After a perfect SEC start, ‘The Moment’ overtook Texas A&M Aggies

The SEC no longer has an undefeated team to boast about.

South Carolina Gamecocks no longer have to worry about not winning a signature, and the Texas A&M Aggies no longer have control.

In fact, they didn’t from the opening kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Entering week 10, Mike Elko and company were living a dream. They had taken a punch in the mouth in Week 1 against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish – as chronicled at AT&T Stadium after a win over the Arkansas Razorbacks – but it only made them better.

In week 2 they took care of things. Week 3 they went on the road and got their first conference win of the year. Weeks 4-9? Same story. The Aggies were undefeated in SEC play, in control of their own destiny, and suddenly had targets on their backs.

LSU, the first team to face them in such a state, could not reach the goal. But South Carolina did.

Oh, South Carolina did it? With 24 points even.

The Aggies are new to this. Yet at the same time they are all too familiar with it. In the past ten games leading up to Saturday’s game, they had shut down South Carolina nine times and lost just once. Normally those games were unimportant: just another win in a 7-on-8 season.

This time it meant much more.

Not only did the Aggies drop one loss before likely being eliminated from the College Football Playoff, but they also lost control of their season. Instead of sitting back for three weeks and watching the carnage that has become SEC Saturdays, they’re joining in.

It came in the form of a scoreless second half that culminated in a blowout: one interception and lost fumble, and another loss on the record for Texas A&M.

How did it get to that point?

Punishments, for example. That night, the Aggies were called for nearly 70 yards, while the Gamecocks didn’t commit their first offense until the third quarter.

“We have to be smarter,” Marcel Reed explained simply. “The coach keeps telling us that penalties can cost you the game.”

They certainly played a role, but didn’t tell the whole story.

Raheim Sanders and LaNorris Sellers combined to give the Gamecocks nearly 300 rushing yards for the game — more than 100 yards higher than the Aggies’ weekly average. And when desperation mode struck late in the second half, tackle attempts became strip attempts.

“It felt like one guy beat us,” Aggies linebacker Taurean York said of the defensive mistakes. “We weren’t tackling with our technique.”

It gets uglier. For a team between two quarterbacks — Marcel Reed got the nod on Saturday after being the difference-maker against LSU — a natural response to one performing poorly would be the other, since he’s been gone all season.

After Reed was benched in favor of the original starter against Missouri, Weigman proved why. Then, when Weigman struggled to generate offense for LSU, Reed saved the day.

This time Reed had no answer. Yet he was the only one who got playing time.

“He’s the starter now,” Elko said, providing the first real update on the quarterback position since Weigman was named the starter in training camp. “(Now) we’ll see where we go.”

As much as Reed struggled, he stayed under center even as the Aggies got their own medicine as their offense crumbled in a hostile environment with the game on the line.

Within a week, they had become just like LSU. And also joined them on the list of now-defeated SEC teams.

Perhaps the biggest difference from week to week, however, came in the form of a crowd.

Shane Beamer, speaking to a TV reporter after his team’s signature win of the season, couldn’t suppress the spectacle.

“USC” chants began ringing out on the field at Williams-Brice, sometimes overwhelming the audio of his answers. He talked about his team’s victory. How they had endured. The turnover has been benefited.

As the camera started to expand, the crowd of Gamecocks fans expanded with it.

Beamer, the mastermind behind the victory, was surrounded by a crowd that wanted nothing more than to be there with him. For the Aggies, who were already preparing for what they knew would be a long trip back to College Station, it was all too familiar.

“We still have a lot of ball left.” York said, sharing what Elko had preached to the team after the loss.

Texas A&M’s season isn’t over yet. It is still tied for first place in the conference, as Elko optimistically put it, but now faces the task of going through the Texas Longhorns if it wants a shot at the SEC title game and an automatic Playoff berth.

About as quickly as the South Carolina crowd stormed the field, the Aggies’ margin for error has shrunk. After seven weeks of a storybook, “the moment” caught up with them. They are no longer at the top of the SEC ladder, no longer in control and no longer invincible – even though it seems like they never were.

Meanwhile, the Gamecocks got their moment in the spotlight; the premiere of the week, beating one team without a blemish on the conference.

But if that’s what that victory meant That Maybe it’s a good sign for the Aggies. Maybe they were the team to beat in the SEC. Or maybe they were exposed.

And maybe it had to be done.

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