Auburn football: Bo Nix can’t carry team far enough against Texas A&M

Bo Nix tried to put Auburn football on his back against the #5 ranked Aggies. He was unsuccessful, as Texas A&M ended up with a 31-20 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

You cannot blame Bo Nix for Auburn football’s fourth loss of the season to the fifth-best team in the country Saturday afternoon on the Plains. The War Eagle sure isn’t.

Nix was valiant in his 11 rushing attempts, good for the most attempts of any Tiger. Cartavious “Tank” Bigsby was limited to nine carries, but made the most of them, rushing for 76 yards and 8.4 per rush. Nix fell just shy of 50 yards (49) but found the endzone through the ground on two different occasions.

Unfortunately, the Auburn defense couldn’t stop the Texas A&M offense’s marches down the field. Isaiah Spiller got whatever he wanted, breaking out for 120 rushing yards. Scratch that; he didn’t punch one into the end zone.

Ainias Smith and quarterback Kellen Mond more than made up for it, rushing for six each. Smith’s score put the Aggies up by seven with 8:12 left in the fourth quarter and the Tigers never so much as sniffed a lead for the rest of the contest.

Perhaps the most depressing moment for Auburn football fans in this “one that got away” was Zakoby McClain’s almost-interception that was an actual touchdown reception for Jalen Wydermyer.

The Tigers missed the spread, and in the grander scheme this season, missed the mark big time. Losses to the likes of Alabama and Texas A&M should have been expected, considering the latter’s only loss was to the former and the Crimson Tide don’t look capable of losing this season. But coupled with losses to Georgia–where the Bulldogs looked like they were toying with a non-conference opponent in an early-season tune-up–and an unforgivable gaffe to Will Muschamp’s South Carolina Gamecocks, this season can most certainly be considered a disappointment.

Clinching a winning record is on the line in their final contest against Mississippi State.

What a disappointing sentence. 2020.

No matter what you take away from Saturday afternoon’s heartbreaker, just remember that this was not Bo Nix’s fault.