Monday, September 5, 1988/The Battalion/Page 13
31
Sports
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j A&M’s Larry Horton fights for yardage during Saturday’s game against LSU.
Photo by Dean Saito
Tigers swamp Aggies for 27-0 win
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By Hal L. Hammons
Sports Editor
BATON ROUGE, La. — Call it
weather, call it fans, call it injuries,
call it what you will. What it was was
a thrashing.
A hostile crowd of 79,018
screamed with delight as it saw the
llth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies
methodically destroyed 27-0 by the
No. 17 Louisiana State Tigers.
The Aggies were beaten, pure
and simple. Beaten in the trenches.
Beaten in the backfield. Beaten in
the secondary. Beaten in their own
minds. Beaten up.
The tone of the game was set im
mediately, as LSU stopped the Ag
gies on three plays to start the game.
Tom Fabacher blocked the punt by
Sean Wilson that followed, the Ti
gers got the ball at midfield, and
they were stopped short of the end
l Lone otvVv by a fall by quarterback
| Tom Hodson on second and five.
David Browndyke kicked a 37-
yard field goal, and the rout was on.
Bucky Richardson, the starting
quarterback for A&M, stayed in for
only two drives that added up to six
plays. By that time it was 6-0.
Lance Pavlas came in for the first
time this season, and he, like Rich
ardson last week, threw an intercep
tion on his first pass.
Pavlas’ toss was blocked at the line
of scrimmage by linebacker Ron
Sancho and taken in for a touch
down.
It seemed A&M might be recov
ering on the next posession. The Ag
gies started with excellent field posi
tion after a 15-yard offensive
interference penalty was marked off
against LSU. The penalty occurred
on the failed two-point attempt after
the touchdown.
Pavlas moved the team to the LSU
33 but threw another interception
when he was flushed out of the
pocket and tried to force a pass
down the sideline.
The team never seriously threat
ened to win the game after that.
The only other Aggie drive of
note was conducted early in the
fourth quarter by Chris Osgood,
who played the entire second half.
Trailing 20-0 by this time, the Ag
gies drove from their own 36 to the
two yardline. But three attempts
ended in a pass to Wally Hartley in
the end zone that bounced off the
crossbar incomplete.
And if that wasn’t psychologically
destructive enough, the Tigers took
the ball 98 yards to punch it in them
selves.
The raucous Tiger crowd was a
big part of the game, particularly on
the goal-line stand.
Osgood said, “When we got down
near the end zone I couldn’t even
hear myself, but the referee told me
to run the play.”
A&M Head Coach Jackie Sherrill
See Aggies, page 15
Ags functioned as a team
in embarrassing setback
Hal L.
Hammons
BATON ROUGE, La. —
Somebody asked Adam Bob
after the game what went
wrong, and his answer says it
all: “I don’t know, it was just
a team effort.”
Generally that’s a
statement that comes from
someone on the winning
side who’s trying to be
humble about his part in the
victory. Here it’s just a
simple statement of fact. —
What went wrong for the
Aggies? Let’s look at a
partial list:
Rushing offense. Passing
offense. Rushing defense. Passing defense.
Offensive line of scrimmage. Time of posession.
Turnovers. First downs. Third downs.
And if that isn’t enough, you can factor in the
intangibles. Things like inexperience, injuries,
weather and the home-field advantage.
But don’t get the impression that Texas A&M lost
to Louisiana State because of the second group. The
bottom line is, the Aggies got waxed by a team that,
under any conditions and circumstances, would have
beaten them. Easily.
In the three years since the Jackie Sherrill
Renaissance at A&M the Aggies have made it a habit
to lose games from time to time. But in each of the
losses, including the Kickoff Classic Aug. 27, it is
easy to see the Aggies coming out as the victors. All
they would have nad to do is play the way they were
capable. The only possible exception I can think of
would be Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl two years
ago. And that loss could almost be single-handedly
attributed to Kevin Murray’s inept performance.
This game was different. And Aggies everywhere
might just as well admit it.
The thing that makes it so scary is that LSU didn’t
particularly play well. The Tigers could have, and
arguably should have, won by 35 or 40.
How many times are you going to see Tom
Hodson go 7-for-21 in a game this year? Not many,
I’ll assure you.
How about the first Tiger drive — the one that
ended in the first Tigers points? Only a fluke fall by
Hodson on a rollout killed the drive. There’s
absolutely no reason to think LSU wouldn’t have
driven into the end zone just as easily as they had
driven the rest of the field.
What is going to happen when this team gets its
act in gear?
Photo by Dean Saito
Ron Sancho runs through Lance Pavlas to return an
interception for LSU’s first touchdown.
Remember how all the Aggies said the last two
years that they would have creamed LSU if they had
played the Tigers at the end of the season? Well, if
these two teams met at the end of 1988 it might be
60-0 LSU.
All the credit the past two years has gone to
Harvey Williams — “The Aggie Killer.” Well, if you
will recall, Williams didn’t play Saturday. Rather, it
was the Tiger second- and third-string tailbacks who
both outrushed the entire A&M team in the first
See Hammons, page 15
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47
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