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Turnovers Pave the Way for an Aggies Victory
College Station, Texas-The Aggies played the home opener against a tough and gritty but out matched UCLA Bruins squad. In the rain soaked Kyle Field it was clear that the Aggies had more talent, but Coach Alief tried to get the most out of the guys he inherited. On the opening drive of the game the Bruins began to march down the field behind ball control passes from QB Prince. UCLA had gotten to just past midfield when Prince made his first mistake of the day throwing an out pass behind his intended receiver that turned into six points for A&M as Junior OLB Garrick Williams took the pass 57 yards for the touchdown.
Williams Pick Six
The Bruins would respond nicely and move right down into the redzone before Prince's second pick of the day would kill the drive, this time it was picked off by highly touted Freshman FS Ryan Williams. The Aggies would be on offense for the first time and would try to make the most of their possession. The Aggies were able to march to the outside of the redzone but some good tough defense by the Bruins would force A&M to a field goal try. Groza Award favorite Bullock came through with a 39 yard field goal giving the Aggies a 10-0 lead. The Bruins offense went back to work and again got to the doorstep of the endzone. This time they would make the most of their trip on a touchdown pass from Prince to Franklin from the 8 yard line. The Bruins were right back in it at 10-7. The Aggies knew they would need to put together a great drive to build a little cushion into their lead and did just that. Faced with a third-and-two at the Bruins 47 yard line the whole stadium was ready for Bruising B Back Russell to get the carry. Instead with man coverage on the outside Tannehill found Gray on a little out route with no one in front of him. Gray caught the ball just in front of the marker and ran past the defense for the touchdown and 17-7 lead.
Gray Gets Past the Defense
UCLA would get the ball and look to respond, but Prince made yet another mistake throwing an interception to A&M. A&M would look to capitalize once again, but this time Tannehill would do it with his legs. On a Midline play Tannehill kept the ball and rushed it up the middle. He bounced off a couple of would-be tacklers and made his way in for an Aggies TD giving them what seemed like a comfortable 24-7 lead.
Tannehill Goes in from the 27
UCLA knew they were in trouble and would need to come up with some points on their next drive. Prince took command of his offense and this time would not be denied a Bruin touchdown. Prince drove his team down the field with some good accurate passing and set them up inside the 10 yard line. A nice pass to Embree capped the drive with 21 seconds to go in the half making it 24-14. After a decent kick return Coach Bear Bryant made his biggest mistake of the season. With under 20 seconds to go Coach got greedy and tried to get his team down the field to kick a field goal. On the first play of the drive Tannehill threw a pass right to a UCLA defender giving them great field position for at least a field goal. UCLA inside the redzone but with time dwindling down they were forced to kick a field goal that Forbath put through to cut the lead to 7 points. This made the halftime score a much closer than the Aggies would have liked 24-17. The second half would be a different story for both teams. A touchdown on the first drive of the half put the Aggies back up by 14 points, then another interception by Prince would give the ball back to the Aggies. A&M would march down the field and Russell would take it in from the 4 to really put the Bruins in a big hole down 38-17.
Russell Trucks his Way in
For the rest of the game the Aggies defense would hold the Bruins out of the endzone and the Aggies would add another touchdown and field goal in the fourth quarter to salt the game away. The final would end up being 48-17 which is not very indicative of how well the Bruins played. On offense Prince had a great game despite the costly interceptions, he threw for 350 yards and 2 TDs on the game. The big stat of the game was rushing yards; as A&M out gained UCLA 222-2 on the ground. UCLA only had 9 rush attempts for 11 yards but Prince was sacked twice moving the total down to 2 yards. All in all it was a hard fought game that without the turnovers would have been a completely different story. Good game and good luck to Coach Alief and his Bruins the rest of the way. As he would say himself the "Winning Starts Now" and I know it will start soon for him.
Texas A&M Stats
Tannehill: 6-7, 95 Yds, 1 TD, 12 Atts, 69 Yds, 2 TDs
Russell: 19 Atts, 102 Yds, 2 TDs
Hunter: 7 tacks, 1 INT
R. Williams: 5 tacks, 1 INT
G. Williams: 3 tacks, 1 INT, 1 TD
Ryan Williams with the Pick
