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By TRAVIS TINGLE
Assistant Sports Editor
As the last few minutes of the
I Texas Tech game dwindled away,
I Texas A&M heard the cries of “Poor
I Aggies” from an opposing team’s
I fans for the first time this season.
I The way A&M is playing right now,
I it probably won’t be the last time ei-
I ther.
The chant, which doesn’t usually
I mean much of anything, was more
I than a fair evaluation of Jackie Sher-
j rill’s third career loss to the rebuild-
I ing Red Raiders.
Tech expected a closer game. The
| media expected a closer game. Ev-
1 eryone expected a closer game. So
I what went wrong?
“The big plays were the difference
I in the ball game,” Sherrill said.
I “They (Texas Tech) made the big
I plays. We did not.”
Twenty unanswered points by
I Tech in the fourth quarter proves
I Sherrill’s point, but there’s more to
I the Ags’ 30-12 loss than just a blem-
I ishon the record.
In all of A&M’s previous three vic-
I tories, Sherrill blamed A&M’s incon-
I sistency on the three stooges of foot-
Iball — miscues, penalties and
I turnovers.
With only one fumble and an in-
| terception against Tech, it’s evident
I that the Ags’ problems lie elsewhere.
Perhaps poor tackling is to blame.
| A&M linebacker Johhny Holland
I thinks so.
“It was just a case of a lot of missed
I tackles,” Holland said. “We (inside
: linebackers) were blitzing and
I (Texas Tech’s) Timmy Smith would
I bounce to the outside. We needed to
I wrap him up instead of shooting
I right at him.”
Smith ripped the Aggie defense
I for 139 yards rushing, with most of it
I coming on just runs of 52 and 43
1 yards. Behind Smith’s rushing, Tech
I bled the Ags’ defense for 203 yards
; on the ground.
Considering Tech mustered a
I mere -13 yards in a 18-9 loss to Bay-
| lor last week, the Aggie defense re
mains an unsolved mystery.
ffUfli
sfcMSC GREAT ISSUES
During the rain-drenched third
quarter, the Ags needed to make
tneir move — they didn’t. Everyone
who left their umbrella in the car re
members well those agonizing 15
minutes of football.
The Ags found themselves down
10-6, but passed the ball only once
during the enitre third quarter. Nei
ther team was willing to give up field
position and wanted to avoid a mo
mentum-shifting turnover at all cost.
Tech could afford to keep its of
fense into limbo for the third quarter
— A&M could not.
To T ech, the rain showers worked
just as effectively as hiding the foot
ball under their jerseys for 15 min
utes. The Ags could not afford to
concede the third quarter, yet they
helped Tech drain time off the clock
by not passing.
A&M quarterback Craig Stump
explained the Ags’ strategy.
“At that point, we needed to take
care of the ball,” Stump said. “A
turnover there would have given
them a big advantage. It (the rain)
was coming down so hard. It would
have been hard to throw.”
A&M’s lack of third quarter offen
sive diversity hurt them in the fourth
quarter when the game escaped the
Ags’ for good.
Trailing 17-9, the Aggies settled
for a 35 yard Alan Smith field goal
after failing on third and 12 situa
tion from the Tech 18 yard line.
That was the big play that killed
the Aggies.
From that point on, Tech pro
ceeded to paint the town, or in this
case Kyle Field red — the Ags pro
vided the Wagner Power Painters.
“We felt at the time that we had a
chance to win the game,” Sherrill
said. “After we kicked the field goal
(making the score 17-12), we were in
the right position. We were just
never in a position to make a big
play”
The Ags were in scoring position
inside the 20 yard line several times
during the course of the game. Each
time, the Aggies bogged down and
played dead.
Stump gave no excuses for the of
fenses’ lacklustre exihibition.
Texas A&M quarterback Craig Stump (9) is sandwiched between
Texas Tech defenders Brad Hastings (44) and Merv Scurlark (5)
Photo by FRANK IRWIN
during the Aggies 30-12 loss to the Red Raiders on a wet Kyle
Field Saturday afternoon.
“They (Texas Tech) played the
defense we had practiced on all
week,” Stump said. “We knew they
had a good defense coming into the
game. They have the No. 1 defense
in the conference. A lot of times, we
had things going and we just hurt
ourselves. I can’t think of any one
play in particular that hurt us
though.
“I now we’re going to bounce back
from this. We’re going to win some
more games. We just need to cut out
the mistakes. Individually, it doesn’t
matter how I played. If we lose, we
lose.”
The Ags’ luck finally ran out
against Tech. But with Houston,
Baylor, Rice, SMU, Arkansas, TCU
and Texas remaining on the sched
ule, the prospects of a Cotton Bowl
season may have been literally
washed away with the rains that
pounded College Station Saturday.
i. Allappl*
cubicle b
:reenings>
and Suitf
held on Si
: foil!
V W WW V
MSC GREAT ISSUES PRESENTS:
WILLIAM F BUCKLEY JR. &
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
IN A DEBATE ENTITLED
"IS BIG GOVERNMENT
SOCIALLY DESIRABLE? 5 ”
A&M’s hopes of a starting off the
SWC race on a winning note were
dashed once again in front of 51,365
fans at Kyle Field.
Most of them asking that seem
ingly never-ending question:
“What’s wrong with the Aggies?”
WV1
° CT - 30
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