3 takeaways from Auburn’s home finale against Texas A&M

Stop me if you’ve heard it before, Auburn played a heartbreaker in 2024.

The Auburn Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies went 60 minutes and beyond to decide the penultimate game of the regular season. This time, Auburn came out on the winning end, beating No. 15 Texas A&M 43-41 in four overtimes.

Former Texas A&M commit Cam Coleman shined for two first-half touchdowns for the Tigers with 128 yards on the evening.

Leading 21-7 at halftime, Texas A&M scored 24 second-half points to take a fourth-quarter lead.

Auburn’s Ian Vachon connected on a 29-yard field goal with five seconds left in regulation, sending the game into overtime.

The Tigers improve to 5-6 overall and 2-6 in the conference, keeping their bowl hopes alive.

Here are three takeaways from Auburn’s loss to Texas A&M:

Auburn Electric on offensive start of the game

The Tigers’ offense wasted no time scoring the game’s first points three and a half minutes into the contest.

Payton Thorne and Cam Coleman continued where they left off from last week’s performance against ULM, connecting on two first-half touchdowns of 63 and 15 yards.

The Tigers’ 240 total yards of offense in the first half saw the offense average 9.2 yards per game. game. Auburn started the game two-for-two in the red zone and didn’t punt the ball away until late in the second quarter.

Thorne completed just two passes through the first two quarters and finished with 301 yards through the air and two touchdowns.

The Aggies’ offense gets into a rhythm late against the Tigers

Texas A&M scored its first touchdown with only about four minutes left on the clock during the second quarter. Despite leading the Tigers with multiple first downs in the first half, the Aggies had just 168 yards of offense.

Auburn sacked Reed three times and was picked off by Jerrin Thompson for the only turnover of the game.

The Aggies marched down the field 76 yards for a score on the opening drive of the second half, cutting the deficit to just a touchdown. On their next series, Reed connected with Noah Brown for his second touchdown to tie the score 21–21.

After cutting the Tigers lead to four points in the fourth quarter, Texas A&M took its first lead of the game on an eight-yard rushing touchdown from Amari Daniels.

Auburn’s final game of the season

All eyes will be on the Iron Bowl in the Tigers’ regular season finale.

With Alabama out of contention to defend their conference title, an Auburn win adds more damage to head coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season with the Crimson Tide.

The Iron Bowl is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and will be televised on ABC live from Bryant-Deny Stadium.