SEC Title and Playoff Still Within Reach for Tennessee Despite Loss to Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Tennessee had just tumbled off the tightrope it walked throughout a magical first half of the football season, dropping a crushing double-overtime game at Texas A&M, 45-38.

So, why was junior running back Alvin Kamara smiling?

"We feel good," said Kamara, who was disappointed but not down on the season's outlook. "The message in the locker room was positive. It's one loss. We go into every week wanting to be 1-0. Sometimes, it doesn't go our way.

"We're going to go in the next week and prepare and put this behind us. This is not the end of the season."

That's the thing with these Vols: It's never the end.

Despite turning the football over a school-record seven times, getting 12 penalties, playing without four of its stars and losing even more to injury during the game against the Aggies, Tennessee kept battling.

Down 28-7 in the second half, the Vols weren't finished.

So, why would one loss signify the end of Tennessee's goals? The Vols still control their own destiny in the SEC East with tiebreaker wins over Florida and Georgia.

With No. 1-ranked Alabama looming next week, Tennessee has the chance to step right back into the national picture with an upset win over the Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium.

The SEC championship game is still within reach. Win out, and so is the College Football Playoff.

Moral victory time is over, but look beyond the numbers at what the Vols did despite playing historically careless football. They piled up 684 total yards. They ran 99 offensive plays. They had 29 first downs. The defense kept the team in the game despite multiple offensive mistakes.

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All of this was while the Vols trotted out a skeleton crew thanks to a ridiculous rash of injuries.

Who would have thought this team could perform at this level without Cameron Sutton, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Darrin Kirkland Jr. and Jalen Hurd?

During the A&M game, Cortez McDowell, Danny O'Brien, Evan Berry, Emmanuel Moseley, Malik Foreman, Kendal Vickers, Dylan Wiesman and Jashon Robertson all left for extended periods of time too. Some didn't come back.

The Vols did, despite all the darts being thrown their way and all the ones they threw at their own feet.

"It's tough, but at the same time, it's uplifting because we know we're the ones shooting ourselves in the foot," Kamara said. "So, we eliminate that, and the sky's the limit. We may get 1,000 yards."

As many drama-dripping moments were encapsulated into nearly five hours of exhausting, momentum-swapping football, two things stood firmly at the forefront as positive takeaways.

First, it's obvious head coach Butch Jones has built Tennessee's program to where it has playmakers throughout the three-deep rotation. Also, they refuse to give up, no matter the deficit or the time on the clock.

Case in point: As A&M's star freshman runner Trayveon Williams broke free for what should have been a game-clinching 73-yard touchdown with 1:49 left, UT senior defensive back Malik Foreman raced down and batted the ball out of Williams' arm and through the end zone for a touchback to give UT the ball.

The Vols marched down, tied the game at 35 and forced an improbable overtime. Again.

"That play is really a testament to what this season is so far—just never giving up," said junior walk-on middle linebacker Colton Jumper, who led UT for the third consecutive week in tackles. "He could have so easily just walked down the sideline, and the guy could've scored. But that play is just a testament to this program never giving up."

When senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs wasn't on the same page with Ethan Wolf on the game-ending interception and Texas A&M rushed the field and celebrated, it was surreal.

After falling behind to Appalachian State to start the year and surviving in overtime, trailing Florida 21-0 before storming back and 17-0 to Georgia before stunning the Bulldogs last week, you've still come to expect the Vols to find a way to win.

They didn't Saturday, and while the loss hurt, it didn't kill any of the momentum Tennessee has built.

"I think we're a confident, mature, veteran football team," Dobbs said. "Of course you don't want to be down like that, especially on the road, but I think we're mature enough to understand the situation and be able to fight back like we do."

This was a classic football game between two good teams. The Vols made enough mistakes to fill half a season. That's why the scoreboard showed 45-38 in favor of the Aggies at the end. That's why Tennessee's record is 5-1 rather than 6-0.

"For a while you thought we were going to win the game," Jumper said. "We had the momentum, we were coming back and just came up short. It definitely stung because you always think you're going to be able to be able to pull it out. You always believe you're going to win, so when that doesn't happen, it definitely stings."

But a one-loss SEC team is still very much alive in the playoff picture. The Vols could get their shot at A&M in Atlanta in December, or they could still play Alabama twice too.

All of that remains on the table, and just because the Vols couldn't quite finish this cardiac comeback the way they had so often before this season doesn't mean they need to reassess their goals.

They still believe. They always believe.

With Alabama on the horizon, there's still plenty to play for.

"We're refocused now," Kamara said moments after the game. "We went in the locker room, we talked about the game and what we need to do. We know who we've got to play next week. The game is behind us. It's done."

The season isn't.

Quotes and information gathered firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.