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The Aggies blew plenty of chances to make this a game or even win it, no matter how lopsided the stat sheet indicated it was. But the players, and the coaches, were not up to the challenge.

Marcel Reed took a beating tonight. Unfortunately, one of his mistakes really turned the game in Texas’ favor. He made a huge mistake throwing a deep pass into double coverage when he had room to run or throw it short, and that pick completely changed momentum. Before that, A&M had moved the ball right down the field to the Texas 10 before coach Mike Elko made his first huge mistake and went for it on fourth and one instead of kicking a field goal.

The offensive line got physically dominated. They couldn’t get a push in short-yardage situations and were mauled on the two plays that mattered most, fourth and 1 at the 10 and fourth and goal at the 1. Those plays were absolute killers. Reed was running frequently, not because he wanted to, but because he had to. Running the ball between the tackles was almost impossible, and A&M ended up averaging just 3.5 yards a carry (before sacks). Amari Daniels had 21 yards on 13 carries, with a long of 5.

I said this could be a big Tre Watson game, and he ended leading the team in catches — with three. The opportunities were there, but he was only targeted four times. Noah Thomas had three catches, but had trouble getting open. Jabre Barber was a non-factor, especially after he was hit in the face by a Texas helmet — which, of course, was not targeting.

Texas’ edges absolutely whipped Trey Zuhn and Dametrious Crownover. They dominated from the second possession on. Those guys, Zuhn especially, have been better than solid all season. They were outclassed tonight.

A&M’s offensive game plan was stale and predictable, as it has been in three of the team’s four losses. But at least it had more motion than Jimbo’s offense. We’ll get into the play calling and scheme in a minute, but the big story here was A&M’s O-line got flat-out humiliated. Man on man, hat on a hat, Texas was better. The line was a lot better this year, but they showed tonight they’ve got a long way to go.

If you hold a team to 17 points, you should win. But I think the score is misleading. Texas could have done more if it wanted to, it just decided running the ball down A&M’s throat was perfectly sufficient.

That is three straight conference games where the Aggies have been battered on the ground, and this one was the worst. Texas ran for 240 yards at 4.8 yards a carry. And their long was only 26. That means that it was just a long, continuing butt-kicking up front. And this was supposed to be the strength of the team. It has been a major league weakness for a month, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it. When teams stopped being intimidated by A&M’s front, they just attacked it directly and won.

I don’t know if you can say anyone had a good game, because there were so many missed tackles that I lost count. A&M would be in position to get Quintrevion Wisner on the ground and he’d cut back and there would be nobody there. They’d over-pursued and mis-fitted. Or they’d miss a tackle, or two, or three. And that’s when they didn’t just blow the line off the ball and have huge gaps for Wisner to run through.

Cashius Howell had a really up and down game. He had 6 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, forced a fumble — and two big penalties that kept Texas drives going. One of them was garbage, but all the same, two 15-yard penalties hurt.

Nic Scourton had six tackles. Shemar Stewart had 5. But neither had a sack, and Scourton didn’t even have a tackle for loss. These guys are supposed to be able to get pressure on the quarterback, and they didn’t. And they haven’t for a month.

Rylan Kennedy quit on Quinn Ewers’ 26-yard run in the first half. That can’t happen ever. If you’re going to hustle, you should’t be out there.

The linebackers were very guilty of overpersuing and missing tackles. Taurean York had 10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a fumble recovery, so you can only say he had a very good game. I didn’t see him missing many tackles. But Scooby Williams had just one tackle. Daymion Sanford had 3. They consistently got out of position and that got them in place where they were lunging or making arm tackles.

Bryce Anderson did not have a good game. He let a game-altering pick go through his hands and then was beaten for Texas’s second touchdown. Honestly, he hasn’t had a good season after getting banged up early on. Dalton Brooks was all right, and I think he’s going to be special. But Marcus Ratcliffe really struggled tonight. He missed a lot of tackles and wasn’t good in coverage.

At corner, Will Lee obviously had a big play. He also got beat deep once. For the second straight week, Dezz Ricks got beaten up. The Texas receivers were getting tons of separation from him, to the point you couldn’t tell he was supposed to be on them at times. BJ Mayes probably had his worst outing of his single season here.

Texas put up 458 yards and controlled the ball for more than 34 minutes. A&M’s offense ran a total of seven plays in the third quarter because the defense couldn’t get Texas off the field (granted, they did deliver the only score of the quarter). But when your offense doesn’t get on the field, you can’t win.

Tyler White struggled tonight, putting balls into the end zone instead of inside the 10. So I guess he’s mortal. Terry Bussey had some nice returns. The Aggies applied pressure on Texas’ missed field goal, and obviously, you have the blocked punt. Maybe their best game of the season.

Texas and Quinn Ewers tried very, very hard to give this game to A&M. And the Aggies gave it right back. And that starts at the top.

At the end of the game, A&M should have been driving for the win, not a desperate effort to rally. But Mike Elko, who has shown a tendency to be overly aggressive when discretion is the better part of valor, took six points off the board by going for it instead of kicking field goals.

It didn’t help that Collin Klein’s play calls were, bluntly, terrible. A&M could not run up the middle all night, and that’s exactly what they tried to do on both fourth down calls. When you’re getting your hat handed to you in the middle of the line, going right back there is probably not a good idea. There’s having faith in your guys and there’s realizing that what you’re doing just isn’t working tonight. If the Aggies are able to score one touchdown in those two drives (and kick a field goal on the other), this game goes to overtime (possibly). But the play calls were predictable and Texas pounced on them.

I don’t know how you can look at the performance of the defense in the last three conference games and call it remotely acceptable. Especially against the run. The front line got worse as the season went along, and that’s on the position coaches and Jay Bateman. Tonight was the icing on the cake, as they just got physically whipped. The secondary probably would have been ripped far worse than they were if Ewers was actually the quality quarterback he’s supposed to be. He was unimpressive tonight, but that was still good enough.

The coaching staff needs to take a hard look at the last three games and realize that they’ve got a lot of work to do. They may have meet or exceeded expectations, but they were exposed down the stretch. And, limitations or not, this is still too talented a team to be humbled on their own field the way they were tonight.

You learn by doing. Elko and Klein, especially, still are growing into their roles. But the growth process hurt badly in this game.

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