Texas A&M makes unflattering history in statistically dominant, but disappointing, loss

Take a look at the box score of the 17-9 road loss for Texas A&M football to No. 21 South Carolina and you'd be forgiven for being a little perplexed. On paper, the Aggies performed well. They put up 457 yards to the Gamecocks 360, rushed for 206 yards to the hosts' 109, possessed the ball for almost 10 more minutes and - for just the second time this season against a Power Four opponent - did not turn the ball over. Yet in what has become a familiar pattern this year, A&M was unable to score a single touchdown, putting up just nine points as the Aggies fell to 4-5 on the year and just 1-5 in Southeastern Conference play. A&M is the first team in NCAA history to have more than 450 total yards of offense, zero turnovers, and score zero touchdowns in the same game, according to TexAgs. "(We) gave a lot of stuff away," head coach Mike Elko said. "You can't get down there as much as we did and not come away with points when you're playing a team like that. … But at the end of the day, we had a chance to win a game in the fourth quarter, and we didn't do it." Success on the ground Running back Reubem Owens II entered this season as the Aggies' RB1, but had fallen down the depth chart as the year went on behind freshman KJ Edwards and sophomore Jamarion Morrow. But with Edwards recovering from the flu and Morrow - who recorded just one carry - banged up, according to Elko, Owens seemed to play as if he wanted to regain that RB1 title. On the Aggies' first play from scrimmage, Owens scampered 40 yards downfield to give A&M an explosive start to the day. "I just had a good week," Owens said. " … I felt it before the game that it was going to be one of the ones. Coach gave me the opportunity and my O-line gave me the opportunity, and I put it out there." By halftime, Owens led the Aggies with 64 yards on 10 carries as the Aggies picked up 101 yards on the ground - a number made even more impressive by A&M's defense, which held South Carolina to just 36 rushing yards in the first half. "We challenged them to be physical," Elko said. "I thought that was going to be a big part of that game. They're a really good run offense, they're a really good run defense. In this environment, we knew we were going to have to control the run game. They got great edge rushers, and again, we did what we wanted to do to the red area, and in the red area we just couldn't finish." In a dose of deja vu, Owens took off for a 44-yard gain on the Aggies' first play from scrimmage of the second half. Owens finished the day with 137 yards on 19 carries.  "You're going to face some adversity," Owens said when asked about rejoining the starting lineup. "Some things are not going to go your way, but you can't put your head down. You got to just keep working. … No one cares how you feel in this game of football, you've got to go get it." Red zone woes But just as in three of the Aggies' six SEC games, it was the offense's inability to score that doomed the Maroon and White.  Despite the Aggies out gaining the Gamecocks by nearly 100 total yards, South Carolina's defense stiffened in the red zone, something Elko credited to a lack of discipline as A&M picked up eight penalties for 75 yards. "The tone of the second half was penalties," Elko said. "We kept doing things to put us behind the chains, it felt like every drive. … And then all of a sudden, you're in second-and-long against them, and those edge guys are teeing off. We have to be better than that." Despite Reed's inability to score, the Nashville native finished the night 25-of-43 for 251 yards and - crucially, considering his 8-8 TD/INT ratio - no interceptions. Elko described the performance as Reed's best this season. "I thought he delivered the ball the way we wanted to," Elko said. "Maybe down the stretch a little more poised, but he also put a lot of balls in really good places down the stretch. I thought some of those we should have been able to come down with." Aggies - mostly - stop Sellers Entering the game, a major question facing the Aggies' defense was if they could effectively stop quarterback LaNorris Sellers both through the air and on the ground. Sellers entered the day ranked sixth in the conference  In the first half, Sellers outplayed Reed, going 10-of-15 for 151 yards and a touchdown while the Aggies remained scoreless.  But with 5:28 remaining in the second quarter, the game - and the Gamecocks season - appeared to have been turned upside down when Sellers lost the football on a strip sack by A&M defensive end Bryce Perry-White and limped off the field and into an injury tent after an Aggie fell onto his ankle. Thankfully for Gamecock fans, Sellers' X-ray results were negative and he returned after the halftime break without missing a play - although he looked to be a step slow, recording just 100 passing yards over the rest of the night. "We locked them down for most of the game," linebacker Ray Coney said. "It really just comes down to that, you can't get bored of doing your jobs. You've got to do your job every play." Of course, that came to an end when he scrambled for a 41-yard touchdown 1:19 remaining in the game. Ironically, Sellers' decision to score gave A&M a final chance to score with the Aggies down 17-9, before Reed threw back-to-back incomplete passes in the game's final seconds. "I'm ain't going to lie, it sucks," Coney said. "Just going through the week, you're putting in the work, and through three quarters, you see the work paying off.  And then just in that fourth, we've got to continue to get better. Despite that late score, Sellers finished with just 36 yards on the ground. "Outside of that, I thought we did as good as you can against him in containing him," Elko said. "A couple of easy passes in the first half that I wasn't really happy with, but … that's been a really really explosive offense that's been lighting it up the last few weeks. And in the fourth quarter, they had 10 points." Elko said that headed into the final stretch of the season, the Aggies have gotten better over the course of the year and just need to find a way to seal the deal. "We're not a program looking for improvements," Elko said. "We're a program that's looking for wins. We know that. We've got to get in the fourth quarter and we've got to make the plays we need to make to win football games." Sign up for the Daily Briefing from the Austin American-Statesman. Start your day with the must-read headlines from Austin's most trusted news source. This article originally published at Texas A&M makes unflattering history in statistically dominant, but disappointing, loss .