Texas A&M football is coming off of their first-ever overtime loss as an SEC member, and it literally came down to a couple of inches on either side.

With the new overtime format, the Aggies and Tigers went to the football equivalent of penalty kicks, trading two-point plays after the second overtime. In the deciding period, Auburn’s Keandre Lambert-Smith made a big time contested catch in traffic, but the Aggies’ well-called play resulted in a wide open drop.

The man who dropped the ball was running back Amari Daniels. That much is true. But he’s not why the Aggies lost the game.

No, not by a long shot. Daniels, as a matter of fact, had stepped up in a major way after the Aggies lost Le’Veon Moss at the beginning of the month and was performing the duties of a lead back quite well.

His physical style was wearing down the Tigers all game, which led to his bruising touchdown run to put the Aggies up three near the end of the game.

That really should have been the deciding score, all things considered. But the defense, which plagued the Aggies all game, failed to get the stop they needed, and the Tigers were able to send things to overtime.

There are so many pivotal points we could mark down as “what-ifs.” Amari’s drop at the end of the game was simply the one closest to the time that the game ended. But if the Ags had gotten points off of the Oscar Chapman shanked punt, or punched the ball in after a Payton Thorne interception, or simply gotten one more stop, this wouldn’t be a conversation.

Yet, some are coming after Daniels, completely needlessly. The Aggie players themselves made it clear that such a tactic is a no-go.

Daniels was a bright spot for the Aggies tonight. Though a catch would have kept the game going, it was by no means the most egregious or costly thing we saw out of the Aggies on the Plains.