|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Texas A&M fought to keep its Big 12
title hopes alive. Oklahoma State needed a victory to temper a
season of frustration.
Only Texas A&M went away happy Saturday. The Aggies (No. 25 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP),
after taking a 21-7 third-quarter lead, held on to win 21-16 by
stopping Oklahoma State at the 15 in the final minute.
|  | | Ja'Mar Toombs' 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter proved to be the game-winner for the Aggies. |
The victory sets up a big game next week in College Station
against top-ranked Oklahoma, which leads the Big 12 South Division
at 5-0. The Aggies (7-2 overall) are 5-1.
"We were very fortunate to get out of here with a victory,"
said coach R.C. Slocum, whose team spent much of the day in Cowboys
territory and compiled 436 yards of offense.
He said the Aggies had not overlooked Oklahoma State (2-6, 0-5),
which has lost six in a row.
"We anticipated that it would be about like it was out there
today," Slocum said. "Maybe not quite that close, but every time
we play them up here, it has been about like this."
The loss was just more frustration for coach Bob Simmons, who is
working amid continuing speculation about his future. Athletic
director Terry Don Phillips said this week that Simmons has clearly
upgraded the program in his six years on the job, but that
supporters of the program are dissatisfied with what is now assured
to be a third straight losing season.
"There's no consolation in moral victories," Simmons said. "I
thought the kids played lights out, hung in the game, stayed in the
game, gave us an opportunity to win it in the end. But it wasn't
supposed to be."
Mark Farris completed 24 of 37 passes for 246 yards, with one
touchdown and one interception, and the Aggies had only one drive
all day that went three plays and out. Yet they had to hang on to
win.
A 57-yard punt return for a touchdown by Gabe Lindsay -- the
first allowed by A&M in 12 years -- and a failed two-point
conversion try made the score 21-16 with 8:41 left in the game.
After forcing a punt, the Cowboys got the ball at their 29 with
5:53 to play. Completions by Aso Pogi on third-and-12 and
fourth-and-8 allowed the Cowboys to drive to the 15 with under a
minute to go.
But four straight incompletions, the last one a disputed
out-of-bounds call on a pass to tight end Marcellus Rivers in the
end zone, ended the Cowboys' chances with 37 seconds remaining.
"I said it was either a touchdown or pass interference,"
Simmons said. "That's what I told him (the official), because you
can't turn your back to the ball and be chopping at the guy and not
be playing the ball.
"That was my opinion. That's how it goes."
Texas A&M went 80 yards on the first drive of the second half,
mixing the run and the pass and never reaching third down. Richard
Whitaker had runs of 14, 25 and 9 yards before scoring from 10
yards out for a 14-7 lead.
Texas A&M drove 77 yards on its next possession, with Ja'Mar
Toombs scoring on a 2-yard run. Farris was 5-of-5 for 59 yards on
the drive, including a 10-yard completion to Robert Ferguson on a
third-and-9 play to keep the drive going near midfield.
Ferguson, the Big 12's leading receiver, had a career-best 11
catches for 119 yards but sprained his left knee and didn't play in
the fourth quarter.
Texas A&M's only first-half score came on a 40-yard pass from
Farris to Ferguson five minutes into the second quarter.
"We said all week that this would be a tough game, and it
was," Farris said. "We hurt ourselves with some breakdowns when
we were close to the goal line, and that makes it hard to win
games. We're all about winning football games, so we'll take this
one.
The Aggies moved to the Oklahoma State 35 on their first
possession of the day before the drive stalled and they had punted.
Another first-quarter drive ended with a fumble by Ferguson at the
2.
|
|
ALSO SEE
College Football Scoreboard
Texas A&M Clubhouse
Oklahoma State Clubhouse
|
