Texas Longhorns defense leaves no doubt, dominates Texas A&M Aggies in first meeting since 2011

The rivalry was renewed and the Texas Longhorns defense asserted its supremacy over Texas A&M in dominating fashion.

The No. 3 Longhorns secured a spot in the Southeastern Conference championship game with a 17-7 win over the NO. 20 Aggies in front of a record crowd of 109,028 at Kyle Field.

Texas (11-1, 7-1 in the SEC) plays Georgia (10-2, 6-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. With the win over the Aggies, the Longhorns appear to be a lock to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff 12-team bracket. If Texas beats Georgia, it’ll secure a first-round bye in the CFP Playoff.

Texas, in its first season in the SEC, has done something Texas A&M has yet to do in 13 SEC seasons: Reach the conference title game.

“Them handling the environment was something that was critical to us and having poise and composure in this arena and owning the arena and I thought we did that,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “All in all, it’s a great way to end the regular season.

“This is where we wanted to be. We knew when we had the slip up earlier in the season, that we’d have to win out to get back to a championship game and we’ve earned that right. And we’re playing a heck of an opponent, as we all know. Georgia is a great team and we’re going to have to prepare really well to try to come out on top.”

The Aggies (8-4, 5-3) will fail to win at least 10 games for the 12th consecutive season. A&M has two seasons of 10 or more wins in the past 30 years: 11-2 in 2012 and 11-3 in 1998.

“Hat off to them, because they physically annihilated us,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. “It sucks. There is no sugarcoating it. We had opportunities and didn’t get it done.”

Arch Manning, in the game for the first time on 4th and 2, took the snap between two running backs and took off around the left side, stayed inbounds after being hit at the 10-yard line and lunged toward the left pylon for a 15-yard touchdown run. The play was reviewed before the officials credited the Horns with a touchdown with three minutes left in the first quarter.

The score capped a 10-play, 93-yard drive.

Texas stretched its lead to 14-0 when Quinn Ewers connected with Jaydon Blue for a 7-yard touchdown pass in the back right corner of the end zone, dragging his right foot on the turf to secure the score with 8:25 left in the first half. Again, it wasn’t clear to anyone in the stadium whether Blue had a foot down until it was verified by replay. The score finished an 8-play, 80-yard drive.

The Horns added a field goal to take a 17-0 lead into halftime, although Bert Auburn’s 48-yard attempt on the last play of the half sailed wide right.

Still, it was a dominating first half for Texas, which outgained Texas A&M 254 yards to 141. It’s the first time the Aggies have been shutout at home in the first half since Oct. 28, 2017. That was a 35-14 loss to Mississippi State.

“Defensively, just not good enough in the run game,” Elko said. “Way too many rushing yards. We didn’t win the line of scrimmage, didn’t really fit things particularly well. We’re good enough on the third down, didn’t do the things we needed to do to get off the field, but I thought we showed tremendous heart and fight to continue to battle and gave ourselves a lot of chances in that second half to win, which was grit and toughness. Offensively, we just lost the line of scrimmage all night, couldn’t get anything going, really disappointing. We didn’t play well enough on offense at all to have any chance of success.”

Ewers had more passing yards (142) than Texas A&M had total yards in the first half. He finished completing 17 of 28 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown with an interception.

Former DeSoto standout Quintrevion Wisner led all rushers with a career-high 186 yards on 33 carries.

“[Running backs] Coach [Tashard Choice] always tells me whenever I’ve got the ball in my hands, I’m not just running for myself, I’m running for my families’ livelihood, I’m running for my teammates’ livelihood, the whole program’s livelihood, so whenever I have the ball, I know I have to get to destination and I’m going to get there no matter what it takes.”

With 5:42 left in the third quarter, the Aggies defense stepped up and thwarted a potentially game-sealing score by Texas. With the Longhorns at the A&M, Aggies defensive end DJ Hicks tipped Ewers’ pass at the line of scrimmage and cornerback Will Lee III caught it off the deflection and raced down the sideline untouched for a pick six to pull A&M to within 17-7.

With Texas again deep into A&M territory on the ensuing possession, the Aggies forced another turnover. Cashius Howell caught Ewers from behind, stripped the ball loose and Taurean York recovered at the A&M 11.

With the A&M offense being stifled by Texas’ stout defense, the Aggies’ special teams set the unit up in prime position when Jahdae Walker blocked Texas’ punt and Dalton Brooks recovered it at the Texas 19 with just over five minutes remaining and A&M trailing by 10.

But again, the Longhorn defense proved to be the decisive edge. Texas stopped Amari Daniels for a 3-yard loss on a 4th and 1 at the Texas 1 to take over on downs for the third time in the game. Texas limited A&M to a season-low 244 yards and a season-low 15 first downs.

The Longhorns had three sacks and six tackles for lost yardage.

With under two minutes remaining, Texas’ defense made another signature play to ice the win. Trey Moore forced a fumble on a sack of Marcel Reed and Vernon Broughton recovered it to secure the win.

“It feels pretty good,” e Sarkisian said. “The rivalry is one thing, but the opportunity to go compete for an SEC championship in our first year in the conference is pretty exciting, but it’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”

The last time the Aggies offense was held without a touchdown was a 23-3 loss at Ole Miss on Oct. 24, 2015. The Aggies offense was last held scoreless in a 59-0 loss to Alabama on Oct. 18, 2014.

Texas and Texas A&M last played in November 2011, the Aggies last season in the Big 12. The teams had no plans to rekindle their storied Lone Star rivalry until the Longhorns announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.

Texas holds a 77-37-5 advantage in the all-time series, which started in 1894.

This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 10:28 PM.