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No. 14 Texas A&M looked like the typical old Aggies for 30 minutes Saturday night, and then the dusted off the R.C. Slocum playbook and bashed No. 8 LSU into submission in a stunning 38-23 win. Down 17-7 at the half, the Aggies scored on five straight possessions after Marcel Reed took the helm while the defense clamped down and held LSU's explosive offense to six points while forcing three interceptions.

And, for the first time since the Slocum era, the Aggies enter the final stretch of the season in control of their own destiny in terms of winning a conference championship.

The Gulf Coast Offense is back, baby. With Marcel Reed at the helm, the Aggies ran for 148 yards while only completing two passes (for 70 yards) as the Aggies ran one zone read play after another. If Reed (9 carries, 62 yards, 3 TD) wasn't running for big yards, Le'Veon Moss (14 carries, 83 yards, 2 TD) or Amari Daniels (12 carries, 91 yards) were. When Reed came in the game, LSU was caught completely flat-footed and had no idea what to do. As he said, they never made any adjustments, so the Aggies just kept on hitting them with it.

Reed's performance saved the offense from disaster. Conner Weigman had a terrible night, completing 6 of 18 passes for 64 yards. He was also sacked four times, and on the last two he had no prayer. Things changed immediately with Reed's insertion into the game.

The offensive line did a terrible job in pass blocking. LSU beat them up badly, and Weigman suffered as a result. But the offensive approach A&M takes with Reed worked perfectly, as A&M could push around the fast LSU front in the running game. And they did, to the tune of 242 yards (4.9 yards a carry). The second half was a pretty thorough butt-kicking, and by the end of the game, LSU's defense (which held Arkansas to 34 rushing yards last week) had pretty much had it.

Reed didn't do much passing, but he threw one of the prettiest passes you'll ever see to Noah Thomas for 54 yards that, if it wasn't the back-breaker, certainly put LSU in a real bind. And to see Jardin Gilbert -- who Moss ran over three different times -- in coverage made it even nicer.

The ineptitude of the passing game limited the influence of the receivers, though Jabre Barber had a couple of big third down receptions on Weigman's lone scoring drive.

LSU thought they could handle A&M's running game and contain Weigman. They were right about the second part, but that made the first part deadlier. And that ended up being their downfall.

If you're going to play old Aggie football, you have to run the ball. They did that. But you also have to stop it. And that is exactly what A&M did, giving up 2 yards rushing after the first quarter and just 24 for the game. LSU's long rush was just 13 yards. LSU wasn't considered a good run-blocking team coming in, and they weren't tonight. When it came to physical stuff, A&M just battered them.

Garrett Nussmeier kept LSU in the game with 405 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he was under serious pressure after halftime. He had to run frequently, took a bunch of shots and was sacked twice -- no mean feat against the LSU offensive line.

But, more importantly, they forced three interceptions. A lot of that was a result of Nussmeier feeling the heat and making bad decisions, including completely ignoring the existence of BJ Mayes twice. His third interception, picked off by Taurean York, was just terrible. After giving up 259 yards to Nussmeier in the first half, A&M allowed just 146 and 6 points after halftime.

It was a remarkable turnaround, because Nussmeier avoided the rush brilliantly in the first half as the Aggies played extremely soft in the secondary. Add in some really bad tackling, including a miss by Dalton Brooks that led to Aaron Anderson's 76-yard touchdown to make the score 17-7, and the first half was not good for the defense.

But, as Elko's defenses tend to do, things got better after halftime. Nussmeier found that his ability to move up in the pocket had vanished, and he was running out of the pocket to avoid pressure in his face or off the edge from Nic Scourton, Shemar Stewart and Cashius Howell. And that led to mistakes.

Scourton had another huge game, with 4 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack, but there was another lineman who came up huge tonight that people have been waiting for -- DJ Hicks. The former 5-star had 3 tackles and a half a sack, but pushed around LSU's interior in a big way. Shemar Turner, who was called for a really stupid personal foul in the second half, also had a really good showing.

Taurean York had his second straight really good game, with 7 tackles and an interception; Scooby Williams had a solid game and Solomon DeShields got a lot of work late in the game.

The corners, after halftime, were strong. Will Lee, Dezz Ricks and Jayvon Thomas all had some big plays in coverage to stop deep balls that could have changed the course of the game.

It may not have been the Wrecking Crew, but it had a lot of similarities: a suffocating run defense, a good pass rush and the ability to force turnovers.

A&M dominated here. Tyler White was great again, putting two punts inside the 10, and Randy Bond hit his only field goal. LSU, on the other hand, was terrible in the punting game, was stifled on returns, missed two field goals and had a third attempt blown up. It was embarrassing for them.

Elko deserves all the credit in the world for not only recognizing that his starting quarterback was struggling, but why and knowing when to make a change. He's been in this position twice this year, and made the right decision both times. I don't think the past two coaches would have done that. He also has these guys believing in themselves. Being down 10-0 right off the bat and down 17-7 at halftime against a team that had won 104 in a row when up 10 or more at intermission would have crushed a Sumlin or Fisher team, and this bunch just ramped up the pressure.

There's no quit in this bunch. Unlike so many other Aggie teams that we've seen, they don't get intimidated. They're ready to go out there and fight for four quarters, and they believe they have the talent to compete. And they're probably right; few teams in America have ability to completely, and successfully, change their entire offense on the fly. And there are fewer teams who can embarrass LSU's offensive line. The Aggies did both, and now they're all alone on top of the SEC.

How about that?