Texas A&M finally put away Tennessee for good, but the Vols almost did it again

Ninth-ranked Tennessee has made a habit this year of finding late luck in its football games. The Volunteers lost in double-overtime Saturday to No. 8 Texas A&M, 45-38, but their late-game sorcery continued in epic fashion.

Let’s start with the reason this game required OT in the first place:

Leading by a touchdown with about two minutes to play in regulation, Texas A&M running back Trayveon Williams broke away from the Volunteers’ defense for a long run. Tennessee only had two timeouts, so Williams could’ve effectively ended the game just by sliding to the ground.

But as Williams reached for the Tennessee end zone, the Volunteers’ Malik Foreman chased him down and knocked the ball loose. It shot out of the end zone for a touchback. Suddenly, Tennessee had life.

Because this seems an awful lot like Tennessee’s year, you know what happened immediately afterward. Joshua Dobbs led the Vols 80 yards in six plays, and an 18-yard Alvin Kamara touchdown catch with 41 seconds left knotted the score at 35. It capped a 14-point comeback in the final 2:07, with Kamara also running in for a score less than two minutes prior.

For Texas A&M, it wasn’t supposed to go this way. Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin was acutely aware of Tennessee’s late-game good fortune. The Vols needed a fumble recovery in the end zone to beat Appalachian State in their first game, then assorted wildness to win on a Hail Mary last weekend at Georgia. They’ve been exceptionally hard to kill, but when A&M stretched a 21-7 halftime lead to 28-7 just past the start of the third quarter, this one looked like a breeze.

It wasn’t, of course, but Kamara’s tying score, the Aggies still had 41 seconds to get down the field and prevent overtime. They raced 54 yards in six plays to set up a 38-yard field goal try for kicker Daniel LaCamera, with eight seconds let.

Tennessee coach Butch Jones iced LaCamera with two timeout calls, on a day when kicker icings were extremely prescient. LaCamera badly shanked his kick to the left, setting up free football in College Station.

The Aggies aren’t strangers to collapsing late in regulation at home and then yanking away an overtime victory. They did exactly that in Week 1 against UCLA, and they still had every chance to win in the extra period. And they did, with a Trevor Knight touchdown run and Armani Watts interception finally ending a marathon of a game in the second OT.

A&M held Tennessee to a field goal on the opening possession of overtime. When the Vols stopped A&M on the counter-possession to set up a fourth-and-1, Kevin Sumlin sent out LaCamera again, with a 35-yard try to force a second overtime. That kick felt predestined to get blocked, but LaCamera knocked out through to force the second overtime.

Tennessee still controls the SEC East, and Texas A&M is an eventful but impressive 6-0. Both teams are good, but at least we know now that Tennessee isn’t completely invincible.