Aggies Fall to No. 2 OU, 42-35

Saturday, November 6

College Station

3:30 PM

Texas A&M

6-3 , 4-2

(#2) Oklahoma

9-0 , 6-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Oklahoma

Texas A&M

Nov 06, 2004 | Football

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

November 06, 2004

Jason White threw five touchdown passes, including the decisive one with 6:43 left, as No. 2 Oklahoma overcame Texas A&M's explosive offense and special teams trickery for a 42-35 victory Saturday.

Oklahoma handed Texas A&M a loss for the ages last season -- 77-0, the worst in the 108-year history of Aggies football. But the rematch was a battle from start to finish for the Sooners (9-0, 6-0 Big 12).

White, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, was 19-of-35 for 292 yards, taking control of the offense as the 22nd-ranked Aggies swarmed to star freshman running back Adrian Peterson.

Peterson still managed to run for 101 yards and a touchdown on a tough 29 carries, his ninth straight 100-yard game. He went to the locker room on Oklahoma's go-ahead drive with an apparent arm injury, but returned to help the Sooners run the clock down on their last possession.

The Aggies (6-3, 4-2) finished the game without their best offensive weapon. Reggie McNeal left with an apparent injury in the third quarter after throwing for 213 yards and two touchdowns and running for a score.

With the Aggies trailing 35-28, McNeal was relieved by Ty Branyon. The former walk-on led Texas A&M on a long drive with five completions, but the march stalled at the Sooners 6.

Already having used a faked punt to score a touchdown, Aggies coach Dennis Franchione pulled another fast one on the Sooners. A&M set up for a field goal, but holder Chad Schroeder took the snap, rolled left and flipped a TD pass to Joey Thomas to tie the game.

White, Peterson and the Sooners went right to work getting the lead back. Peterson converted a third down with a tackle-breaking 8-yard run and the Sooners were aided by a pass interference call.

On third-and-10 at the Aggies 39, White stepped up and away from pressure to deliver a strike down the middle to Mark Bradley, who slipped a tackle at the 15 and went in for a 42-35 lead.

A&M and its little-used quarterback got one more shot with just over a minute left and the ball at their 13.

Branyon scrambled and passed the Aggies to the Sooners 33 with 9 seconds left and no timeouts. His first Hail Mary went out of the end zone, and his final heave was tipped and fell just out of the reach of Schroeder in the end zone.

Texas A&M Postgame Notes

AUSTIN TRIO TEAM UP TO KNOT SCORE AT 35-ALL - Coming off the bench in relief of injured starting quarterback Reggie McNeal, former walkon Ty Branyon (Austin, Texas / Bowie HS) connected on 5-of-5 passes for 41 yards as the Aggies went on a 12-play, 80-yard scoring march to knot the score at 35-35. The drive culminated with a 4-yard touchdown pass from sophomore WR/holder Chad Schroeder to former high school teammate Joey Thomas on a fake field goal. Schroeder, who played QB in high school, and Thomas both went to Austin Westlake High School.

MCNEAL EXITS - Quarterback Reggie McNeal exited late in the third quarter with an unspecified injury, and did not return. He finished the game with 213 yards and two touchdowns on 11-of-24 passing. In the A&M record book, McNeal passed Gary Kubiak (4,078) and Randy McCown (4,187) and moved into sixth place on the career passing list with 4,287 yards.

FOUR DRIVES, FOUR TOUCHDOWNS - The Aggies scored touchdowns on their first four drives of the game for the first time this season. Coming into the game, A&M had scored on its first two possessions once (vs. Iowa State) and on its first three possessions twice (vs. ISU and Oklahoma State). A&M's first punt came at the 2:40 mark of the second quarter.

LONG PLAYS, UNLIKELY SOURCES - The Aggies received a pair of first-half big plays from unlikely sources - punter Jacob Young and backup wideout Chad Schroeder. Young, who had never thrown a pass at any level of football prior to 2004, connected on a 71-yard touchdown pass play to Earvin Taylor on a fake punt. It was Young's second successful fake punt this season. On those two passes, Young is averaging 61.0 yards with a touchdown. Schroeder tallied his second catch of the season when he reeled in a 45-yard touchdown catch from Reggie McNeal. It was Schroeder's third career TD and all three have been 40-yards plus in length (42, 49, 45).

TURNOVERS ARE KILLERS - The Aggies came into the game with a national-low four turnovers, and continued their error-free play through the first two quarters. The third quarter was a different story as the Aggies gave up the ball three times in the first 8:50 - two via fumble and another by interception. OU converted the three turnovers into 14 points as they took their first lead of the game. A&M had just one turnover through the first seven games, but have had a total of six in the last two games, both losses.

MISCELLANEOUS - A&M drew its largest crowd of the season with 81,125 in attendance (82,600 capacity) for today's game. ... The Aggies converted its first five third-down situations of the game ... Game captains for the Aggies were: Keith Joseph, Mike Montgomery, Terrence Murphy, and Byron Jones. The 12th Man Kickoff Team representative was John Ray, a sophomore from Giddings, Texas.

OFFENSIVE NOTES - A&M compiled 489 yards of total offense, the most surrendered by the Sooner defense since Kansas State gained 519 in the 2003 Big 12 Championship game. A&M's 360 passing yards were a season-high and were the sixth most in school history. It was the second most against OU this season behind Texas Tech's 369. The Aggies scored 35 points, tying Oklahoma State for the most scored against the Sooners this season.

BIG PLAY TAYLOR - Sophomore receiver Earvin Taylor had three receptions, tying his career high (3 vs. Kansas in 2003), for a career-best 103 yards. His previous best was 61 yards against Kansas in 2003.

BRANYON SHINES OFF BENCH - After Reggie McNeal left the game in the second half, sophomore quarterback Ty Branyon came on and completed 7-of-12 passes, both career highs, for a career-best 72 yards. He led the Aggies on a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive that knotted the game, 35-35, in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma Postgame Notes

The win improved Oklahoma's series record against Texas A&M to 13-10 and 2-5 in College Station. The Sooners have won five of the last six meetings.
OU is now 60-12 when carrying the No. 2 ranking.
Oklahoma has forced at least one turnover in 67 of the last 75 games (spanning Stoops' tenure) and has at least one interception in 49 of the last 63 contests.
OU's defense forced A&M into turnovers on consecutive plays in the third quarter with senior safety Donte Nicholson's interception and junior cornerback Chijioke Onyenegecha's forced fumble on the Aggies' next series. Texas A&M entered today's game with only four turnovers on the season.
The Sooners gave up 28 points through the first 21:12, but then went another 28:40 before giving up another score.

INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS

Senior safety Donte Nicholson picked off Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal in the third quarter accounting for only McNeal's second interception of the season. It also accounted for Nicholson's first interception of the season.
With six sacks in the last five games, senior defensive end Dan Cody moved into a tie for third place on both the career sacks and career sacks by a defensive lineman list. His 23 career sacks matches former Sooner Troy Johnson's total from 1984-87. His eight sacks this year continues to lead the team.
With a pair of scores in today's game, senior wide receiver Mark Bradley has pulled down six touchdowns in the last three games. The total accounts for all of his receiving scores on the season (Bradley also has one rushing touchdown this year).
With a 31-yard touchdown grab in the first quarter, junior wide receiver Travis Wilson has scored four touchdowns over the last four games. Wilson has caught at least one pass in 13 of the last 14 games.
Wilson tied his single-game high with five catches in the game which he has set two other times.
Senior tight end James Moses hauled in a career-long 40-yard reception in the second quarter. He later scored his second career touchdown on a two-yard pass from White to give OU its first lead of the game. Moses' 45 yards single-game total is a career best, while his three receptions also tied his single-game best.
Redshirt-freshman tight end Joe Jon Finley recorded his first career touchdown reception on a 24-yard pass from senior quarterback Jason White towards the end of the second quarter. It was only Finley's third catch of his young career and also stood as his longest. He also became the eighth different Sooner this season to record a touchdown pass.

SENIOR QUARTERBACK JASON WHITE

His five touchdown passes ties the single-game school record which he has already accomplished two other times in his career. The record is also shared by former Sooner Josh Heupel (1999-2000) who tied the record twice in his career.
Moved past former Sooner and current assistant coach Cale Gundy (1990-93) into the No. 2 spot on the Sooners' all-time passing yardage list with 6,847.
Eclipsed the 200-yard mark for the fourth-straight game and the seventh time this season.
He also passed for three-plus touchdowns for the fourth-straight game and sixth time this year.
Passed for four of more touchdowns for the third time in the last four contests and the seventh time in his career.
His record as a starter improved to 24-3 and ranks fourth on OU's all-time list.

FRESHMAN RUNNING BACK ADRIAN PETERSON

With 101 yards on 29 carries, Peterson eclipses the century mark for the ninth time in his career breaking the NCAA freshman record for consecutive 100-yard games by a freshman. He was previously tied with New Mexico State's Po James who accomplished the feat in 1968. He trails the all-time mark by a freshman by one game.
Moved up three spots on OU's single-season yardage list into seventh place with 1,373 yards.
He became the fourth Sooner to rush for 100 or more yards for nine times in a season. The others who accomplished the feat were Billy Sims (1979), Joe Washington (1973) and Steve Owens (1969). He also stands in 10th place on the career list for 100-plus yard games.
Rushed for a touchdown for the third-straight game.

SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER MARK CLAYTON

His 102-yard performance put him over the 3,000 mark for his career and also helped him eclipse the 100-yard mark in the game for the 14th time in his career. His career total now stands at 3,018 which continues to stand as an OU record.
Clayton also accomplished another feat as he picked up his 200th career reception in the game. His career total now stands at 201 which also continues to stand as an OU record.

Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

THE QUESTION: Jacob, talk a little bit -- the punt pass -- fake punt pass did that go exactly the way y'all had talked about it. Ppracticed it? Talk about the play.

JACOB YOUNG: We read each time each week. If we see something we can expose we try to take advantage of it. To answer your question yes it worked like we hoped that it would.

THE QUESTION: Sort of fumble the ball a little bit on purpose when you caught it?

JACOB YOUNG: Not on purpose, no. Whenever I caught it I was supposed to take my normal two steps to make it look like a punt make sure everybody stayed in. But, no, I wasn't supposed to fumble that I guess.

THE QUESTION: Archie seemed like you hit Peterson head on several times. Talk about the job the defense.

ARCHIE MCDANIEL: I mean defensively I mean it's obvious it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but you looking at -- you know we got two or three games left in the season. It seemed like we did an okay job. We can always do better. As far as how we did against Peterson, I want to say we did okay.

THE QUESTION: Terrence, talk about the turn around you made. Compared to last year and taking these guys to the wire here at home?

TERRENCE MURPHY: We came up a few place short. Justlike the Colorado game we made one more play, but just came a play short.

THE QUESTION: Terrence on the kick off return did you lose that one in the sun or did you ever see it?

TERRENCE MURPHY: Lost it in the sun for a second.The wedge man - call him off if he can catch it or not I didn't know if he were going to get it or not. It took a bad hop on me.

THE QUESTION: How close were you on the finalplay?

CHAD SCHROEDER: Didn't gate hand on it but it was close.

THE QUESTION: Fake field goal -- do you throw a lot of balls to Joey Thomas?

CHAD SCHROEDER: He's my read on that coming from the other side and I've thrown a lot of balls in high school to himso -- made it fun to go out there and throw another one.

Q-Reggie can, you just kind of explain -- what happened and when in that sequence of plays that you got injured?

REGGIE MCNEAL: We're not able to talk about injuries so I mean if you want to know that you have to get withcoach Fran and ask him about it and see what he tell you.

THE QUESTION: Talk about the first half. Clicking. Every position seemed you were able to hook a big play and hook the end zone.

REGGIE MCNEAL: Well, I mean, that's one point of playing football. Got to make plays. Anygiven time anybody can step up make a play. So everybody wasjust on the same page and everybody executing and we was able togo down and score.

THE QUESTION: Reggie can you talk about turnovers and the role they played in the second half?

REGGIE MCNEAL: Turnovers killed us. I mean any time you play a team like Oklahoma you can't have turnovers. I mean you can't them the field position. I mean,like I say, they made one more play than we did and we just got to limit our mistakes.

THE QUESTION: Can you talk about the being the backup quarterback and being ready when your number is called?

TY BRANYON: You have to be ready at all times and -- and I do my best to keep ready through a good week of practice and coaches get me ready. You just -- you waiting for your number to be called like you said and when it is you got to produce.

COACH FRANCHIONE: I was really proud of our guys.They fought very hard. You know you can't turn the ball over and leave it on -- the 10 and 11 and have a chance to beat the No. 1 or 2 ranked team in the nation very many times. But still got it down to the last play of the game. Our guys made a lot of good plays and we just -- you know we played three straight games one play could have made a difference. Not saying necessarily the last play but one play in the game and fortunately we've had one of them and come up on the short end a couple of times. That's a great football team we played. They are a great offensive football team and we held them to 433 and we made the tailback carry almost 30 times to get a hundred, and held them three and a half yards a carry. They've got a lot of weapons. Our guys did very well throughout the game and we just needed to score a little bit more.

THE QUESTION: Fran, can you talk about the bounce back act this team has shown going back all the way to last year and then last week ... to take them to the last play here at home?

COACH FRANCHIONE: It's a great credit to the guys.You know, they had a great week of practice and they put last week's game behind them and they did that at Utah. It's great credit to the coaches, the resilience and resolve the players have come back and played with. You know when you play as many redshirt freshman as we do or young guys, they're learning how to do that and the older guys are leading them in a nice direction with that so I'm pleased with that.