COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s defense put forth a solid effort on Saturday night, but the team’s lackluster offense led to a 23-13 defeat against Notre Dame in their season opener.
The Aggies’ defense limited the Fighting Irish to just 250 yards of offense through the first three quarters. However, with only two minutes remaining in the game, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love scored on a 21-yard run, capping off an 85-yard drive that took 4 minutes and 29 seconds. Overall, the No. 7 team in the US LBM Coaches Poll amassed 356 total yards.
Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman struggled to orchestrate a comeback, throwing two incompletions and failing on a fourth-and-2 attempt. Notre Dame then scored its third field goal of the night, sealing the game.
Texas A&M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III expressed frustration, saying, “I don’t think it was anything that they did. I think it was ourselves. We beat ourselves. We weren’t consistent mentally and physically.”
Defensively, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko’s unit managed to contain Riley Leonard, a former Duke quarterback, who recorded 158 passing yards on 18 of 30 attempts. In contrast, Weigman threw for only 100 yards on 12 of 30 attempts and was intercepted twice.
“We lost the turnover battle 2-0. That’s not going to lead to a lot of successful games,” Elko noted.
Weigman’s first interception came from an overthrow to 6-foot-6 Noah Thomas, while the second was a bad throw directed at Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts, which halted an offensive drive just before halftime.
Despite a solid performance from the offensive line, Weigman failed to connect with receivers effectively. Elko remarked, “It was really, really hard, because he was not in rhythm.”
The Aggies could have gained momentum midway through the third quarter after stopping Notre Dame on a fourth-and-2. However, Elko opted to attempt a risky fourth-and-8 on Notre Dame’s 37-yard line, resulting in an inaccurate pass intended for Micah Tease. The Fighting Irish capitalized moments later, scoring their first touchdown with a 47-yard run from Jadarian Price.
Although Texas A&M held Notre Dame to just 65 rushing yards in the first half, the Irish ultimately finished with 198 yards on the ground. “I thought the way we defended the run was really poor, and so we gave up almost 200 yards rushing,” Elko said. “You’re not going to win football games in this conference doing that.”
In the fourth quarter, the Aggies finally showed signs of life as EJ Smith and Le’Veon Moss began to push against Notre Dame’s defensive line. After a pass interference call placed the ball on the 20-yard line, the Aggies tied the game with a touchdown on third-and-1 with just over 11 minutes left. They finished with 146 rushing yards for the game.
However, Weigman didn’t complete a single pass during that drive, contributing only 8 rushing yards, while most of the advance came from a 15-yard face mask penalty.
With this being only his 10th start, Weigman is expected to improve moving forward, but the entire offense needs to step up. “It’s going to be Connor delivering the ball in the right spots on time. It’s going to be receivers creating separation. It’s going to be the O-line protecting,” Elko said.
“To elevate this program, we need to learn how to position ourselves to play better in those crucial moments. We just didn’t do that tonight.”