How Texas A&M Won Big By Understanding The Science Of Momentum
Well, it’s time to rewrite the history books.
On Saturday, behind a huge effort from QB Marcel Reed, Texas A&M came back from a 27-point halftime deficit to win a huge game against South Carolina and remain undefeated (10-0). In so doing, Texas A&M pulled off the biggest comeback in school history. Prior to Saturday, SEC football teams were 0-286 in conference when trailing by 27 points or more since 2004.
Now, that stat must be updated.
But how did Texas A&M pull the incredible comeback off? One word: Momentum.
Of course, no 27-point deficit is overcome with a single throw or long run. No point difference like that can be made up in a single play. But instead of trying to land some impossible knockout punch, Reed and his team stuck to their script – a script that had not worked in the first half – and jabbed away.
“It wasn’t how we drew it up,” linebacker Taurean York said after the game. “But we found a way to stick together and figure out how to win the game.”
When considering Texas A&M’s remarkable win, football fans may be reminded by another huge comeback. In the 2017 Super Bowl, the New England Patriots came back from a near-similar deficit (28-3) to beat the Atlanta Falcons and win yet another title. Similarly, in that game, QB Tom Brady knew his team wasn’t going to come back with one play. It had to be done methodically.
“I was sitting on the sideline saying to myself you are getting your butt embarrassed,” Brady recalled years later. “Go out and do something. Let’s just get one touchdown.”
Like all great athletes, Brady knew that if his team could score even once, it could change the feel of the game. Indeed, it could change the momentum of it.
Smart coaches even know how to prepare their players for such a critical moment. Take for example Maryland basketball coach Buzz Williams. He teaches his players about “TSM,” or “Time, Score, Momentum.”
As his players walk by his office, Williams brings them in and sits them in front of a laptop. He puts on a game—any game, any sport. What he cares about in the moment is TSM. When he closes the laptop, he’ll ask his player, “What was the time, score and momentum of the game.” Not only does he want his players to understand the point difference and time remaining, but he wants them to understand the game’s energy, flow and the potential for a shift.
If you can recognize the potential for a momentum shift, you may just be able to take advantage of it in real time. It’s almost as if Williams is developing a sixth sense for his roster. Speaking about his strategy, he said in The New Science of Momentum, “I want to see how each person is processing the information in real time, particularly when they’re seeing it for the first time.”
For Texas A&M, everything changed on Saturday in the game’s second-half, beginning with the team’s first drive. On fourth down with 12 yards to gain, Reed ran for a remarkable 16 yards to keep the drive—and the Aggies’ budding momentum—alive. Soon after, Reed tossed a 27-yard score to Izaiah Williams to cut the deficit to 20 points — 30-10.
Just like that, the belief systems of both teams started shifting.
But it took an entire second-half for the Aggies to come back and win. By the fourth quarter, the score was 30-24 in favor of South Carolina. But Texas A&M notched the only touchdown of the fourth and won the game 31-30, capping off its incredible comeback.
Forbes councils member Mike Cangi explained that momentum is both an important part and an overlooked one when it comes to success in the business world. “Momentum is what I see keeping progress steady and sustainable. And when built right, success then becomes inevitable,” Cangi said.
You know who agrees? Brady.
After his 2017 Super Bowl win over Atlanta, the inevitable hall-of-fame quarterback said he sensed a momentum shift in the big game. “You felt it,” he admitted after the comeback. “We had some juice. Those little plays were becoming a snowball.”
Whether or not his Texas A&M team watched Brady win the NFL title game nearly nine years ago, Coach Mike Elko saw the same DNA in his players on Saturday.
“There’s not a lot of teams,” the happy coach said Saturday, “that have a culture and a core that will just keep going…It was really impressive.”