Rapid Reaction: Aggies escape, end Vols' magical ride
Two titans of the SEC did battle at Kyle Field on Saturday. It wasn’t decided until double overtime. Texas A&M was able to make enough stops in crucial situations to overcome error-prone Tennessee.
Here’s a closer look at the Aggies’ 45-38 victory.
What it means
For No. 8 Texas A&M, the victory keeps the Aggies unbeaten for the season and sets up a showdown with No. 1 Alabama in two weeks following the Aggies’ bye week. For the No. 9 Vols, it’s a stinging defeat, but it by no means derails their chances at an SEC East title.
What I liked
Tennessee: Having rallied before, the Vols showed no panic when falling behind 28-7 early in the third quarter. Tennessee bounced back and drove for a score on the ensuing drive to make it 28-14 and continued to move the ball with the same confidence displayed in two previous comeback victories.
Texas A&M: The Aggies did not take their foot off the gas pedal. While they were unable to move the ball with much consistency in the second half, the Aggies were not sitting on the lead. Knowing the ability of Tennessee to score in short order, the Aggies’ offense did not play it conservatively. Though they kicked off to start the second half, the Aggies were the first to score after the break and extended their 21-7 lead. They continued to attempt to move the football both on the ground and through the air, even though it wasn’t always with much success.
What I didn’t like
Tennessee: Self-inflicted wounds. The Vols turned the ball over three times in the first half, helping the Aggies build a 21-7 lead at halftime. They coughed it up again on their first possession of the second half, halting a drive that would have put them right back in the game. Instead, Texas A&M went on a drive — aided by a pass interference call on the Vols — to extend its lead to 28-7. They fumbled away yet another opportunity to get back in the game after cutting the Aggies’ lead to 28-14 and driving for another score. The plethora of lost fumbles (five on the day) were the most by a Tennessee team in 19 years.
Texas A&M: The Aggies gave up an incredible amount of yardage (684). On top of that, QB Trevor Knight made some poor decisions in throwing the ball up for grabs on a couple of occasions. But Tennessee moved the ball up and down the field throughout. The Vols were able to gouge the Aggies with authoritative run plays through the middle of the Aggies’ defense and got back in the game with consistent running plays for big gains.
Who’s the man
Tennessee: RB Alvin Kamara was the key performer on offense for the Vols. He kept drives alive with a hard-running ground attack as well as an ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. He led the Vols in both categories, surpassing 100 yards in both rushing (127) and receiving (161) — and scored three times, including the tying touchdown that sent the game into overtime.
Texas A&M: Despite fumbling at the 1-yard line as he was running in for what could have been the game-winning touchdown with a little less than two minutes left, RB Trayveon Williams still rushed for a game-high 217 yards.
Key play
Texas A&M DB Armani Watts came up with an interception in the second overtime period to preserve a hard-earned 45-38 victory.
What’s next
The next game on both teams’ schedules are dates with No. 1 Alabama. Tennessee gets it first, hosting the Tide next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS. Texas A&M has a bye week coming up before it travels to Tuscaloosa for a Saturday, Oct. 22 showdown with Alabama.
Good game Aggies.
The gators agree! Rocky Flop!
Hey look a CHICKEN gator. Just confirming what everyone else knows is true.
Just gonna leave this here; NC State, Duke, UNC, Wake Forrest and tomorrow USC all playing at home, poor little Gators afraid to get wet and whipped by LSU.
In spite of turnovers and mistakes, I like what I saw from both teams. Teams can correct mistakes but they can’t create heart. Neither of these teams ever gave up and it made for one helluva game. By the time we left the stadium my hearing and voice were completely shot.. incredible game!!
If tennessee was healthy this would have been even more fun. Missing 4 nfl caliber players hurt us.. But our fill ins play hard.. never quit never. Vols for life. You gators fans don’t have the humble heart.
So 🐊 does taste like 🐔…👀, GB🍊!
Great game.
Congratulations A&M, I like you guys and a belated welcome to the confernece.
Also, good god almighty, I love my Vols!
My spelling matches my frayed emotions.
I didn’t know the name “Volunteer” has this deep tie to Texas until having watched the game today.
What the hell did u think it meant?–if you’re gonna pretend to be a fan of any school, at least educate yourself on the etimology of yourself or your opponents
Pretty harsh, I doubt you are that familiar with all your opponents history without googling.
Well excuuuuuuuuse me. I thought they meant volunteers directing traffic or something. My bad.
Good game aggies your money was well spent on those refs.
so when vols win, no complaining from bold fans and when vols lose, it’s on the refs, how ironic. there’s blown calls in every game but maybe you should be looking at those 6 turnovers if you’re looking for something to blame for this loss.
Vols*
Gator, tastes like CHICKEN. Go back to your hurricane bunker.
Heh heh, at least we PLAY the games instead of cower in fear.
“This isn’t englsish class”, heh heh. Football aside, I’m glad I am not you nor know you. I know your type, the kind that considers Applebees fine dining and Lynyrd Skynyrd high art.
Good luck with life and best of luck paying off that title loan on your ’93 Taurus.
Grammar, use it.
This isn’t englsish class, don’t need to use grammar, also I nocitced how you guys switched the topic real fast to Florida lol. If you read my comments from before I agree that are game should have been played. nobody is scared of a struggling lsu team. And that was not a forward pass, for whoever said it was, ball clearly was knocked out before his arm came forward. Ball came out when arm was back and then arm came forward. Who’s making excuses now ?
Funnels, use it for your butts.
one win in 12 years and all of a sudden all these vols fans come out of hiding, so why don’t you go back to your bunker?
Yes we watched you Rocky Flop…and will watch you fall again next week. All those seniors…the Citrus Bowl will love to see you again. Of Course that would be a step up for you!
Hey swamp life do you know the history before the 11 year streak? do you know how many games you had won prior to that? Did you know that the series was in favor of UT and you only have a 6 game lead in it now? Wait you are a bandwagon fan from the Tebow days? Damn you wouldn’t know that then.
“Hey swamp life do you know the history before the 11 year streak? do you know how many games you had won prior to that? Did you know that the series was in favor of UT and you only have a 6 game lead in it now? Wait you are a bandwagon fan from the Tebow days? Damn you wouldn’t know that then.”
Weakest comeback in the history of comebacks. Someone call Guinness.
Are you kidding me with this?
Hey SwampLife, are you OK after that zinger? :)
You know, maybe I’m just upset that bandwagon fans think that this series has always been a stomp.
lol you don’t know me. but I’ll let you assume. I know that Atlanta is your super bowl, there’s still a chance for that to happen, just have faith young one.
@96gator I’m shaking over here 😭😂
Agreed 100%, truly classless by some fans.
And Florida played who today??
38-28 Swamp Mouth🍊🍊
Since when is it a fumble when the qb’s hand is moving forward to pass and the ball falls to the ground five yards ahead? And since when is it not targeting when you lead with the crown of the head into the others facemask? Both no calls resulted in the aggies first quarter points.
Someone call the wambulence! Dobbs for Heisman! LOL
Actually, I been a gators fan my whole life, my family is split between noles and gators and they’ve basically destroyed us in last years but I never jumped ship, so trust me I’m no bandwagon but yes I do know the history and I don’t shy away from it, I was just stating my claim. don’t make excuses when your luck runs out. vols didn’t quit, and they never gave up but like I said before, A&M was a team you couldn’t come back from behind against. Florida, yes, you guys deserved that win and rightfully so but a&m is a different team.
1. When the arm was not going forward, doesn’t matter where the ball ended up, the defender hit it forward.
2. When the guy is a runner and not a defenseless player. Maybe you should actually learn about the rules before throwing around bribery accusations.
Leading with the crown of the helmet regardless of defensless or not is targeting leading with the crown hitting him in his facemask is targeting. And watch again dobbs was throwing when his arm was hit any other time that gets reviewed and turned over but for some reason not this game all calls went against tennessee if you cant see that you are blind.
Not true at all, on either account. Either way your comment about all calls going the Aggies way is simply bias blinding. I guess you want to ignore the play where refs missed the Tenn player running into the punter? How about the multiple pass interference or late hits that weren’t called? I’m guessing you are either ignoring those or simply watched the game on TV where they failed to televise a considerable number of missed calls, I suppose to save face for the officiating crews. There were many missed called on both sides of the ball, if you want to play conspiracy theorist and use it as an excuse go ahead, but the knowledgeable football world isn’t going to listen to you.
Perhaps Lyle Jones should’ve worried less about accusing the Gators of exploiting the hurricane, and more time game planning.
Well well my boy belisuck is back right on cue. Where you been you POS? Sucker punk.
F*cking your wife trailer trash. Lol
Jesus lol!!!
Since I married your cousin, I am sure you have been getting busy. You worthless f*uck.
Lol nice try, I don’t have any cousins, dipsh*t, just like your Vols you lost, go home and cry in your c*ckshaped pillow, p*ssy.
Yeah you do f*ck head.
And they love there cousin belisuck
*their, if you are going to attempt to troll, at least get it right. Sorry for the late reply, but your sl*t wife wanted rounds 2-100, enjoy the taste of my d*ck. Lol
Lol. We kicked your alls a s s and u alI still are complaining. I’m a vols fan..we beat ourselves. With the injuries and adversity it shows the mental toughness that Jones instills enrolled in these boys. Your streak is over.. and ours is beginning. We have several monsters coming back next year with 5 star dormady… heck even Hurd and kamara may come back. Barnett and our whole offensive defensive lines come back. Our receivers. Juann Jennings will go pro his junior year, but now he’s going to rape you all. Florida is done. Tennessee is back. Enjoy the streak GAYtors. Coach Jones and the vols are back
And im talking about the 14 points they got after two blown calls by the refs and no reviews on either. Oh and dont get cocky josu dobbs just carved up your defense for 400 yards passing and a total of almost 700 yards so much for that dominant defense
Face it luck ran out, you don’t turn the ball over and that much and expect to win, if you do then you are a moron. Say good game and move on.
Look if they called the game fairly i wouldnt say anything but when tennessee out plays atm in every aspect of the game and the refs no calls impact the game yeah im pissed and going to say something.
We got a tough guy here! Everyone look out he might bring up Tee Martin and roast you hard #neverforget1998
except for two important aspects, score and turn-overs.
Wow, so you’re now claiming the refs actually did cause those interceptions? I mean, you did say they outplayed them in every aspect right? You clearly didn’t see the same game the rest of the world did, probably best to just go to bed and quit posting.
Dry your Voluntears…the gators will be watching next week when you go down all those injuries-wow. RTR from your friends in FL
Ohhh, so the refs caused those 7 turnovers. Got it.
Nope, however it reminds me of the game last year with Ole Miss and Bama where the turnovers where the only stat line you won.
Where=were*
The fact that you don’t understand it’s probably the most important stat lines shows you really shouldn’t be commenting on anything football related, i.e. the officiating.
I never said anything about the officiating, you might need to go back to basic english class for reading comprehension. I said that it reminded me of the Ole Miss Alabama game from last year where the only stat line they won in were turnovers and score, thus effectively beat themselves rather than the other team actually do it. I know I used a lot of big words so you might need to go get your families dictionary to understand.
family’s*
SEC refs are embarrassing
In literally all games
Not as much money Butch Jones gave the girls who UT players raped as hush money.
Yes. There were a few interference & a targeting call that A&M got away with, but UT shot themselves in the foot with a ton of silly mistakes. It was quite an exciting game, regardless. GBO!
Tenn got away with a few themselves, along with running into the kicker. That happens in every game. These two teams both played till the end and I firmly believe Tenn will still lock up the East and finish the year off strong. Mistakes can be fixed, heart can’t be taught.
Poor Butch! Your luck ran out! Good luck to Bama next week as well.
Not to mention that clock that seemed to keep running when Tenn players were going out of bounds and getting first downs. Jones needs to call the SEC and tell them to take a look at that and make sure it doesn’t keep happening, don’t like Texans and they’re big hats and never will.
That’s fine, we don’t like you and your pink capris either so it’s a mutual thing.
Wow, all the great TN fans in here and you had to go and mess it up. Go ahead and ignore the poor officiating on the other side of the ball and just see what you want to see to get an excuse. Suck it up, be an adult, and move on.
14 points were Scored after two blown calls that didnt even get reviewed Thats what the problem is questionable calls that had plenty of time to be reviewed and werent and it led to 14 points
Plenty of calls missed against the Aggies that stalled drives as well so your point makes absolutely no sense. College officiating sucks, always has, always will and anyone who uses it as an excuse just doesn’t understand the game.
Yeah, some shady calls. But we beat ourselves man..7 turnovers lol.
Holy crap i think i developed high blood pressure from this game
Welcome to the life of a volunteer fan
At this point im convinced Butch Jones made a deal with devil for some crazy ass luck but the drawbacks are their players are made of glass. Thoughts and Prayers out to the family of yalls big DT that went down good luck the rest of the year.
Good game aTm, but aTm needs to work on tackling. Those arm tackles are not going to cut it. They need to wrap up better.
That #98 on aTm knows how to tackle though. He was all over the place with some great tackles. He needs to run a clinic.
Ya it was weird this is the first game all year we had bad tackling but it was plenty. It just makes more and more sense that Butch Jones made a deal with the devil im telling you guys lol
Just clone more #98s. That guy was a stud.
You’re tellin’ me, I think the main reason I lost my voice at the game was the constant repetition of ‘learn to freaking tackle!’. I don’t know that Trevor will ever really get over his accuracy issues, but we still have a good shot if we can fix the tackling woes.
Texas A&M Defense is not good when it panics. I don’t know why that’s such a consistent theme with them, but when it happens you see overpursuit and big hits =/= tackles.
And Knight is pedestrian (Which is all we need) when he doesn’t have the most underrated DE combo in the nations applying constant pressure.
I’m not so sure it’s when they panic as much as when they are just trying too hard. They get so focused on trying to go for the turnover that they miss basic tackles. It lends itself to exciting, but stressful football as it often leads to games just like this where you get 7 turnovers but still let the other team stay in the game.
Good Game A&M
Very exciting game. Obviously the turnovers + penalties + zebras were too much..Once it got to overtime it was a coin flip. Give credit to Texas A&M for making the plays to win the game. Way to fight Tennessee. All of Vol Nation is extremely proud of you! 24 hour rule, and its time to focus on our next opponent. All of your goals Tennessee are still there to achieve. Im so proud of this team.
Alabama is going to have their hands full the next two weeks…
TN’s offensive line is gonna get slaughtered by Bama. And it TN gives Bama 7 turnovers it’ll be a 50 point loss.
If the Vols can just protect the ball, they win, and maybe easily. They get another big opportunity next week. Should be another great game. Congrats to both teams for putting on quite the show.
And if A&Ms offense and Trevor Knight didnt stick their head in the dirt we wouldve run away with it. All that we know is A&M won and i now have to go to the hospital for heart palpitations
That running back (was it #5?) needs to protect that ball. The game should have ended with his run.
I hate that fumble through the endzone touchback rule. It bit us against AU one year.
I want to blame the refs so bad for the loss, because the aggies got calls all day long. But at the same time the Vols can’t expect to win with that many turnovers, especially against a ranked team.
Tenn got plenty of calls their way, along with plenty of missed ones as well so I don’t see how anyone can point to refs in this one. It was pretty crappy officiating all the way around.
I’ve never watched runners that were harder to bring down than those volunteers. I’d rather play Alabama than play them again. Avoid the mistakes and no one beats you.
#98 had no issues tackling UT players. Too many arm tackles by others on the aTm D.
I just want to know who put the balls in butter prior to the game for UT, that was the worst UT team I have seen all year. It hurts the team as well when you lead every stat line except 2 the score and turnovers. It was a well played game.
Careful what you wish for!
Nothing magical going on here, or anywhere else in vol media wprship land. Close game. Hope all injuries heal fast.
Please, Lsu is off this weekend ready for a re-match, LOL
Well, what this means now for Tennessee is if Florida beats Arkansas, Tennessee’s sec championship game hopes are through. Because let’s be honest here, Alabama’s not losing to Tennessee next week. Tennessee will finish with at least 2 conference losses. Which means if Florida (most likely) beats Mizzou, they would need to seal the deal with Arkansas (should be deciding game). But honestly, if Florida doesn’t replay LSU at some point, the trip to Atlanta wouldn’t be as nearly hard earned without a W against them. Hopefully, the game happens. For Texas A&M, their next game will be what will (most likely) be the west winner.
So here are the SEC championship matchups:
Florida vs. Alabama (most likely)(championship rematch)
Florida vs. Texas A@M
Alabama vs. Tennessee
Tennessee vs. Texas A&M (least likely[although it would make for a very intriguing rematch])
Florida will be watching the SEC Championship game from the couch.
My opinion, but if UF and LSU don’t play the game it should be a forfeit loss for both, sorry LSU at least y’all weren’t afraid to play the game.
It is a very possible case to be made that we can play with Alabama, should this team get mad like they did at the end of the year last year and we hold on to the ball it will be a very very good game next weekend in Knoxville!
They way UF has played lately they need to get healthy and O needs to step up we’ll see what happens when del rio is bavk but Mizzou, LSU, UGA, and Arkansas are all probably gonna give us trouble…
I think the story is that they gashed us on the ground. I mean big time. Yes their run game this year is strong, but I’m sure happy JRM will be back for Bama. If we can pull some more gypsy magic against them, make it to sec championship, I like our chances. By then some players will be back from injury and the others will have more experience than previously.
Last but not least, that was a hell of a game.
JRM is done at Tennessee. Kirkland will be back next week though.
Brian chip is bUT hurt
Proud of Tennessee for the awesome comeback…very disappointing loss….but there is still plenty to play for….Dobbs did was “Cooler than the other side of the pillow “” on those last 2 drives….offense put up almost 700 yards…defense struggled on big plays… Gotta correct the fumbleitis….And several of the SEC Officiating crews have struggled this year but it’s part of the game…Congrats to the Aggies!
G🍊 V🍊LS!!
Go Vols