College Station, Texas ? Two big leads. Two heartbreaking losses. A once promising season falling apart.

Now the Aggies try to move on from the defeats to salvage the season. They’ll have to do it against an undefeated Texas Tech team on the road.

No. 24 Texas A&M has won two straight over the Red Raiders, but before the Aggies’ 2009 win in Lubbock, they had lost seven straight there.

“We’re going to stay positive, that’s the only thing we can do,” receiver Ryan Swope said. “We’ve got a great team, great character on the team and we just have to keep moving forward and we can’t look back.”

Texas A&M was 2-0 and ranked in the top 10 before back-to-back losses to No. 6 Oklahoma State and No. 10 Arkansas. The Aggies led by 17 points at halftime against the Cowboys and 18 against the Razorbacks before second-half meltdowns led to narrow defeats.

Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman said losing those two games by a total of five points is more difficult to deal with than getting blown out.

“We’ve had two devastating losses, which are tough to handle,” he said. “You’re almost better off just getting your butt kicked and losing by a large score sometimes.”

Sherman certainly isn’t happy with what has happened with his team the past two weeks, but he is convinced the Aggies can get back on track. That could be because the team bounced back last season after an early three-game losing streak to compete for the Big 12 title.

The Aggies lost to Oklahoma State, Arkansas and Missouri in consecutive weeks last season before reeling off six straight wins to finish with a 9-3 regular season record and a Cotton Bowl berth.

“I think we’re a better team, but we’re missing on a couple of cylinders right now and we have to get those cylinders working,” he said. “I think I have more optimism. I was optimistic last year, but I know our guys. I know what we have. I think we have a good pulse on things and I’m confident we can fix what needs to get fixed.”

One of the things that must get fixed is Texas A&M’s pass defense. The Aggies are allowing an FBS-worst 336.75 yards passing a game after Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden and Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson both set school records for passing against A&M’s defense.

Sherman knew there would be some growing pains on his defense this season with the loss of linebacker/defensive end Von Miller, who was the second overall pick in this year’s draft. But he still expected a better performance than it has shown so far.

“I have high expectations that our defense will sort things out and that we’ll make the necessary adjustments that we need to make as coaches and as players,” Sherman said. “I think we will be playing good defense shortly, but we have to have everybody buy into it.”

One bright spot in A&M’s loss to Arkansas was the play of running back Christine Michael. Michael ran for 230 yards and three touchdowns to earn Big 12 offensive player of the week honors.

The Aggies have used both he and Cyrus Gray this season with great success and are averaging almost 224 yards rushing a game, which could help in slowing down Tech’s high-powered offense.

Swope, who is a junior, said they younger guys on the team are trying to get things together to help the seniors go out on a high note. He is looking to see how his teammates respond to this adversity.

“It will be interesting at practice this week to see how guys react and what kind of leaders step up to the table,” he said. “It’s only two games, it’s not the end of the world. We can bounce back, that’s for sure.”

Sherman knows his team probably got the “here we go again feeling” when the lead began to evaporate against Arkansas. He’s working to remind his players not to look ahead or behind, but simply to focus on doing their jobs each play.

“When you start looking at the what-ifs it becomes overwhelming and you start to fall apart,” he said. “You have to have the maturity and the focus to deal with what’s at hand right now and what you can fix right this second and not worry about the what-ifs.”