What was that? Aggies at Auburn

Uhm, what?

After everyone was convinced that this team was done. Cooked. Any hope for signs of life blew away like dead leaves with the weak win over ULM.

And then a hint of . . . hope? No, not even that. Curios possibility? A flicker? When it sinks in that we ran an incredibly simplified offense. Were we hiding the ball a bit? Or did we need to keep it simple for a terribly gifted but not ready for prime time quarterback?

But then the game against Auburn started and it was like, "Hello gorgeous - where have you been for a month?" That offense that could and would score almost at will was back - with a new driver, of course. But back to scoring points left and right we were.

And the defense was able to get the handful of stops to keep the score leaning the right way, even after they fought back and tied it.

But the back breaker was the blocked field goal. Myles Garrett - being bear hugged like he had been all day - fought through it to make the block and Deshazor took it all the way home to make it 35-17 going into half.

The second half was one of survival. And we did, barely, but we did it nonetheless, and it was glorious.

The questions, though, then started.  How did we go from the first four games to struggling but finding a way to beat Arkansas and then losing three in a row, and then back to the original form?

I am not sure, and I will be scouring the news for information about it. We probably won't know until after Missouri, if not even after Louisiana State. But we certainly can speculate.  Here are a few thoughts.

One - this team got overconfident. For a young team, easy to do. And for a college team, also easy to do (see Oregon, USC, etc.).

Two - the offensive line was attacked and pushed around. Along with other phases, adjustments were made by teams and weaknesses were tested and exploited. And we were not able to make adjustments out of that. Not schematically, not with our personnel. We were driven into the ground, culminating in the 59-0 embarrassment that was Alabama.

Three - we played better teams. No doubt, State, Ole Miss and Alabama were three of the four toughest teams we have faced all year - with Auburn being the fourth. And in a row, that wore us down. And State came into the game off a bye, while we came off the hard game against the Razorbacks. That loss started a few cascades - physical and mental.

The fact that we bounced back is clearly significant. Few teams suffer 59-0 losses to anyone and then beat someone else, on the road, in the top 5 in the country, let alone a team coming off being 13 seconds from the national championship the year before. It was very very impressive.

But now we have a clear contradiction. Are we the team that beat SC and Auburn on the road, or are we the team that broke under the weight of State, Ole Miss and Alabama?

The sad fact is that in the immortal question of whether the glass is half empty or half full, the reality is that it is both.

The challenge for Sumlin and is band of merry men is showing that they can put a little more water in that glass - get a win over Mizzouri, and possibly get one over LSU. Then go to a bowl game and maximize that experience. This team is still young. Seeing some of the youngsters stepping up was really encouraging. What was more encouraging was seeing that the coaching staff had given roles to players willing to fight and play hard. Continue to do that, and the ship will be righted and our beloved Aggies will be back on the road to higher and higher success.

But make no mistake, the danger of the cliff remains. Best of luck to everyone with the Aggie football program. More than at any time over the last three years, the fate of the program hangs in the balance. The reality is this - the high end of the potential is in the balance right now. Slide back, and the recruiting momentum that had once seemed inevitable could be lost...