Texas A&M Football: Aggies fall to Appalachian State in shocking upset

The Texas A&M Aggies lost to Appalachian State, 17-14. In a game the Aggies expected to win, they lost in one of the biggest upsets of the year. While Appalachian State did play well in a loss against North Carolina last week (including a 40-point fourth quarter in that loss), nobody expected them to be even competitive with 6th ranked-Texas A&M Football. Even If you thought this game would be semi-competitive, you would not think that it would be a low scoring affair.

Texas A&M Football falls to Appalachian State in shocking upset

The game started out slow. After punts by both sides, Appalachian State’s offense did do well in their second drive of the game, but they missed a 42-yard field goal. On the ensuing drive, Haynes King fumbled the ball, and Appalachian State recovered. While Appalachian State scored on the next drive, it still didn’t seem like this game would be the upset of the year. Especially after King led Texas A&M to a touchdown on the next possession.

While that stayed the score till half, it seemed like at some point, A&M would turn on the offensive jets and leave the Mountaineers in the dust. That didn’t happen. The game stayed 7-7 till Evan Stewart fumbled the ball for Texas A&M after catching a pass from King. The Mountaineers recovered and went down the field for a touchdown on the ensuing drive. The game was finally in upset territory.

It seemed like Texas A&M woke up after the fumble as on the literal next play, Devon Achane returned the kickoff for a touchdown. App State then went on a controlling drive that lasted nine minutes. While the drive ended with a field goal, it was clear App State was in control of this game.

While it seemed like App State was in control of this game, on the next Texas A&M drive, they got into field goal range because of a key Devon Achane run, a key catch by Evan Stewart, and a roughing the passer penalty by App State that extended the drive on 3rd and long.

While the Aggies got into field goal range, they were not able to score on that drive. Caden Davis missed a 47-yard field goal and Texas A&M would never get the ball back.

The reason the Aggies lost this game was the lack of offensive production. This team struggled offensively, not being able to break 100 yards in passing or rushing. A huge reason Texas A&M was unable to break 100 yards in either category was because of turnovers. A&M had two turnovers. While that might not be a lot, in a game where the Aggies only controlled the ball for 18 total minutes, that is a big problem.

Another reason they lost this game was because the offense wasn’t good. Texas A&M only converted 2 of their 8 third downs. They had less than 200 total yards. That simply won’t cut it. While sports analysts underrated App State going into this game,  pundits would not have expected A&M to only score 14 points and have 187 yards.

Keep in mind, App State let up more than 60 points last week. App State made adjustments from last week, which shows a simply poor offensive performance from Jimbo Fisher’s squad. This is a shocking and embarrassing loss for Texas A&M. They paid App State 1.5 million dollars to play them.

Let me rephrase that they paid App State 1.5 million dollars to have a total of 187 yards against them for the entire game. Conversely, they also paid App State 1..5 million dollars to have 387 yards against them. This is an embarrassing loss for Texas A&M and takes them out of playoff consideration (taking out the scenario where they have one miracle run where they win out the rest of the way).

If Texas A&M repeats this offensive performance the rest of the year, they won’t be competitive against Miami or in SEC play later in the year. Texas A&M’s next opponent is Miami next week.