Sloppy end to six-game slide
Aggies’ defense holds Minutemen to 168 total yards to snap longest losing streak in 50 years
COLLEGE STATION — In the rain and cold and surrounded on four sides by three decks of barren concrete at Kyle Field, Texas A&M’s players for the first time in nearly two months saw the light of a win.
“It finally feels good slowly creeping out of the dark hole,” said A&M linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said, in taking a page from a horror novelist. “It’s a start from right now — we’ll take what we can get and just move forward.”
A&M, too, is thankful for the Southeastern Conference’s scheduling allowing league members to munch on nonconference cupcakes five days before Thanksgiving, resulting in the Aggies’ 20-3 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon at Kyle Field.
The sloppy contest in rain and 40-degree temperatures was sparsely attended to begin with, and once the Aggie Band performed at halftime even more fans headed home, in what was easily the lowest attended game of the five-season Jimbo Fisher era.
“Some stuff like that is expected,” A&M offensive lineman Layden Robinson said of Kyle Field being at only about a tenth of its capacity of 102,000 in the second half. “We don’t really pay too much attention to the crowd (either way). We have to play the game no matter if there are zero people in the stadium, a thousand people in the stadium or the stadium is fully packed.
“We have to do our job and we have to play.”
The Aggies (4-7, 1-6 SEC) lost six straight games for the first time in 50 years prior to snapping the streak against the Minutemen, who dropped to 1-10. A&M closes out its first losing season in 14 years on Saturday night against SEC West champion LSU at Kyle Field.
“I’m sure we’re all disappointed and not where we want to be,” Fisher said of Saturday’s sparse crowd for Massachusetts. “But they will be packed out here next week for LSU. I’m sure they’ll be here.”
The Aggies only led 3-0 in the second quarter and 13-3 in the fourth quarter before a 12-yard touchdown run by A&M running back Le’Veon Moss with 5:10 remaining secured the program’s rare victory.
A&M played without star running back Devon Achane and freshman receiver Evan Stewart because of injuries, and Fisher hopes to have the dynamic duo back against LSU. The Aggies fumbled four times and lost three on the wet field.
A&M receiver Moose Muhammad returned to action, too, after refusing to play a week prior in the Aggies’ 13-10 loss at Auburn because his coaches told him the program’s skills players could not wear sleeves, which they believe contribute to fumbling because sleeves sometimes become slippery in cold conditions and it’s more difficult to cradle the ball on the run.
The sleeve-less Muhammad had one of the Aggies’ lost fumbles against Massachusetts. Meantime A&M freshman quarterback Conner Weigman finished 11 of 19 for 191 yards with a touchdown pass to Noah Thomas in the second quarter. Moss led all rushers with 78 yards on a dozen carries in Achane’s absence.
“Any win is a great win —and it’s a really good win,” Fisher said in referencing the burden of the six-game losing streak. “I thought our defense was outstanding in the game — they did a great job of controlling field position.”
The Aggies defense under first-year coordinator D.J. Durkin allowed only a field goal early in the second quarter.
“It’s been miserable,” Cooper said of the past two months. “… We wanted to just keep grinding it out and it finally paid off.”
Fisher added that he will happily take a victory, no matter how unimpressive to outsiders and against a team that had won a lone game this season.
“It’s on our schedule and our kids played their hearts out and they played tough,” Fisher said. “They did the things they had to do to win the game … and I’m proud of our kids for doing it. I’m not discouraged; nobody is discouraged. That’s where we are right now — we win a game and move on.”
The Aggies cobbled together their first 200yard rushing game of the season (213) while holding the Minutemen to 168 total yards, including 73 in the second half. A&M also enjoyed its first double-digit lead in a game since edging Miami 17-9 on Sept. 17.
“That’s football,” Fisher said of playing in a consistent rain and in the cold Saturday. “That’s what makes football so special. You look at some teams across the country, and they’re playing in two feet of snow right now — guys are playing in the rain (as well).
“That’s what makes football so different than so many others sports — we don’t cancel games. You play them and you go.”