Comeback Falls Short at Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss. -- The No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies fell to the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels, 29-19, on Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. 

Ole Miss entered halftime with a 15-0 advantage. The Aggie defense held the Rebels to one score on four red zone tries in the opening half, which included two forced fumbles and a four-down goal line stand. Early in the second quarter, DeMarvin Leal made a strip-sack to allow Tyree Johnson to recover the first fumble of his career. On the ensuing drive, Demani Richardson forced Ole Miss QB Matt Corral to fumble, but the ball was recovered by the offense.

Coming out of the half, the Maroon & White got things going, putting together a 12-play, 62-yard drive that resulted in a Seth Small 30-yard field goal.

Following a quick three-and-out, the Aggies continued to build momentum as they drove 88 yards down the field, capping off the drive with a Devon Achane 24-yard run on the left side to bring A&M within five points at 15-10, Ole Miss. Zach Calzada went a perfect 4-of-4 passing and Achane added 48 yards on the ground on the scoring drive.

Faced with a 32-yard Ole Miss field goal attempt, the Rebels attempted a fake, but Antonio Johnson and Leon O’Neal stopped the runner in his tracks to allow A&M to take over on downs.

The Aggies answered with an eight-play, 55-yard drive that was capped off by a Small 43-yard field goal to narrow the lead to 15-13 Ole Miss. With the score, Small is now within three points of A&M’s all-time scoring record of 365, finishing the night with 362 points. 

Ole Miss followed with 14 unanswered points, before the Aggies tacked on a late score, courtesy of an Achane rush from 9 yards out.

Team Notes

• For the fourth consecutive game, Texas A&M had at least one player rush for over 100 yards.
• A&M made 104 tackles in the game, passing the century mark in the category for the first time since tallying 102 against Wake Forest in 2017.
• The Aggies saw four players tally double-digit tackles in a game for the first time since the LSU game in 2018 when Donovan Wilson (13), Otaro Alaka (11), Debione Renfro (10) and Justin Madubuike (10) had 10-plus takedowns.
• A&M scored on all three trips to the red zone and have now scored on 22 of its last 23 trips to the red zone, dating back to the New Mexico game.
• The Aggies had three receivers with five-or-more receptions for the first time since the Tennessee game last season.
• Today’s captains against Ole Miss were WR Ainias Smith, RB Isaiah Spiller, DL DeMarvin Leal and OL Kenyon Green.

Individual Notes

• Sophomore RB Devon Achane recorded the fourth multi-touchdown game of his career, third this season, after 24- and 9-yard trips to the end zone against Ole Miss. He finished with 110 yards on the ground, marking his fourth 100-yard game of the year, fifth in his career.
• Junior TE Jalen Wydermyer extended his string of games with a reception to 33, dating back to his first game in Maroon & White.
• Wydermyer matched his season high with five receptions on the night. His 68 receiving yards against Ole Miss moved him up A&M’s all-time career list to 17th with 1,427 yards.
• Junior S Demani Richardson posted the second double-digit tackle game of his career with 13 against the Rebels, including 10 solo tackles.
• Freshman LB Edgerrin Cooper and senior S Leon O’Neal Jr. hit the double-digit mark in tackles for the first time in their careers with 11 and 10, respectively.
• Sophomore DB Antonio Johnson added 11 takedowns in the game, reaching double figures for the second time this season. He posted a career-best 2.5 tackles for loss. 
• Senior PLK Seth Small sailed 30- and 43-yard field goals through the uprights to extend his A&M career record to 69 made field goals in his career, which ties him with South Carolina’s Parker White for 10th on the SEC’s all-time list.
• Small’s seven points in the game upped his career total points to 362 and put him within three points of Randy Bullock’s (2008-11) A&M program record of 365.

Congrats to Ole Miss. They played a really good game, got a good team, played a great first half, they controlled the first half very well. Their offense did a great job of moving the football up and down the field. Had lots of opportunities. Our defense became opportunistic in two or three chances that stopped them down when they didn't kick field goals and things, and kept us in the game and gave us a chance. Offensively, first half we had missed assignments, didn't play with enough poise, we didn't play with enough poise on offense and defense.

Either way, the first half, we didn't execute the plays and make the tackles. And that's a disappointing thing, coming up here. Put ourselves behind the eight ball too fast, too quick to make the plays in which we needed to make.

Offensively, you know, after we drop a ball, miss two blocks, have a penalty, just self-inflicted wounds and things like that, miss a throw and then come back in the second half and moved it really well. Need to finish. Defensively we played well and we kept them off the field. That was what we needed to do in the first half more of. But then once they got hot, they were moving it. We kicked a field goal on the first drive down there, missed the 3rd and 4, had a chance and then we had a touchdown. Made a great play there. The next drive down at this point, we had got the ball on the 10-yard line, had a chance to take the lead, missed a block, get a 2nd and 12 and we drop a ball and it goes third down and miss a throw and have a penalty to get a field goal 15-13. So we're there. Then they drove again, punted, controlled them, and we got the ball back on the 8. Then dropped a ball, coming off on a second down had a nice completion, a little bit high, but went through our hands and they got an interception right there and then got the drive and got ahead. Then we tried to come back  and that's when our two receivers got tangled together right there and tripped and broke it out and got the pick six. But then we come back and scored again. If we hit the two point play, we've still got a chance on the onside to come back. And the two point play, it was there. The guy just got up. We got to put a little more air on that ball and and make it.

But listen. We tried, we competed. We didn't give up in the game. We got back in the game, had chances to win the game. That's the thing that's disappointing. Once we got back to that point, we had chances to win the game and do the things we needed to do and didn't do it. And from that point on, they made the play at the end and did it. Disappointed because I just didn't like the poise we played with early in the game on both sides of the ball. I mean, even though they didn't score some points in the first half, they had plenty of opportunities to. They were up and down the field and we've got to do a better job in that and got to tackle better in that situation, but offensively we've got to match and do those things. We're moving it good. We kept getting to midfield, just couldn't get it through there. But they're a good football team, We've still got two games left, so we've got to battle up and go play.