SOUTH BEND, Ind. (KBTX) – Saturday\u2019s marquee matchup between No. 16 Texas A&M and No. 8 Notre Dame was officially put on the books in 2014. <\/p>\n
Ironically, that was the same year the Aggies last won a ranked matchup on the road \u2014 until Saturday. <\/p>\n
On A&M\u2019s final offensive play of the game, quarterback Marcel Reed connected with tight end Nate Boerkircher on a jump-ball throw from 11-yards out to seal the Aggies\u2019 41-40 win over the Fighting Irish. <\/p>\n
Why did A&M win? The easy answer is a botched hold by Notre Dame holder Tyler Buchner on the Irish\u2019s final point-after attempt of the game. After bobbling the snap, Buchner rolled left and threw an incomplete pass to Dylan Devezin to give the Aggies a chance to win it with seven points. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of when I felt in my head, like, we\u2019ve got a chance,\u201d Boerkircher said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A&M drove 74 yards on 13 plays to score on a 4th-and-goal attempt from the Notre Dame 11. Most importantly, kicker Randy Bond sealed the victory with his point-after attempt. <\/p>\n
The Aggies managed this despite committing 13 penalties, handing the Fighting Irish 86 yards. <\/p>\n
Who stood out? It was A&M\u2019s wide receivers that stole the show again. <\/p>\n
Transfer wide out Mario Craver only needed three catches to break the 100-yard receiving mark for his third consecutive game. He finished with 207 yards on seven catches and a touchdown. <\/p>\n
His transfer counterpart, KC Concepcion, made several solid contested catches as a part of his 82 yards on four receptions. <\/p>\n
Aggie running back Le\u2019Veon Moss scored three rushing touchdowns as a part of an 81-yard night.<\/p>\n
Reed had a slow start to the game, needing some time to dial in his accuracy, especially on deep balls. However, he finished the game with 260 yards and two passing touchdowns on 17 of 37 attempts. He did throw one interception, but the Aggie defense held Notre Dame to three. <\/p>\n
On defense, safety Marcus Ratcliffe finished with a game-high eight tackes, including 1 1\/2 tackles for loss. Linebacker Scooby Williams picked off Irish quarterback CJ Carr at the end of the second quarter which turned into a touchdown that gave the Aggies their first lead of the game. <\/p>\n
Carr finished 20 for 30 for 293 yards, a touchdown and an interception. A&M held both Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price under 100 yards, but the pair accounted for three rushing touchdowns. <\/p>\n
What was a key stat? A&M\u2019s first score of the game, an 86-yard catch and scamper from Reed to Craver was the longest career scoring play for both players. <\/p>\n
Craver needed to spin out of two simultaneous tackles to have a clear shot at the end zone. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised,\u201d Reed said of the play. \u201cI don\u2019t know hwo he stayed up, but that was crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n
What was a key play? With just less than a minute to play in the first half, A&M safety Bryce Anderson was injured while attempting to make a tackle on Irish tight end Eli Raridon. He was assisted by trainers for approximately 10 minutes before he was carted off the field, strapped to a backboard. <\/p>\n
He had feeling in his extremities and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, according to an A&M spokesperson. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, all signs are positive,\u201d Elko said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done every diagonistic testing, but so far, every test that we\u2019ve run through has come back positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
A&M defensive tackle Albert Regis said they finished out the win playing for their teammate. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just started crying, because it broke my heart, because every play \u2014 sometimes we take it for granted and it motivated us even more to win this for Bryce, because we knew, if he was here, he\u2019d be celebrating with us. I\u2019m sure wherever Bryce is right now, he\u2019s celebrating with us.” <\/p>\n
Position Breakdown:<\/p>\n
OFFENSE<\/p>\n
Quarterback: B<\/p>\n
Head coach Mike Elko was adamant that Reed\u2019s performance Saturday quelled all questions on his quarterback\u2019s throwing ability. He absolutely led the Aggies on the game-winning drive, but could have put the game out of reach early if he connected on one or two more deep passes. He finished the game 5 for 13 on passes 15 yards or more. <\/p>\n
Running backs: B+<\/p>\n
A&M\u2019s backs did what was asked of them in this game, especially inside the 5-yard line. Waiting for that breakout game for Moss or Reuben Owens. <\/p>\n
Receivers: A+<\/p>\n
It was the Craver and Concepcion show yet again for the Aggies. Without their efforts, A&M doesn\u2019t win this game. Hat tip to a tight end for catching the game-winning score. <\/p>\n
Offensive line: B+<\/p>\n
Were fantastic in pass protection. Still would like to see a few more holes for the run game, but very solid. Docked for seven penalties in the game. Dametrious Crownever had four on his own. <\/p>\n
DEFENSE<\/p>\n
Defensive line: A<\/p>\n
Best game for this unit this season. Tyler Onyedim and Regis finished second and third in tackles and Regis got a sack. Limited Notre Dame\u2019s explosive running plays.<\/p>\n
Linebackers: B+<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t Taurean York\u2019s best game, but Daymion Sanford had a huge game with seven tackles a sack and two tackles for loss. Williams had his pick as well. <\/p>\n
Defensive secondary: B<\/p>\n
They were challenged by Notre Dame\u2019s passing game and did enough to get the job done. A few busted coverages allowed for some big plays. CJ Carr finished the game 6 for 9 on passes of 15-plus yards for 185 total yards. <\/p>\n
SPECIAL TEAMS: C<\/p>\n
What has been the brightest spot of A&M\u2019s program this season struggled Saturday. Notre Dame got their first score on the blocked punt. The Irish had a 31-yard kick return and a 20-yard punt return. Also, A&M could have put the game away early on Terry Bussey\u2019s kick return to the end zone if not for the penalty that called it back. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s next? A&M heads into an open week before hosting Auburn on Sep. 27. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH BEND, Ind. (KBTX) – Saturday\u2019s marquee matchup between No. 16 Texas A&M and No. 8 Notre Dame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,1401,1687],"class_list":{"0":"post-366778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-notre-dame","12":"tag-texas-am"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115201384341469799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}