 occasions for 240 yards and a TD. That rating was supplied by Arch Manning, who noticed restricted snaps in Texas A&M territory. Manning opened the scoring within the first quarter when he rushed 15 yards for a TD by diving over the pylon.
The Longhorns added to the lead within the second quarter when Ewers threw an inch-perfect go to Jaydon Blue for a rating after which Bert Auburn kicked a discipline aim.
The win ought to make sure that Texas is in 12-team College Football Playoff it doesn’t matter what occurs in opposition to the Bulldogs. An 11-2 Longhorns crew with its solely losses to the SEC champion would absolutely not be neglected of the sphere. Especially given what’s occurred throughout faculty soccer over the previous two weekends.
A&M, in the meantime, has no shot on the playoff after ending the common season on a two-game shedding streak. The Aggies misplaced 43-41 at Auburn in 4 overtimes every week in the past, and wanted to beat Texas and Georgia to have any likelihood of constructing the playoff.
