The Battalion
SPORTS
Monday, October 16,1989
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12th Man
moved Ags
to victory
Andre Ware was supposed to
be the Pinball Wizard of Kyle
Field.
And why not?
Ware has lighted up
Clay
Rasmussen
scoreboards all around the South
west.
He has mastered Houston
Coach Jack Pardee’s collegiate
version of the Run-and-Shoot
and has been effective in leading
the Cougars to some of the most
lopsided victories in the nation.
How about some numbers?
The Cougars were averaging
647 yards per game. They had
outscored their opponents 236-
24, with a game average of 59
points.
That’s almost a point every
minute.
All this, and Ware hadn’t
played more than three quarters
in each of Houston’s first four
games.
So everyone around the South
west Conference expected Ware
to continue on, rolling through
the Aggies and racking up record
yardage.
Everyone except Aggie fans at
Kyle Field.
Noise confuses Ware
From Houston’s first posses
sion, the noise of 66,423 fans
threw a wrench in Pardee’s offen
sive show and forced Ware to
walk up and down his offensive
line, screaming out audibles and
trying to use hand signals to
guide his receivers. J3!
More importantly though, is
the fact that the fan noise never
subsided.
Throughout the day, Ware was
hindered by the crowd noise.
Even when Houston made the big
)lays and sustained drives, the
ans were on their feet, scream-
mg.
Ware’s ears probably are still
ringing.
The Cougars refused to use
the huddle and continued trying
to call their plays at the line of
scrimmage.
“If you huddle and use your
time in the huddle, you still have
to call out at the line of scrim
mage and then all your time is go
ne,” Pardee said.
Still, the time Ware spent walk
ing up and down the offensive
line screaming out the plays to his
receivers ate up valuable time.
The Cougars were hit with sev
eral delay of game penalties and a
few illegal motion penalties.
You see, Ware’s receivers just
couldn’t hear the snap count.
Defense gets pumped
It was the Texas A&M defense
that spearheaded the victory for
the Aggies, but it was quick to give
some of the credit to its support
ive fans.
“Once you hear the fans
cheering for you like they did, it
gets the blood flowing in you and
you don’t know what you can do,”
A&M linebacker Anthony Wil
liams said. “You can conquer the
world with that much adrenali-
The Aggie defense, while occa
sionally giving up the big play,
did a tremendous job of snuffing
Houston’s high-powered offense.
They came up with the big de
fensive plays that pumped up
fans.
“We knew the Aggies would
blitz,” Pardee said. “You just have
to burn them one time for a TD
on a blitz and that would have
been the difference in winning
and losing, but we didn’t get it
done.
“We expect the crowd noise.
That’s a pretty good handicap.”
It became a vicious cycle for
the Cougars.
I guess Aaron Wallace
ummed up the unique
relationship the Aggie defense
had with the fans Saturday.
After sacking Ware late in the
fourth quarter, Wallace came up
with Ware’s helmet in his hands.
Like the gladiator enjoying the
poils of victory, Wallace held the
helmet up and saluted the crowd.
Blitzing Ags upset No. 8 UH blitzkrieg
Houston’s Run-and-Shoot runs out of bullets, falls short 17-13
By Alan Lehmann
Of The Battalion Staff
In a classic case of “anything you
can do, I can do better,” Texas A&M
beat the Houston Cougars 17-13 Sat
urday at Kyle Field.
Led by junior quarterback Andre
Ware, Houston came into the con
test favored by nine points. The
Cougars, who had been scoring on a
point-per-minute pace, also had
dominated on defense.
However, the Aggies outplayed
the eighth-ranked Cougars on both
sides of the ball Saturday.
Defensively, they sacked Ware six
times, forced three interceptions
and recovered one fumble.
On offense, the Aggies, not the
explosive UH Run-and-Shoot,
turned in all of the big plays.
Houston moved the ball with
some success, but A&M stiffened
whenever Houston got within scor
ing range. The Cougars penetrated
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the A&M 35-yard line seven times,
but came away with only two touch
downs.
Trailing 17-13 with under five
minutes left to play, the Cougars had
the ball at the A&M 32.
After an incomplete pass on first
down, Weatherspoon rambled
through the left side for seven yards,
but the play was called back on a
penalty.
On second and 15, Ware couldn’t
connect with wide receiver Brian
Williams. On third down, Aaron
Wallace sacked Ware for a nine yard
loss.
Ware’s helmet came off in Wal
lace’s hands, and the crowd of
66,423 went wild.
The punt by Simon Rodriguez
went into the endzone with 3:54 left
in the game, and A&M began to
grind out the clock.
The Cougars lived by the big play
on both sides of the ball this season,
fueling their blowouts with turn
overs to get the ball, and connecting
on long passes to score.
They led the nation in turnover
margin (4.0 per game) and scoring
(59 per game).
The Aggies turned the ball over
six times, twice more than the Cou
gars, but survived their mistakes.
Ahead 14-7 early in the fourth
quarter, the Aggies were backed up
to their own seven yard line. After a
five-yard pickup by fullback Robert
Wilson, quarterback Lance Pavlas
handed to running back Darren Le
wis on a plunge into the line.
Finding the left side of the line re-
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Texas A&M fullback Robert Wilson (20) stiff arms Houston’s
Chris Ellison (39) to break free on his 41-yard touchdown
photo by Jay Janner
run in the second quarter. Wilson finished with 115 yards
rushing in the Aggies’ 17-13 win over the No. 8 Cougars.
gaping
danced back toward the middle, and
received a block from wide receiver
Shane Garrett.
He was gone. Racing down the
right sideline, he lifted his left hand
in triumph at the UH 30-yard line.
However, the gesture was prema
ture and he was caught from behind
by cornerback Mecridric Calloway
four yards short of the endzone.
After three plays netted only one
yard, junior Layne Talbot booted a
21-yard field goal. With 11:13 to
play, A&M led 17-7.
Lewis was suprised that the play
worked so well, he said.
“It was a power play,” Lewis said.
“When I jumped into the hole, it was
wide open. I was just trying to get
the first down and took advantage of
the hole.”
The 84-yard run was the longest
one from scrimmage this year in the
SWC. It also was the longest run of
Lewis’ career.
However, Lewis said he was dissa-
pointed by his failure to score.
“When .1 ran down the side, I
thought I had it and raised my hand,
but it seemed that the goal got far
ther and farther away,” he said. “It’s
very frustrating to run that far and
not get into the endzone.”
But Wilson, who ran 22 times for
115 yards, did find the endzone on a
third-quarter run.
After Derrick Richey intercepted
a Ware pass in the third quarter and
returned it to the A&M 36-yard line,
Pavlas hit Percy Waddle on a 17-
yard pass to the Houston 47.
On first down, Wilson went six
yards off the right tackle. On the
next play, Wilson went up the mid
dle on a draw, and broke three
tackles on his way to a 41-yard
touchdown run.
“Houston has an aggressive front
four,” Wilson said. “We practiced on
the trap all week.
“(The touchdown) was a draw-
trap, and we called it because we
thought they were going to come
hard. The middle was wide open. I
just had to sprint to the endzone.”
Although Pavlas didn’t have stel
lar numbers, the junior played well
enough to win.
Pavlas was 13 of 24 for 163 yards.
He had one touchdown and three
interceptions.
“Basically, we stopped ourselves
with turnovers,” Pavlas said. “I
blame myself for those.
It wasn’t all his fault. The Cougars
put pressure on him most of the af
ternoon.
The UH defense had intimidated
opponents all season, often taking it
See Aggies/Page 13
Pavlas spins magic of his own,
leads Ags to win over Cougars
By Richard Tijerina
Of The Battalion Staff
Call him the Magic Man.
Texas A&M junior quarterback
Lance Pavlas, who had to sit through
listening to week-long hype about
Houston quarterback Andre Ware’s
mystic right arm, put on a little
magic act of his own in Saturday’s
17-13 win over UH.
Pavlas evaded pressure from the
Cougars’ pass rush all afternoon,
and burned UH several times on
long passes. The only thing the Cou
gars found more elusive than catch
ing Pavlas on Saturday was leaving
Kyle Field with a win.
Pavlas completed 13 of 24 passes
for 163 yards and one touchdown.
Ware, considered a Heisman Tro
phy candidate after posting up im
pressive numbers in the Cougars’
first four games, completed 28 of 52
for 247 yards and one touchdown.
Both quarterbacks suffered three in
terceptions.
“The three interceptions were on
bad plays, and my fault,” Pavlas said.
“The coaches just kept telling me to
move on to the next play.
“Fortunately, the turnovers didn’t
come back to haunt us in the end.”
Pavlas’ biggest play came in the
first quarter. A&M faced a third-
and-one situation at its own 14 yard
line. Pavlas sidestepped the Cougar
blitz and eventually ended up in the
endzone with defensive end Craig
Veasey hanging on his legs.
But Pavlas broke free, stutter-
stepped into free space and found a
wide-open Percy Waddle for a 48-
yard pass. It was the longest pass
See Pavlas/Page 13
jmi
y
Oilers shock Bears
im
Magic Man
JayJanner
Lance Pavlas eludes pass rush from UH’s Craig Veasey.
CHICAGO (AP) — Coach
Mike Ditka ripped his Chicago
Bears as a team in disarray Sun
day and said “I don’t know if this
team can win another football
game.”
Ditka’s tirade came after a 33-
28 loss to the Houston Oilers in a
game in which the Bears held a
28-19 lead with less than five min
utes to play despite six turnovers.
Warren Moon directed a 61-
yard drive and scored on a 1-yard
run with 3:38 left, and Allen Pin-
kett ripped off a 60-yard gain to
set up a 12-yard run by Lorenzo
White for the winning touch
down with 1:46 to play.
“We had the game won, we had
it won with six turnovers,” said
Ditka. “None of those turnovers
came after we had the lead.
Therefore, if we had the lead,
how come we can’t hold a nine-
point lead?”
Ditka answered his own ques
tion by saying: “We’re just not
playing aggressive football. We
looked scared out there. It’s frus
trating.”
It was the second straight loss
for the Bears and only the second
time since 1984 that they had lost
two in a row. The other consec
utive losses came in 1987 to San
Francisco and Seattle.
Houston Coach Jerry Glan-
ville, asked if it was his biggest
win, said: “It ranks right up on
top. When you beat a good Chi
cago team and a good Chicago
coach, it’s a big win.”
It all unfolded in the last five
minutes with the Bears leading
without any pressure on Moon.
“I had a lot of time,” said
Moon, who completed 16 of 26
for 317 yards including touch
down passes of 42 yards to Drew
Hill and 45 yards to Haywood
Jeffires to come within 21-19 in
the closing minute of the third
quarter.
Bear quarterback Mike Tomc-
zak, despite three interceptions at
the time (he threw another when
the Bears fell behind in the
fourth quarter), had offset the in
terceptions with three touchdown
passes.
Tomczak, who completed 20 of
29 passes for 247 yards, con
nected with Neal Anderson for 6-
yard scoring pass in the second
quarter, completed a 79-yarder to
Dennis Gentry in the third quar
ter, and appeared to clinch the
game with a 7-yard scoring pass
to James Thornton with 4:55 left
in the game.
“We should have won,” said
Tomczak. “I still have all the con
fidence in the world in this team.
But this is hard to swallow, you
want to hang your head.”
The Oilers had a total of 457
net yards, one reason that Ditka
said: “It’s a little embarrassing
week after week to have the same
things happen and to condone
them. If you don’t put pressure
on the passer, you have to cover.
We didna’t do either. I don’t
know what happened but I’ll find
out and make changes.”
Despite Ditka’s tirade, the Oil
ers considered it a big win against
a great team.
“The Bears never gave up,”
said Pinkett. “But the important
thing for us is we never gave up
either.
We came together. It showed
on the last drive.”