Sports
The Battalion
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1988
Page 7
Smith helped wreck Coogs
Player of the Week
Brent Smith
By Jerry Bolz
Sports Writer
The Texas Aggie defense turned loose with a new
look Saturday and wrecked Houston’s early undefeated
season. Brent Smith was a part of that look the Cou
gars would have rather not seen.
The Aggies used six defensive backs the entire game
to combat Houston’s “run and shoot," passing offense.
Smith, a 6-2, 200 pound senior defensive back playing
at linebacker had seven tackles. Three were quar
terback sacks.
“They didn’t show us anything we hadn’t worked
on,” he said. “Every one of us out there knows how the
others play, and we just bonded together.”
Defensive coordinator R.C. Slocum said the plan of
the game was for the Aggies to adjust as Houston
picked-up on their defensive scheme. When Houston
came out in the first quarter and gained 142 yards pass
ing and took a 6-0 lead, adjustments were necessary.
The adjustments came on the sideline, where Slo-
|cum was drawing up new defenses during the game.
Smith, who blitzed most of the game, said they
changed defenses every time they came off the field.
Slocum said the defense reached the point in the sec
ond quarter where they started picking up on what
Houston was doing offensively. The Aggies held
Houston to 92 total yards in the quarter, including 3
yards nishinp.
In the second half the A&M offense began to do its
part which allowed the defense to play like the “W-
recking Crew II” likes to. Head Coach Jackie Sherrill
said the offense helped the defense a lot.
“When we’re moving the ball and scoring, our de
fense can play recklessly, blitzing and stunting,” he
said. “We took their biggest play (the screen) com
pletely away.”
In the third quarter, Smith used his positioning off of
right end to blitz and catch Cougar quarterback Darren
Dacus off guard twice for -14 yards. Smith’s sacks,
plus two from linebacker John Roper, played the big
gest part in holding the Cougar offense to a minus-16
yards in the quarter.
Smith opened the fourth quarter with a Dacus sack
on the first play, which forced Houston to punt. He
said the coaches did a great job getting the defense re
ady for Houston.
“We worked on the blitz all week and were really
prepared for this game,” he said. “The key was to play
together. Coach Sherrill talked about togetherness and
it brought us together this week.”
It was that togetherness that kept A&M playing hard
even when being behind 9-7 at halftime. Houston had
several long passes that caught the Aggies off guard
but the defense didn’t let the Cougars into the end zone
until late in the fourth quarter.
The Aggie defense kept Houston from getting a first
down from about the 5:00 mark of the second qurter to
about the 7:00 point of the final period, including the
entire third quarter.
At times during the game, A&M had no true de
fensive linemen in the game, like when the 225-pound
Roper played nose guard, one of the schemes drawn up
on the sideline by Slocum. Roper had no idea he would
play the position.
“We just put the play in during the game and I didn’t
do bad for a little guy,” he said. “I always kid around
in practice and say I would do it, and they took me up
on it.”
Houston ended the game with 358 total yards, 125
less than their average. A&M held the Cougars to 50
yards rushing, a feat for a team using six defensive
backs. Smith, who played linebacker as a freshman,
had a lot to do with shutting down Houston’s running
game.
“I had some fans out there and I wanted to impress
them and win the game,” he said. “As long as I con
tribute and we win, it doesn’t matter where I play.”
Tyson’s marital woes are getting old
Mike Tyson and his marital trauma.
For the past half year, or ever since the marital knot
was tied, the public have been cosy chums watching
the mercurial marriage of the undisputed heavyweight
champion of the world and his television queen Robin
Givens.
For almost five months the Tyson-Givens pairing
have made headlines with their fights, accidents, court
battles and globe hopping. They are the Sean and Ma
donna of the sports world.
Rarely have I seen a marriage and its problems re
ported with such relish in the sports pages.
Everytime I read the sports section in hopes of see
ing coverage of the Aggie football team or who won
! what medal in Seoul, I have been greeted with all the
[ gory details of what must seem a marriage made in
i hell.
Practically everyday news of some kind about Tyson
or Givens has stared me in the face. The turning point,
or perhaps the peak of the trauma, was the past week’s
announcement of divorce proceedings to end all the
I warring.
While it is not my goal to bore into or exploit the un-
1 fortunate failure of Tyson’s marriage, I feel it does de
serve some comment on why these people have eaten
| up so much newspaper print.
What is the fascination with this marriage?
Needless to say, Tyson has called a lot of attention
1 to himself outside the ring rather than inside the ring
Cray
Pixley
Assistant Sports Editor
recently. He has had car crashes, street brawls, home
squabbles and medical exams to evaluate his mental
stability.
And all this has been pranced across the televison
screen by Barbara Walters with Givens as the ringmas
ter. After all, Givens must be the source of all Tyson’s
problems —right?
That is what everyone would like to believe. It is
convenient to point a finger at his wife.
Tyson is playing the part of the misunderstood
champ who loves his wife and Givens is portraying a
gold-digging actress who snared her million-dollar
man without the restrictions of a pre-marital contract.
But Givens would appear to be a loving wife who
wisely values her life and decided to exit the marriage
with her health.
Nice and tidy.
Which is the true portrait? The press want to know.
The press want us to know.
The Tysons want the press coverage.
Perhaps a large part of Tyson’s supposed mental
problems are really about his frustration with his voca
tion. I mean, the man is a powerhouse who seemingly
can’t be beaten.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone to hold a candle to
him. For the 35-0 Tyson, there is perhaps no one left to
fight. This could be a bit daunting to a man trying to
match Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0.
You can’t break a record if there is no one willing to
take the ring with you. Who would after the way Tyson
dispatched his last foe, Michael Spinks?
Well there was a willing victim but, wouldn’t you
know it, Tyson’s marriage problem reared its ugly
head.
Great Britain’s Frank Bruno was to have fought Ty
son in October, but Tyson, in what the press say was a
fit of depression, crashed his wife’s car into a tree and
bashed his head.
The bout was postponed and Tyson won’t be near
the ring for awhile.
But if we can’t have Tyson beating up Bruno, there
are those who seem interested in him beating up his
wife.
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Belcher, Gibson
lift LA to 3-2 lead
NEW YORK (AP) — Rookie Tim
Belcher won his second game of the
playoffs and Kirk Gibson hit his sec
ond straight game-winning homer as
Los Angeles beat the New York Mets
7-4 in Game 5 on Monday to move
within one game of their first Na
tional League pennant since 1981.
The teams now fly to Los Angeles,
where the Dodgers can wrap up the
best-of-seven series Tuesday when
former Met Tim Leary opposes David
Cone, the losing pitcher in Game 2.
During the regular season, the
Mets won 10 of 11 games from the
Dodgers and won 56 games at home,
including their last 11 at Shea Sta
dium. But the Dodgers came into
New York to win two of three and
take a 3-2 lead.
The Dodgers won Game 4 in 12 in
nings on Gibson’s homer shortly be
fore 1 a.m. EDT. A little less than 12
hours later, the two teams were back
on the field for the fifth game with the
series tied at two games apiece.
The Mets and Dwight Gooden
were three outs away from taking a 3-
I lead in the series when Mike Scios-
cia tied the score with a two-run
homer.
Gibson, who ended a l-for-16
slump with his game-winning homer
in Game 4, hit a three-run shot in the
fifth inning for his second homer in a
little over 12 hours.
With two outs in the ninth, Gibson
beat out an infield hit, then appeared
to reinjure his left hamstring stealing
second and left the game. Jose Gon
zalez ran for Gibson and scored the
Dodgers’ seventh run when Mike
Marshall tripled to right-center.
In all five games, the Dodgers have
scored first, this time breaking
through for three runs off loser Sid
Fernandez in the fourth inning on 39-
year-old Rick Dempsey’s two-run
double and an RBI double by Alfredo
Griffin.
Belcher, who won Game 2, set
down nine straight before Len Dyks-
tra led off with a walk in the fourth
and Gregg Jefferies singled.
Belcher, who won nine of his last
II decisions, allowed seven hits and
struck out six as he became the first
rookie to win two games in the play
offs since the format was adopted in
1969.
In Game 2, Belcher allowed five
hits in 8 1-3 innings as the Dodgers
beat the Mets 6-3.
Marshall led off the fourth with a
single and, after a walk to John
Shelby, Dempsey doubled down the
left-field line on a high fastball.
Dempsey was signed as a non-ros
ter player last spring by the Dodgers
after hitting .177 for Cleveland in
1987. He missed the last half of 1987
after suffering a broken thumb in a
collision at home plate with Kansas
City’s Bo Jackson.
As a catcher for Baltimore in 1983,
Dempsey was the World Series MVP
and is 20-for-61 in 21 postseason
games.
Griffin, a .167 batter hitting right-
handed, followed Dempsey’s hit with
a double to left-center field.
Steve Sax led off the fifth with a
single and moved to third on Mickey
Hatcher’s hit-and-run single to right
field. Gibson, who led the Dodgers
with 25 home runs, then hit a drive
into the right-field seats to chase Fer
nandez.
Fernandez, who won his last six
games to finish 12-10, allowed seven
hits and six runs in five-plus innings.
During the season, he was 8-4 at
home with a 1.83 eamed-run aver
age.
Fernandez was given a start in the
playoffs because of an injury to Bob
Ojeda, whose left middle finger was
almost severed in a gardening acci
dent 10 days before the end of the
season.
The Mets got back in the game in
the fifth when Howard Johnson led
off with a single to snap an 0-for-14
streak in this series and 0-for-22 over
all in postseason competition. The
slump tied pitcher George
Eamshaw’s mark for postseason futil
ity.
Wally Backman followed with an
infield single and, one out later,
Dykstra homered into the right-field
bullpen.
New York chased Belcher in the
eighth. Dykstra led off with a double
and scored on Jefferies’ single, his
seventh hit in 19 at-bats in the series.
Left-hander Ricky Horton relieved
Belcher and struck out Keith Hernan
dez, then yielded a single to Darryl
Strawberry. Right-hander Brian Hql-
ton then retired Kevin McReynolds
and Gary Carter for the save.
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