Ags come up short vs. Bama

The Aggies (4-2, 2-1 SEC) came into Saturday night's game with No. 1 Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC) as 27-point underdogs and were largely dismissed by national pundits as potential competition for the Crimson Tide. After a 27-19 game that game down to nearly the last play, neither of those scenarios will occur again in 2017.

Both teams started off tentatively, going three and out in their first possessions. The Aggies would strike first on their next possession, after a 31-yard pass and run to Trayveon Williams got A&M moving. Daniel LaCamera would convert a 52-yard field goal that just made it over the crossbar, giving A&M a 3-0 lead.

It would last all of one play from scrimmage.

The Aggies made their first big blunder of the night, with linebacker Otaro Alaka and safety Derrick Tucker hitting the same gap, allowing running back Damien Harris to go 75 yards for a touchdown and put the Crimson Tide up 7-3. Shades of Derrick Henry crushing the Aggie defense in 2015 began to creep into Kyle Field, but the defense stiffened, holding Alabama scoreless on their next three positions.

Unfortunately for A&M, the Aggie offense was in a bigger funk, going scoreless on seven straight possessions including two drives that ended with lost fumbles and two that ended with turnovers on downs. Alabama would get moving again on their second drive of the second quarter, when quarterback Jalen Hurts (13-22, 123 yards, 1 TD; 14 carries, 56 yards, 1 TD) evaded multiple tacklers on a 38-yard run. Andy Pappanastos would hit a 34-yard field goal to make the score 10-3.

Two plays later, the Aggies would give the ball back after Williams fumbled at the A&M 42. Alabama would need four plays to score, with Hurts taking the ball in from a yard out to make it 17-3.

"They don't make mistakes, and they're going to take advantage of your turnovers," receiver Christian Kirk (4 catches, 52 yards, 1 TD) said. "We saw that tonight."

After Alabama scored again on an 11-play, 75-yard drive to make it 24-3 early in the 3rd quarter, it looked like the rout was on. Instead, the Aggies shocked the Crimson Tide by punching back.

After cornerback Debione Renfro forced the Alabama's first turnover in 11 months by stripping WR Robert Foster of the ball, quarterback Kellen Mond (19-29, 231 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) came to life, converting two spectacular 4th down passes on a 5 minute, 21 second drive. The first, to a leaping Damion Ratley, picked up 32 yards; the second, thrown after running around and spinning across the field like Johnny Manziel to avoid a sack, found Kirk in the end zone for the Aggies' first touchdown of the night.

"With him being mobile, you've got to stay open for him. If you were to look at it, I was pretty much running around in circles, looking at which way he was going," Kirk said. "I was able to get back to him after he ran right, and he gave me an opportunity to catch it."

While the Aggie offense was starting to heat up, the Alabama offense went frigid with help from an Aggie defense that held them to 4 yards a play and 1.7 yards a rush in the second half. A&M ended a short Alabama possession with DE Jarrett Johnson and DT Zaycoven Henderson slamming Hurts to the turf for a loss, then got the ball at their own 46 after a 19-yard punt.

Mond started the drive with a 20-yard run to get the Aggies in field goal range, but then made a key mistake. He threw into double coverage while rolling to his left and was picked off by safety and longtime A&M nemesis Minkah Fitzpatrick, who stepped out of bounds at his own 1.

"We've got a fine line where you try to fit one in, like (Mond) did with Christian and Cam Buckley at the end, but Minkah got him," coach Kevin Sumlin said. "You've got to know when to pull the trigger and when not to."

The Aggies weren't quite done, as they forced Alabama into a quick 3 and out and the 12th Man, Cullen Gillaspia, blasted through off the right side to block the Alabama punt for a safety and send most of the 101,000 people in attendance into a frenzy.

"Coach Banks drew up a great scheme against their punt team and I just followed orders. I wish it hadn't bounced out of bounds, but it's a funny shaped ball. It bounces weird ways," he said.

Alabama was able to regain enough composure to stop A&M after the free kick, then went on a 10-play, 52-yard drive that ended in a 44-yard Pappanastos field goal to make the margin 27-12. The Aggies, however, weren't done, charging back down the field behind a perfect 39-yard pass from Mond to fellow freshman Camron Buckley to get to the Alabama 1, then scored two plays later. A&M couldn't recover the onside kick, however, and the Crimson Tide were able to run out the clock.

Unsurprisingly, Alabama coach Nick Saban was displeased with his team's performance, hammering them for letting the Aggies back in the game after holding a three-touchdown lead.

"You have to give A&M's team a lot of credit. I said this early and I told our team this, this is a different A&M team," he said. "They learned something when they lost against UCLA. We knew they would play hard for 60 minutes and compete. They did that. We just didn't do a good job finishing the game and that's disappointing."

On the other side, Sumlin wasn't buying into moral victories but felt like his team may have learned something about itself by going toe to toe with the nation's top team and controlling much of the second half.

"People over there in that locker room and that building are not really happy right now," he said. "These guys really have focused in on trying to get better every week, eliminating mistakes, eliminating things that hurt ourselves. The effort has been there and the communication has gotten better. Our execution has to continue to get better. If you get better every week, there’s not a game that we can’t win.”