COLUMBIA, S.C. — Saturday’s 17-9 loss at South Carolina encapsulated Texas A&M’s 2026 season almost perfectly.

The Aggies dominated the game. They should have been driving for a game-winning field goal at the end of the game, but a botched fake field goal and a shocking miss by David Olano (allegedly). Left them behind the eight ball. They still almost had a shot to tie, at least, and Marcel Reed threw the ball out of the back of the end zone.

Isaiah Horton told ESPN this week he had the best hands in the SEC. He dropped two straight passes to kill a drive, dropped a touchdown and nearly fumbled away a punt. Reed played his best game, but still couldn’t come through in the end. South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers suffered an ankle injury in the first half and still ran for the decisive score.

They did a lot of things right. They didn’t do enough things right when it really mattered.

Offense

I still have no idea how you pick up 457 yards of total offense and end up with nine points. That takes some serious work and ineptitude. And that is definitely what we saw when A&M got inside the South Carolina 30.

Again, the Aggies played an offense that was trying not to lose instead of trying to win. If you’re going to play Marcel Reed, let Marcel Reed try to do what he is capable of doing, don’t stifle him with conservative play calling. I get that they took a couple of deep shots and Reed had to scramble because of the pressure, but there were very few opportunities taken. There was a lot of dinking and dunking. The bigger plays when Reed had to move and was freelancing. When there was finally no choice but to let him throw, they charged right down the field inside the 10 before running out of time.

Reed was 25-43 for 251 yards and about eight drops. His receivers were pretty terrible today. He had a couple of passes that were awful (the last pass and a bad overthrow on the sideline come to mind), but overall that was the best he’s looked all year. He threw a perfect deep ball to Mario Craver that was batted away on a good play, and a great end zone lob to Horton that he failed to bring in (you can make an argument it was pass interference, but the catch had to be made).

The running game was really good this week. Rueben Owens may have had the best game of his career, carrying the ball 19 times for 137 yards. He ran tough, he was physical and didn’t go down on first contact. That’s what we’ve been looking for. KJ Edwards ran well, even if he was limited. 10 carries for 37 yards is easily his lowest output of the year, but he was willing to fight for yards. If Owens and Edwards can stay healthy and run like Owens did today and Edwards has all year, the Aggies will have a potent rushing attack for the remainder of the season.

The receivers were flat out bad today. Losing Mario Craver for much of the game hurt. Horton dropped a bunch of passes, and that was a really big issue. TK Norman played well and has likely cemented himself a rotation spot next year too. Aaron Gregory was solid, catching five of the six passes thrown his way (the other was an overthrow). But Horton dropped two passes in a row to kill a drive, then dropped a third to kill that drive too. Mike Brown got his first real look, had a key third down pass thrown his way (on his hands) and dropped it.

Three tight ends caught passes today, but it was the one who didn’t — Micah Riley — who will be remembered. He was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on A&M’s first drive of the second half, taking them from second and 7 at the South Carolina 28 to second and 22 at the Gamecocks 42. That took a potential touchdown drive and made it a long field goal.

The offensive line runblocked well. Extremely well, in fact. The Aggies ran for 4.8 yards a carry against a defense that had really improved against the run over the past month. South Carolina came in giving up 115 yards on the ground; A&M ran for 206. But they went away from the run inside the red zone, which worked against them. Pass blocking was not as good. Reed was hurried 10 times and sacked three times, meaning he was running for his life a lot (and still making plays). I guess you could say they did enough in that department, and they converted multiple third and short situations, but they were not able to take over when it really mattered.

457 yards. Nine points. It boggles the mind.

Defense

The Aggies held the Gamecocks to more than 100 yards less than their season average on offense and less than half their average scoring output. They held a running game that was averaging nearly 216 yards a game to 109. They had a couple of sacks and consistently applied pressure. But it was two explosive plays that ended up killing them, just as they have all year.

For the most part, I thought the defensive line played well today. We got a good look at the future in Marco Jones and Bryce Perry-Wright, because they were the ones chasing Sellers down. Perry Wright had 1.5 of A&M’s three tackles for loss and forced a fumble on his first career sack. Jones had a sack, giving him 3.5 on the season. They applied pressure well. Sam M’Pemba was in on the sack/fumble with BPW; he should stick around because he’s become a player. TJ Searcy had a couple of hurries and played his normal solid game.

The defensive tackles played ok, but I am frustrated by the lack of production from DJ Hicks. He’s gone from a potential star and third player over all to a fringe rotation guy. If notable plays are being made by the tackles, it’s been Landon Rink or Brandon Davis-Swain of late (DJ Sanders, too, though he was not a factor today).

The good play up front allowed the linebackers to flow. I was really impressed by Ray Coney today. He was all over the place, and he was making tackles — solo tackles. Noah Mikhail was fine, and Daymion Sanford looks like he’s back to 100% because he was all over the place.

The safeties were really good in run defense and in blitzing, but were burned for big plays in pass coverage. The bust on tight end Brady Hunt for 40 yards helped lead to a touchdown. The 64-yarder to Mazeo Bennett was wiped out by the sack/fumble on Sellers, but again, it was a pass over the middle.

Dezz Ricks got picked on a little bit today by Nyck Harbor, including some big receptions on third down. But all in all, nothing terrible.

The Aggies gave up one real drive, but they looked extremely poor in doing it. They looked confused when South Carolina went up-tempo and failed to respond to it. At the least, they should have called a timeout and gotten their legs back under themselves. But they didn’t.

A&M gave up three explosive plays — the Hunt completion, the Bazeo completion and Sellers’ 41-yard run when they sold out late. Two of them became touchdowns. There’s your game.

Special teams

Tyler White had another great game, averaging 54 yards a punt and sticking one at the South Carolina 1.

Olano, who has been perfect all year, messed up the fake field goal and barely missed a 30-yard field goal. If he makes the first down (or two field goals), that also changes the complexion of the game.’

Horton nearly lost the game by muffing a punt that seemed to be recovered by South Carolina before he grabbed the ball with his left food was out of bounds.

It sucks to say this group of special teams players contributed to a loss, but they did.

Coaching

I still don’t understand why Coach Mike Elko called the fake field goal. It was a panic move on the first drive of the game. It ended up being a massive backfire as the game went on. To his credit, the team played hard and fought through adversity, but that call was on him. There’s no excusing that one away.

Holmon Wiggins continues to call too conservative a game — except inside the 10, when he tries to get aggressive. The running game was working well today and they went away from it when they actually got close to the end zone.

Defensively, they played pretty well, but explosives continue to kill them. ‘

It’s frustrating. The Aggies last year found ways to win. This year, they’re finding very impressive ways to lose.