Clemson Needed Every Break They Got to Top Texas A&M

Time will tell if this non-con quality road win will be of any use to Clemson in December.

The Tigers got outta Dodge College Station with a hard-fought but hardly convincing 28-26 result, leaving Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher to surely mutter to himself that they were who he knew they were.

And the Aggies shot themselves in the foot. More than once.

 

The lasting impression of this game will be of the poor decisions made by both A&M's WR Quartney Davis and a slew of game officials.

But while A&M is lamenting their bad fortune in the late stages, they shouldn't forget the chip-shot 26-yard field goal they blew in the first quarter.

Those three points woulda looked pretty good in the bigger scheme of things.

 

Apparently that was too mundane to make the highlight package:

 

Then again, neither did this, the play and call that shall live in A&M infamy:

The Aggies had marched from their own 15 to the point where Kellen Mond found Davis at the 15. Dude evades a couple of tacklers -- one of many Tiger issues in the secondary -- and gets greedy at the end:

 

If ever there was a need for universal 3D TV, it's here.

2D says every official and replay wonk botched the call. So does another angle:

 

The belated voice of reason says the excited and determined Davis never shoulda put himself in that position.

After all, he saw the excited and determined K'Von Wallace was closing fast.

 

Set aside for the moment the incredulity of the officials' decision.

Why wasn't Davis protecting the damn ball?

Yes, the fumble-through-the-end-zone is a dumb rule from the leather-helmet days, but everyone knows it's there. When his downside was first-&-goal on the three, A&M's still sittin' in tall cotton. But no.

 

It's baffling.

This makes two weeks in a row, now, where a quality team in position to make a statement to the Ivory Tower -- aka the CFP Selection Committee -- finds a quality player who tries to do too much.

 

There's something to be said for mental preparation before key moments. The red zone is a collection of key moments.

They're moments that can pass too quickly but live in minds forever.