WATCH: Isaiah Spiller fights for 15-yard touchdown run, extends Texas A&M lead
Texas A&M has officially placed No. 1 Alabama on upset alert. The Aggies started Saturday night’s game fast, and they’re not slowing down.
Running back Isaiah Spiller broke multiple tackles on his way to a 15-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter, giving Texas A&M a 24-10 lead. The junior tailback dived towards the goal line, enough for the touchdown. He has 10 carries for 42 yards in the first half.
The Texas A&M offense has struggled since losing starting quarterback Haynes King against Colorado. The Aggies even lost last week to Mississippi State and are 0-2 in SEC play.
But they entered the season with plenty of College Football Playoff hype and are living up to it on Saturday night. Jimbo Fisher has said all week, however, that Texas A&M can pull off the upset.
“If we practice well and play well, and we will,” he said. “We have to go get a good plan, we have to practice it, we have to perfect it during the week, and then we have to execute it on Saturday.”
Nick Saban hammers Alabama effort vs. Texas A&M
Nick Saban and Alabama are facing their largest deficit in 23 games, and the Crimson Tide head coach looked rattled when talking to CBS Sports reporter Jamie Erdhal headed into the half.
Texas A&M is 0-2 holds a 24-10 lead at the half. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young threw an interception inside the red zone, and the Aggies offense is having their way.
“We’re not playing very well,” Saban said. “We’re not tackling very well. We’re not staying in our gaps. They’re doing a good job of blocking us. We haven’t gotten off the field on third down. So we got to play a lot better. We got to do a lot better. No doubt.”
Saban also was asked about his time management late in the first half. Alabama had possession near the end of the half, but the Crimson Tide did not call a timeout. Instead, they struggled to execute and gave Texas A&M the ball back with over a minute to play. The Crimson Tide then stopped the Aggies on the next few plays, but Saban failed to take a timeout and get the ball back in the final seconds of the first half.
“Well what about it? If they had got the ball back, we had all the timeouts,” he said, struggling to answer the question. “If we had started calling them when it had got less than a minute. But we didn’t even make it, we didn’t need the time that we had. So you don’t call timeouts until there’s less than a minute. We had three timeouts. So we were going good.
“We just got a penalty on fourth down, turned the ball over on the two-yard line, turned it over again, lots of penalties. All these things contribute to not doing well.”