As the Saturday sun went down and Kyle Field was welcomed with pink skies, the 12th Man grew elated as sophomore tight end Theo Melin Öhrström scored Texas A&M football’s first touchdown of the Aggies’ 26-20 win over bowling Green and danced off the field.

Moments later, junior defensive lineman Cashius Howell stepped on the field toward the end of the first half. This was a personal moment for the Bowling Green transfer.

“It’s obviously no bad blood,” Howell said leading up to the game on Sept. 16. “Even whenever I first left [Bowling Green], I’m still in good graces with the coaches.”

In three seasons at Bowling Green, Howell tallied 55 total tackles, 11.5 sacks, one forced fumble and two pass breakups. He said he had been warning his teammates about Bowling Green’s upsets over larger conference teams in the past few years.

“I know how Power Five schools go into these lower conference-level games,” Howell said. “I’ve been telling them, Bowling Green, do not take them lightly. If we do take them lightly, they’ll come in here and then they’ll embarrass us.”

Coming into the game, eyes were focused on Howell’s performance against his former team, but eyes shifted to junior DL Nic Scourton as he logged a season-high six tackles, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry.

The Falcons managed to keep the Aggies’ defense on edge. Bowling Green pushed forward during the game with two touchdowns, but Scourton and his teammates helped prevent any consistent gains.

“We’ve got to stop the run,” Scourton said. “I just think coach [Mike] Elko challenged us, our coaches challenged us and we’re going out there and getting better every week.”

Scourton’s consistent presence was felt again on a third-down stop in the second quarter, which brought down senior RB Jamal Johnson for a loss of one yard and forced Bowling Green to punt.

Eyes then shifted from Scourton to other impactful players on defense, such as sophomore linebacker Tauren York and junior DB Will Lee III.

“Proud of our guys for making enough plays to win the game,” Elko said. “When you get into those moments in those situations, it feels like it’s spiraling out of control, and you see a lot of teams not find ways to win that football game. And credit to our guys that we found a way to win it.”

York had five tackles and four solo tackles while Lee finished the game with six tackles and five solo tackles, but the defense seemed to lack the killer instinct that could have closed the game earlier.

“We’ve got to get back to work Monday and get a lot better,” Elko said.

A&M is set to take on Arkansas for the 80th time at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.