Texas A&M vs South Carolina Recap
South Carolina ran into a buzz saw Saturday night as the Fightin’ Texas Aggies steamroll the Gamecocks. Texas A&M 44
South Carolina 14
By: The Hammer
Achane turned on the jets for this touchdown. Photo via @AggieFootball
Death. Taxes. Texas A&M beating South Carolina. That’s right, we always beat our hated SEC East rival. In fact, Texas A&M has never lost to South Carolina. The Bonham Trophy remains in Aggieland (or wherever it currently is located). As for the game Saturday night, it was a good old fashioned ass whooping in every facet of the game. The Aggies did exactly what elite teams should do to weak opponents: destroy them. A&M is not elite yet, still plenty to clean up and we have two losses, but the last three weeks have been really, really good.
Coming into this game, I thought the South Carolina defense might give A&M some trouble. Not enough to make the game particularly close, but the Gamecocks defense has been decent his year. They held Kentucky to just 16 points, for example. Instead though, the Aggie offensive line and rushing attack completely bulldozed South Carolina’s defensive front. Devon Achane and Isaiah Spiller continued to show why they are the best tailback duo in the country, as Achane ran for 154 yards and a touchdown while Spiller went for 102 yards and a TD himself.
The Aggie offensive line has completely turned the corner as well. Give a ton of credit to offensive line coach Josh Henson for figuring this thing out mid season and finding a group that works well together, despite inexperience and injuries. These last three games have been awesome from the offensive line. Aside from opening up holes for Spiller and Achane all night against South Carolina, Calzada had all day to throw most of the night and was not sacked yet again. Also Bryce Foster was hauling ass on the second Wydermyer touchdown and I have to give the big fella a shout out for getting down field like that, even though he missed the block.
Calzada had another decent game, very similar to Missouri in a lot of ways. He looks much more confident leading the offense, and when the run game is working, he’s under much less pressure. He finished going 12/24 for 187 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Calzada has plenty to work on but I still see some improvement. A few drops were sprinkled in there as well, including one that could have been a long touchdown if Demas could have hauled it in. It would have been a tough catch, but Calzada put that throw on the money.
On the defensive side of the ball, I can’t say enough about how impressive this group was. South Carolina's offense is bad, but the Aggies were on a historic pace before pulling their starters and allowing the Gamecocks to move the ball in garbage time. Zeb Noland had no time to throw the ball as the Aggie defensive line was eating all night. They held the Gamecocks to just 2.3 yards per carry and completely shut down everything South Carolina tried to do. This kind of performance is exactly what we’ve been seeing Georgia do to teams this season.
If A&M can continue to play like this, I really like our chances to win out. Auburn and Ole Miss both present tough challenges, but we are capable of beating them both. We’re capable of beating anyone in the country, outside of maybe Georgia, as we proved by beating Alabama. I’m not saying a 10-2 regular season will happen, but I’m riding pretty high after these last few weeks and have a really good feeling about how this team will finish. Jimbo’s teams have always finished the season strong since he came to Aggieland, a welcome sight considering how the previous regime had monumental collapses late in the season quite often. And so far, this season seems to be on a similar track under Jimbo. It started way too slow of course, but the Aggies continue to improve week after week and we are finally seeing what we thought this team could be preseason. A lot of ball left to be played but a ton to be excited about as well.
#BTHOBYEWEEK
