TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT Aggies survive opener with 38-24 victory By Rusty Burson

COLLEGE STATION – Purely from a numerical standpoint, Texas A&M’s season-opening 38-24 win Saturday night at Kyle Field represents the greatest Aggie comeback in 15 years, dating back to the glorious 1986 Baylor game when A&M rallied from 17 points down to win.

Now, from a reality standpoint, rallying from a 16-point deficit to beat Division I-AA McNeese State probably represents the Aggies’ least exhilarating win since, well, perhaps last October’s uninspiring victory over Baylor.

Mark Farris gets rocked in the first quarter, leading to the Cowboys' first score.

"Yeah, this probably compares to (the Baylor game last year)," quarterback Mark Farris said of the shockingly difficult victory. "We have a lot of pride. You’re told from the time you’re 5 years old that it’s all about just win, baby. And I’ll take the W. But I’m disappointed with the way we played."

Virtually everyone wearing maroon among the 70,656 fans inside Kyle Field would probably second those sentiments. The Aggies won, and they even outscored the Cowboys 38-8 in the final 32 minutes of play.

But those initial 28 minutes left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of A&M’s players, coaches and fans. Two defensive touchdowns propelled McNeese State to a 16-0 lead with 9:27 left in the second quarter, and MSU went up 24-10 with an impressive drive early in the third quarter.

A&M answered the call in the second half, but it was still uncomfortable until the closing minutes. The Aggies finally put the Cowboys away when Christian Rodriguez returned an interception 11 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

A two-touchdown victory is no cause for alarm, say the A&M players. But there’s probably no reason to celebrate, either.

"We went into the locker room (after the game), and there definitely wasn’t any whooping and hollering," linebacker Brian Gamble said. "And there shouldn’t be. We won the game, and that’s great. But we’re in it for bigger things than this. We’ve got a short week to get ready for Wyoming, and we better get after it. We’ll take the win, but we definitely have to get better. I feel about the same now as I did after that Baylor game last year."

From A&M’s perspective, the good news is the Aggies followed up their lethargic win over Baylor last year by playing probably their best two games of the season, posting impressive wins over Iowa State and Kansas State.

Cody Scates handled the punting and kicking duties in the opener.

And continuing along the silver linings theme, at least the Aggies have already proven they can perform under pressure. It was, after all, an ugly win. Early in the third quarter it appeared to have all the makings of a horrendously ugly loss.

McNeese had just marched 80 yards on the opening drive of the second half to take a 24-10 lead following Slade Nagle’s 6-yard touchdown pass, and the Aggies faced third-and-10 from their own 23.

With McNeese players sensing blood, a three-and-out for the Aggies could have been disastrous. But Farris calmly hit the reliable Greg Porter for 17 yards and a first down in what may have been the most important play of the game.

"It was a catch that needed to be made," said Porter, who tied Terrence Murphy and Dwain Goynes for the team-high with four catches. "Anytime it’s third-and-long, it’s big to get a conversion, but especially when you’re down like that. We knew that pass pattern would probably work, and Mark threw it in there. It was a big play."

Big, indeed. Farris hit Jamaar Taylor for 37 yards on the next play, setting up an 11-yard touchdown run by Farris to cut the lead to 24-17 with 9:27 to go in the third. From that point on, it was pretty much all A&M.

Defensive back Sammy Davis set up the next two A&M touchdowns with a pair of interceptions, and Farris gave the Aggies the lead for good with an 8-yard touchdown run with 12:21 left in the fourth.

It was, however, far from over. The Cowboys drove to the A&M 6 before the drive stalled and a field goal attempt failed, enabling the Aggies to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

"It was a little (scary) there for a while because you could see their confidence building," Gamble said of the Cowboys. "We knew we weren’t going to lose. I don’t think there was a doubt in anybody’s mind about that. But it was a lot closer than we would have liked.

"The biggest positive is that we got the victory. They played their butts off, and they had everything to gain while we had everything to lose. I have to give McNeese credit for coming in here and playing their butts off. But when we were down, we answered the call. We can build off of that."

It’s the Aggie offense that has the most construction to do. The Aggies amassed 374 yards and averaged 5.0 yards per play. But two turnovers, 10 penalties and a general lack of consistency, especially on first down, left head coach R.C. Slocum more puzzled than pleased.

"I’m disappointed with the offense," said Slocum, who was honored prior to the game with a distinguished alumnus award from McNeese State officials. "We didn’t move the ball effectively with the run or the pass. Our first down success was not good. It’s hard to win when you have a bunch of second-and-long situations, and we did it a lot. We’re not going to be effective on offense if we can’t be effective on first downs."

The bright spots on offense were, for the most part, the play of some newcomers to the lineup. Murphy with a game-high 79 receiving yards, including a 16-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. Taylor, sophomore running back Oschlor Flemming and redshirt freshman running back Keith Joseph also turned in some big plays, but the consistency on offense simply wasn’t there.

The news was better defensively, as A&M limited MSU to just 241 total yards and allowed the Cowboys to score just 10 offensive points. McNeese was also just 1-of-14 on third-down conversions.

So, there were a variety of positives for the Aggies despite the dreadful start.

"We came in at halftime and said, ‘Hey man, we’re losing to McNeese State," senior linebacker Christian Rodriguez said. "Don’t take anything away from that team. But we’re Texas A&M, and we need to do better than that. We just came out in the second half inspired to play better football… We need to do that right from the start next time."