Texas A&M vs Notre Dame: Aggies Shock No. 8 Irish 41-40 on Last-Second TD

A win that rewrites Texas A&M’s road narrative

Texas A&M walked into a sold-out Notre Dame Stadium with a decade of baggage and walked out with a win that changes how the Aggies get talked about. Down one in the final seconds, quarterback Marcel Reed spun out of pressure and fired an 11-yard strike to Nate Boerkircher with 13 seconds left, and kicker Randy Bond made the extra point to seal a 41-40 upset of the eighth-ranked Irish. It wasn’t neat. It wasn’t pretty. It was massive.

How massive? The Aggies, ranked No. 16, had not beaten a ranked opponent on the road since toppling No. 3 Auburn on Nov. 8, 2014. Thirteen straight failures in those spots. That streak is done. And the way it ended — a quarterback improvising, a receiver who hadn’t been targeted all night finding the ball in the end zone — fits the kind of drama South Bend usually deals out to visiting teams, not the other way around.

“I don’t think Nate had a target all game, but when his name was called, he was ready,” Reed said on the field. He didn’t oversell it. Boerkircher slipped into space against a defense that had been living in the backfield all night and made the cleanest catch of the game.

Mike Elko, back on the visitor’s sideline at the place where he once coached defense, sounded equal parts relieved and proud. “I don’t know that anything went to script in terms of how you want to go about winning a game on the road,” he said. “We just kept fighting, kept battling, kept scrapping. Ultimately, we made one more play than they did.”

Notre Dame had control early. The Irish built a 17-7 lead in the second quarter, ran the ball with purpose, and looked every bit like a program trying to steady itself after an opening loss. But the game flipped fast. Texas A&M landed chunk plays, stole momentum late in the half, and somehow jogged into the locker room up 28-24. From there, it turned into a track meet with shoulder pads.

The second half was pure trading punches. Touchdowns, field goals, and one mistake the Irish will replay all week: a missed point-after-touchdown late that swung the math. Instead of needing a field goal to take the lead or force overtime, the Aggies had a path to win outright with a touchdown and a kick. They took it.

Several performances defined the night. For the Irish, Jeremiyah Love was the spark and the engine. He slashed for 94 rushing yards, added 53 as a receiver, and scored twice — one on the ground, one through the air. When Notre Dame needed a jolt, they put the ball in Love’s hands. He kept them in it.

For Texas A&M, Mario Craver was the problem Notre Dame couldn’t solve. Seven catches. Two hundred and seven yards. An 86-yard touchdown that ripped the game open and pulled the Aggies back from the brink. He stretched the field, forced safeties to turn and run, and punished every single coverage mistake. If you’re looking for the sequence that swung belief to the road sideline, it’s Craver exploding down the boundary and silencing the bowl.

The context adds weight. Texas A&M moved to 3-0 and picked up a road scalp that should travel well in the rankings. Notre Dame, a national runner-up last season, is now 0-2 after dropping a three-point opener to fifth-ranked Miami and this one by a single point. The Irish have played two heavyweights tough and lost both. That stings. It also raises questions about execution when it matters most.

The atmosphere? Electric. The home opener in South Bend always hums, and the place was loud enough to rattle a seasoned team. The Aggies had to operate with hand signals, silent counts, and a lot of composure. When it came time to make their last move, they didn’t blink.

Inside the final minutes — and the plays that swung it

The closing stretch felt like a dozen games stitched together. Notre Dame scored to nudge ahead late. The Irish defense flashed just enough pressure to threaten the Aggies’ rhythm, then A&M answered with tempo and shot plays, setting the stage for Reed’s final march.

Here’s what defined the finish and the flow:

• Situational swing: After the Irish missed a PAT, the calculus changed. Instead of protecting a two-point lead with overtime in play, Notre Dame had to defend the full field with one point to spare. That meant the sidelines were open for Texas A&M, the middle of the field was there if they had a timeout, and Notre Dame couldn’t sell out on one coverage look.
• Protection under fire: Reed did not have clean pockets all night. On the game-winner, he felt the rush, drifted, reset his feet, and kept his eyes downfield. It was a veteran move from a quarterback in a hostile moment.
• The unscripted hero: Boerkircher’s number wasn’t called much. Sometimes games turn on players the opponent stops thinking about. He ran through traffic, found the window, and finished.
• Explosive plays: Craver’s 86-yard score wasn’t just points — it was proof Texas A&M could win vertically. That forced Notre Dame to respect deep shots and gave the Aggies space to operate underneath in crunch time.
• Composure vs. chaos: The Aggies’ sideline stayed calm while the stadium shook. No panic substitution. No pre-snap penalty. They lined up, ran their stuff, and trusted the kick at the end.

Texas A&M didn’t dominate every metric. They didn’t need to. They hit big plays, survived the noise, and executed at the end. Coaches preach finishing. The Aggies finished.

Notre Dame didn’t collapse; they got beat by two plays and one kick. The Irish attacked on the ground, used motion to free backs in the flat, and worked the seams. Love’s usage as both a runner and receiver gave them multiplicity. The issue was margin. A missed PAT, a coverage bust, and a quarterback who kept making the first guy miss — that’s how you lose a one-point game even when you do a lot right.

Elko’s return to South Bend added a layer you could feel. He knows this place. He knows the wind, the sightlines, the way night games here turn heavy when the band hits those drumlines in the fourth quarter. His team looked like it had been coached for that pressure. When the game tilted, they never chased it.

For Reed, this becomes a signature moment. Not just the throw, but the steadiness. He steadied protection with cadence. He looked off safeties. He gave his receivers catchable balls in spots they could win. And when it was time to make something out of nothing, he did.

Craver’s night will get clipped and shared in wide receiver rooms across the sport. He stacked corners, stemmed routes to manipulate leverage, and finished through contact. The 86-yarder will grab the headlines, but his intermediate routes kept A&M ahead of the sticks and forced Notre Dame into tough down-and-distance calls.

On the other sideline, Love’s workload and burst were the right answers for long stretches. He ran behind his pads, got vertical fast, and punished soft boxes. His receiving touchdown showed timing and trust. If Notre Dame wants the offense to travel week to week, he’s the blueprint.

Special teams always show up in one-score games, and they did here. Bond’s steady extra point after the winning touchdown will look routine on the stat sheet, but nothing is routine with 80,000 people holding their breath. Notre Dame’s miss is a footnote that looms large. One kick isn’t a season, but in games like this it’s the difference between a long walk to the locker room and a sprint to the tunnel.

The Aggies also flipped the narrative that they can’t carry their best football away from College Station. That 2014 win at Auburn was the last time they solved this riddle on the road against a ranked team. A run of 13 losses gnaws at a program. Saturday’s win doesn’t erase those scars, but it resets how the SEC and the wider country see this group. The next time they board a plane, they’ll bring proof.

So what does this mean going forward? For Texas A&M, it’s validation for Elko’s approach and for a roster that looks more balanced than the one that rode waves in past years. When the defense gave up yards, the offense answered. When the game turned into a fistfight, they stayed in it. Rankings will sort themselves out, but this is the kind of win that shows up on résumés in November.

For Notre Dame, the early record is rough, but the performances aren’t lifeless. Two narrow losses to top-five and top-20 opponents say the Irish are close to clicking. Still, there’s only so long you can live in moral victory land. The operation has to be cleaner in the red zone, the shot plays against them have to be fewer, and the late-game math — from PATs to fourth-down decisions — has to tilt their way. That’s the difference between 0-2 and 1-1, or 2-0.

There were moments in this game where the crowd did exactly what it’s famous for. Third downs swelled into roars. False steps got pounced on. Notre Dame fed off it, until Texas A&M answered. That’s what made the finish sting. The Irish had the place primed to celebrate. The Aggies took that moment and made it their own.

If you want a snapshot of why this was a classic, look at the swings. Notre Dame’s early 17-7 edge. Texas A&M’s 28-24 halftime lead. Trading haymakers for 30 minutes after the break. The Irish nudging ahead late, then the Aggies stealing it. Win probability graphs would look like seismographs. That’s not hyperbole. That’s what it felt like in real time.

Coaches will dive into film and talk about leverage, landmarks, and eye discipline. Players will talk about trust. Fans will remember the throw — Reed retreating, resetting, and firing to the back of the end zone — and the kick. Simple things that aren’t simple when the moment grows.

This also underscores how thin the margins are at the top of the sport. Notre Dame’s losses are by a combined handful of points to two ranked teams. That can harden a roster. Or it can fray it. The next few weeks will tell you which way the Irish go.

As for Texas A&M, the confidence that comes with a win like this can change ceilings. The Aggies didn’t just beat a name brand; they solved the specific problem that’s hung over them for years: finishing on the road against a ranked heavyweight. Now they’ve got tape of who they are when it’s hard. That travels.

So yes, the play everyone will replay is the touchdown to Boerkircher. But the spine of this upset was built earlier: Craver’s deep shot that re-opened the field, the steady hand from Reed, the sideline that didn’t panic after momentum swings, and a defense that, despite giving up big numbers, got off the field just enough times to keep the Aggies within reach.

If you’re into labels, call it what it was — a genuine Texas A&M vs Notre Dame classic. A night where one team’s decade-long road hang-up met an opponent trying to avoid an 0-2 hole, and the game asked both to show who they were. Texas A&M had the last answer. Notre Dame had every reason to think it was theirs until it wasn’t.

In South Bend, you’ve seen a lot. Saturday night gave you something new: the visitor landing the final punch, the home crowd frozen mid-roar, and a scoreboard that will sit with both teams for a while. For the Aggies, it’s a springboard. For the Irish, it’s a reminder that being in every big game is half the job. Finishing them is the other half.