Monday, November 17,1986AThe Battalion/Page 9
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onservative offense leads to Aggies’ downfall
Hogs' Cotton hopes still alive
as Arkansas prevails 14-10
By Ken Sury
Sports Editor
■ The game could have been called
“The Battle of Pork Chop Hill.” But
for seventh-ranked Texas A&M, it
^bs more like Napoleon’s Waterloo.
■ No. 17 Arkansas used its stubborn
defense and powerful rushing of
fers- to gain a
l4-10 victory Analysis
aiid keep
■)tton Bowl hopes alive. A&M,
which holds a half-game lead in the
Buthwest Conference race, can
Bnch a tie for the title by defeating
Texas Christian this Saturday.
■ Had A&M won, it would have vir
tually assured itself of a trip to the
J Conon Bowl. But quarterback Kevin
h HHurray and the offense that estab
lished itself as a “team of destiny”
with incredible comebacks over Bay
lor and SMU couldn’t find the magic
M in Little Rock’s War Memorial Sta-
'Twn! din in.
■“I felt like we had them right
where we wanted them,” Murray
Hd.
■•■■■For a while, it appeared A&M,
now 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the con-
feience, had just about everything
■ing its way. Minnesota had
■nned No. 2 Michigan 20-17,
Notre Dame was ahead of Penn
Hte (an Irish win supposedly would
have brought No. 1 Miami to the
Htton Bowl), and A&M had a first
Hwn at the Arkansas 14-yard line
wii i one minute left in the game.
H\fter a two-yard run by fullback
Roger Vick and a pass break-up by
Aijkansas’ Erik Whitted, A&M faced
a third-and-8. Wide receiver Shea
Hiker was two yards into the end
zone and wide open as he worked to
n'd the middle, but Murray threw
tha ball high and behind Walker.
■Then on the Aggies’ last despera-
tion attempt with 38 seconds left,
Murray was flushed out of the
Hket and tried to hit Vick in the
Hu front corner of the end zone.
He pass went high, was tipped by
\
J
Arkansas’ Odis Lloyd, and Vick got a
hand on it.
But he couldn’t hold on and the
football sailed to and then off tight
end Rod Bernstine’s fingertips. Even
if Bernstine had been able to catch
the ball, his momentum and the Ra-
zorback defenders were moving him
out of bounds.
“I should have caught the ball,”
Vick said. “It was a nice throw. The
defensive back jumped in front of
me, but anything that hits your
hands you should catch.”
But it was only on the Aggies’ final
drive that A&M’s offense looked
anything like that high-powered ma
chine spectators saw in previous
games.
A&M offensive coordinator Lynn
Amedee said before the season be
gan that the Aggies would have a
pass-first offense. But A&M didn’t
display that philosophy throughout
the first three quarters. The Aggies
looked more like the Razorbacks’
run-oriented flex-bone offense.
And that worked for A&M after
Arkansas scored the first touchdown
of the game on strong running and a
good mixture of pass plays. The Ag
gies promptly returned the favor on
an II-play, 80-yard touchdown
drive that elapsed seven minutes and
five seconds off the clock.
Keith Woodside caught a 7-yard
Murray strike for the score. Wood-
side caught all five passes on the
drive, en route to his 12-catch per
formance, one shy of the A&M sin
gle-game record held by Ken Mc
Lean and Barney Harris.
But A&M was too conservative af
ter that. On its last drive of the first
half, A&M condnously sent Vick,
who had 28 carries for 117 yards,
into the Arkansas line instead of try
ing a deep pass play.
A&M, with time running out in
the half, had to settle for a Scott
Slater 48-yard field-goal attempt,
which was moved back five y^rds
due to an illegal procedure call. But
Slater, who was looking to make his
A&M defenders Sammy O’Brient (90) and Johnny Holland
(11) stop Arkansas’ Sammy Van Dyke for no gain on the sec-
Photo by Dean Saito
ond play of the seventh-ranked Aggies’ 14-10 loss to the Ra
zorbacks Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
13th consecutive field goal, missed.
After the game, Amedee was
asked about A&M’s conservative ap
proach.
“We tried to keep the ball under
neath as much as we could,” Amedee
said. “I think we felt field goal (on
the last first-half drive) because of
the (lack of) timeouts. That’s some
thing we don’t usually do.”
Coach Jackie Sherrill said Arkan
sas kept A&M from throwing deep.
“They were dropping eight and nine
people off the line of scrimmage,”
Sherrill said. “We had plenty of
chances, but we didn’t catch the ball
at critical times.”
The most critical catch of the
game was a questionable intercep
tion by Razorback Nathaniel White
on a third-and-5 play in the third pe
riod. Murray was throwing a quick
pass to Bernstine, but the ball
slipped out of his hand and White
dove for the ball. Television replays
were inconclusive, but Murray said
he felt there wasn’t any question.
“Clearly to me, it hit the ground,”
the junior quarterback said. The in
terception ended a streak of 159
passes without a theft for Murray,
who completed 21 of 35 passes for
180 yards on the game. Murray also
became fourth on the SWC’s all-time
pass completion list with 489 and he
now has 6,000 career passing yards
for fifth on the list.
“I feel like the best team didn’t
win,” he said.
But the team that played better
for the whole game did. Arkansas
used its flex-bone well, keeping the
See Aggies, page 11
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