Scott Rabalais from the Baton Rouge Advocate:
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As Texas A&M’s Demani Richardson crossed the goal line with the ball Jayden Daniels had just fumbled, the LSU quarterback pounded the turf with his fists in frustration.
Not everything LSU coveted went sailing into the end zone with Richardson and his maroon entourage. It just looked that way. But much of it did.
Goodbye, College Football Playoff hopes.
Goodbye, 10-win regular season.
Goodbye, air of make-believe conjured up by the Tigers’ improbable five-game winning streak that vaulted them into national title contention.
What isn’t lost is LSU’s chance to win the Southeastern Conference championship. Not even a stunning 38-23 defeat at Texas A&M on this Saturday could dislodge the soon-to-be-no-longer No. 5 Tigers from next Saturday’s SEC championship game against No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta.
Suddenly, though, anticipation for that game has morphed into dread. LSU was given only a puncher’s chance to upset the Bulldogs before. Now, it really looks like Georgia would have to walk into an LSU haymaker with its gloves down, while being totally distracted by a UFO sighting, for that to happen.
It’s still a remarkable achievement in a totally surprising season for LSU to get to Atlanta, and a 9-3 record is better than most thought possible for the Tigers. But their SEC West title now meets the definition of a hollow victory — at least for the moment.
“We didn’t get our job done, and I’m very disappointed because of that,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said.
Midway through his answer to the next question, the LSU band went booming past the interview room in Kyle Field, horns and drums going full blast.
“It’s always great to have a marching band,” Kelly said with a slightly bemused look on his face.
Even the Tigers’ postgame Q and A couldn’t happen without a hitch.
What went wrong for LSU? In a nutshell, the Tigers failed to control both lines of scrimmage.
A Texas A&M team that was offensively anemic this entire season suddenly regained the services of its best offensive playmaker: running back Devon Achane. He went off for 215 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries, while Moose Muhammad made a couple of utterly remarkable catches, including one for a killer second-half touchdown.
It helped a Texas A&M team that converted just 32.6% of its third downs this entire season convert two-thirds of them (10 of 15) against LSU.
“He just had a day today,” said LSU linebacker Mike Jones about Achane, a hint of appreciation in his voice.
Meanwhile, the LSU offense could only muster 10 points in the first half with running back Josh Williams, who hurt his knee at Arkansas, dressed out but once again a spectator.
And yet LSU had a chance. The Tigers came out after what Kelly caustically described on radio as its worst defensive effort down 17-10 at halftime. After, I’m sure, Kelly blistered the paint in the LSU locker room, the Tigers briefly took control of the game.
LSU forced the Aggies into their first three-and-out (first punt, actually), then went down and scored to tie the game 17-17. LSU again forced an A&M three-and-out. The Tigers got the ball back and …
Disaster movie.
On third-and-1, Daniels bypassed a dive play handoff to John Emery and instead kept the ball before getting tackled and stripped by Edgerrin Cooper. In the time it takes Aggie fans to complete one revolution with one of their little white towels, A&M snatched the lead and the momentum right back.
The Tigers continued to fight, scoring a touchdown (Emery's third of the night) with 6:21 left, and Daniels bravely came back twice from injuries to keep plugging. But then Muhammad would make another magical reception or Achane would make another run like a balletic bowling ball, keeping the Aggies from folding like a proper 4-7 team should.
The Tigers showed what we thought they were often this season. Usually victorious, but often vulnerable. A program, as Kelly has said often this season, that hasn’t arrived yet.
That doesn’t make a loss sting much less, especially to a team that couldn’t get its act together until LSU came to visit. When you’re 6-1 in the SEC and your opponent is 1-6, it’s difficult to accept.
In time, LSU’s season, however it ends, will be seen for the special thing it has been. And still may be.
“We’ll learn from this,” Kelly said. “I don’t think the loss takes away from what they did this year. It’s been one of my most enjoyable years in coaching. It’s not a step back, it’s a bump in the road.”
But for now, this one stings. That’s three straight losses in Kyle Field now: in seven overtimes in 2018, in the rain in 2020 and this, perhaps the worst of them all.
By the way, as the game ended, they started playing “Callin’ Baton Rouge” over the Kyle Field public-address system.
At least the bitterness of this underrated rivalry didn’t vanish, even if some of LSU’s dearest dreams did.
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