By james art 
The SEC no longer has an undefeated team to boast as the Texas A&M Aggies suffered their first conference loss of the season, falling to the South Carolina Gamecocks 44-20 in Columbia.
The struggles were evident for the Aggies right out of the gate as they trailed by two scores before the first quarter was even halfway through. They showed signs of life in the second quarter, tying the game at 20 at halftime, but that was all the Aggies had to show as they were outscored 24-0 by the Gamecocks in the second half.
Mike Elko had a simple explanation for the loss after the game: They got beat on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“We had four turnovers, we couldn’t run the ball, we couldn’t tackle, we couldn’t control the quarterback, we didn’t do any of the things you have to do to win a football game, and that’s why we lost,” Elko said. “We have to get better, we have to fix these things and we have to never play like that again.”
Elko expressed his frustration with the team’s struggles as missed tackles were a common theme for the Aggies last night and tipped his hat to the Gamecock offense.
“I don’t want to sit here and say it’s all us, do I? I’m not going to be the coach that sits here and doesn’t give them any respect,” Elko said. “They’ve got a big quarterback that’s 240 pounds, a big running back that’s 230, we just didn’t get our legs, we didn’t handle it the way you have to handle big backs. If you want to deal with big, powerful kids, you have to put your body through the wrestle and we didn’t do that tonight.”
The first-year head coach talked about Marcell Reed’s performance, which looked like a roller coaster all night.
“He was definitely up and down. We’re not built to play that type of game, you know we can’t fall behind like that in the second half,” Elko said. “After we got to that point and we weren’t able to play the game that we’re better at, I think that really hurt us. But he’s still a young kid, he’s learning, he’s getting better, you just have to be a bit more careful with football.”
On a more positive note for the Aggie team, Elko sent an encouraging message for Le’Veon Moss, who went down with a hard hit to his lower body midway through the first quarter.
“It doesn’t look as bad as it looked on the pitch.
Fortunately for Elko’s Aggies, next week is a bye week that gives the team a perfect chance to iron out their issues as they look to finish their season strong and find themselves in the College Football Playoff.
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