Texas A&M Football: The Aggies Did Not Order This Wake Up Call

After the first three weeks of the season, the Texas A&M offense was one of the best in the country. They were dominating their opponents with their no huddle offense and keeping their defense off the field.

That being said, even the Aggies knew their numbers would not count for anything if they did not continue the success against BCS schools.

While they were confident heading into the stretch of games that featured opening Big 12 play following a showdown with SEC and former South West Conference rival Arkansas, they knew they had a tough road ahead.

For the Aggies, the Arkansas game was a chance to prove they have arrived and are a legitimate threat to challenge Texas for the Big-12 South.

Unfortunately, all they proved is that they have work to do.

The Aggies were up 10-0 on the Razorbacks before allowing big plays and a quick score that cut the lead to three. The Aggies surrendered the ball again and let Arkansas march down the field for another touchdown.

What followed was the change in momentum that altered the outcome of the contest.

QB Jerrod Johnson hit Ryan Tannehill streaking down the middle of the field—the middle that was exposed by Alabama—in what was a sure fire touchdown. There was just one problem; Tannehill dropped the ball.

The pass seemed to shake Johnson's confidence in his receivers and he looked flat the rest of the way.

Arkansas would never look back on route to a 47-19 victory.

The Aggies had a chance to atone for that loss in a meeting with No. 15 ranked Oklahoma State who was without two of their big three offensive weapons. Dez Bryant has been suspended indefinitely and Kendall Hunter sat out with an ankle injury.

The Aggies were in control of the game for most of the contest, when yet another game changing moment took place—this time by the head coach.

In a questionable move, coach Mike Sherman went for the score on fourth-and-goal from the inside the two-yard line. Up 15-14 at that point and playing at home, the obvious move is to take the points.

Jamie McCoy got his hands on Johnson's pass, but the play was broken up by the OSU secondary.

I found myself in a daze, followed by several objects magically floating from my hands to the TV screen. To this day I'm not sure what came over me.

This was not supposed to be Mike Sherman's weakness. He was supposed to be a good head coach who knew what to call in the right situations. For a moment, I had to check to see if Dennis Franchione was still the coach.

The difference was that, going into halftime, OSU had the momentum. Instead of being down by four, they were only down by one and had just come off a goal line stand.

I'm not sure if you know, but a goal line stand gets a team fired up more than just about anything.

The Aggies were in the game until the very end, but fell just short 36-31. Missed opportunities in the form of field goals prevented them from winning at Kyle Field, where they had won five in-a-row against the Cowboys.

The Aggies go on the road to Kansas State and Texas Tech in the next two weeks, they need to step it up on defense if they want to avoid going 3-4.