It was a debatable claim that only became more so.

“Texas A&M didn’t play well enough to win the game,” its coach, Jimbo Fisher, said. “You have to learn how to hit those critical moments in those critical plays to help keep pressure back on them, and that’s something we’re still in the process of getting to and we need to clean up.”

Fisher repeatedly emphasized that Texas A&M fielded “a good football team” against Clemson. Still, the coach, who as recently as July deemed it condescending to see A&M as a mere spoiler, must now reckon with the notion that the Aggies might be only that. They are still to play No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia, No. 8 Auburn and an L.S.U. team that rose to No. 4 by the end of the weekend, and winning any of those games would be a boost to the Aggies’ brand in Fisher’s second season.

For now, though, the Aggies probably won’t be any neutral observer’s pick in any of them, and a second loss would almost certainly eliminate them from this year’s championship race.

Where the Texas A&M faithful can find a little solace — as much solace as there is to be found after a game in which their team did not reach double digits on the scoreboard until there were six seconds left to play — is that Fisher has previously done well after coaching a rising team that lost to a No. 1 program. In 2011, when Fisher was in his sophomore season as the top man at Florida State, the Seminoles logged a 10-point loss to top-ranked Oklahoma. They finished the next season at No. 10 and then won a national championship.

“We have a good football team, but we have to play better,” Fisher said after Saturday’s loss, which sent Texas A&M’s ranking to No. 16, down from No. 12. “And I have to coach them better.”