It's Time to Look at Texas A&M as the True Threat It Is

Texas A&M won five straight games to open each of the last two campaigns and promptly lost the sixth game of the year to a ranked opponent, kicking off late-season tailspins.

After the Aggies got over the dreaded "sixth-game hurdle" in a 45-38 double-overtime win over ninth-ranked Tennessee on Saturday in College Station, Texas, don't expect a similar collapse in 2016.

Texas A&M wasn't as crisp as it could have been. But it jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter, extended it to 28-7 in the third quarter and was in control. It then found the heart of a champion after Tennessee erased its third three-score deficit in as many weeks, as Aggies defensive back Armani Watts picked off Joshua Dobbs—the seventh turnover Texas A&M forced on the afternoon—to tie a bow on this instant classic.

It shouldn't have been that close.

Freshman running back Trayveon Williams appeared to have iced the game with a long 71-yard run while the Aggies were up by seven points with 1:49 left. But Malik Foreman punched it out short of the goal line for a touchback, which set up a Tennessee drive that resulted in the game-tying score at the end of regulation.

"We just kept playing," Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin said on CBS' broadcast. "We made that long run—Trayveon got it punched out—but guys just kept playing."

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While the end result of that run was a negative, the fact that it happened is a big indicator of just how much Sumlin's Aggies have changed from the previous teams.

He said prior to last season that he wanted to run "when he needed to," not just when he wanted to. Yet it didn't happen last year, which is part of the reason they struggled and Sumlin found himself on the hot seat.

Williams' long run—which was part of a 217-yard performance—marks the fourth straight game in which the Houston native has reeled off at least one long run in the second half of a tight contest. All four of his touchdowns prior to Saturday were 20 or more yards in length, and all came in the second half.

Simply put, Williams proved again that he is a closer—even though that final pitch got away from him a little.

That matters a lot for a team that was without star wide receiver Ricky Seals-Jones (leg injury) and had hobbled superstar defensive end Myles Garrett (ankle sprain) still fighting against a team that works defensive ends all day long with a multidimensional rushing attack.

Garrett had a sack, and even though he said he wasn't 100 percent, according to Ben Baby of the Dallas Morning News, he had a big impact on the game because of the attention he demanded and heart he showed:

"We've been limping around the last couple of weeks," Sumlin said on CBS. "We've got a bye week finally right in the middle of the season. Bye weeks are a lot more fun when you win the game."

It will be a lot of fun the next time out, because it will be another chance for Sumlin to make a statement in a place where he made his first true statement as the Texas A&M head coach: Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Aggies will now have two weeks to prepare for their trip to Alabama. The Tide will be on the tail end of an eight-week stretch without a bye to open the season and coming off a rivalry game with Tennessee that takes place next week on Rocky Top.

So this young Crimson Tide roster will have its work cut out for it against a tempo-based team that will be well-rested with a quarterback who's a running threat.

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Quietly, that's what Trevor Knight has become.

He rushed for 157 yards in the win over Arkansas on Sept. 24, including a 48-yarder late in the first half on which he ran away from the secondary. Knight did it again against the Vols, when he took off on a 62-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter, then willed his way in on a well-defended zone-read keeper for the game-winning score in the second overtime.

Texas A&M is 6-0 for the first time since 1994. It has done it with a balanced offense, a consistent defense and the ability to find ways to make it work with its "C-game," which was on display in a sloppy win over the Vols.

Sumlin gets the time to clean it up and again prove to the world his team is for real in two weeks against Alabama in what will be one of the biggest games of the SEC season.

It hasn't always been easy, hasn't always been clean and lacks the flare that previous Texas A&M teams have had.

But Sumlin will take substance over style every day.

Texas A&M again proved it is a complete team and a threat in the SEC West.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.com. Odds provided by Odds Shark.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter@BarrettSallee.