Print story | Email story

Updated 7:35 AM on Sunday, September 30, 2007

Croome: Yawner fits A&M just fine
Video: Highlights, Postgame interviews
A&M - Baylor Gallery | Spotted Aggie Game Day, vs. Baylor

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Columnist

Maybe it was the dropped passes, which reached as many as 10 by the Baylor Bears.

Or maybe it was the missed opportunities, including three by the Aggies in the first half.

The predictability of what the Bears were going to do didn't help.

Neither did the start time, 11:30 a.m.

Take your pick, this thing wasn't going into the instant classic vault, especially lugging that opening half.

The cable network VERSUS, televising its first game from Kyle Field, may not come back after this one.

Of course, those VERSUS-induced commericial breaks didn't help - the ones that kept the players standing aimessly in position to snap the ball while waiting for the air-traffic controller on the field to wave play on.

Someone suggested the breaks were so long because the commercials were better than the game. Picture VERSUS' producers doing all they can to keep its viewers tuned in. Four minutes of promotions for ultimate fighting, pro rodeo and the NHL may have looked good at the time.

What makes all the above so startling is how the Aggies repeatedly said they expected Baylor to bring its best game, because if this was it, good luck Waco.

Considering the Bears categorize this as a rivalry game, the emotion wasn't there, and the execution was, well ... dropped.

The Bears' most productive play in the opening half was an audible to a run. Quarter-back Blake Szymanski came to the line and touched two of his linemen on the back. It went for 21 yards. The next two plays, Szymanski did the same thing, and the Bears ran the same play.

The result: 4 total yards and a timeout.

Two plays later, an ill-conceived fake punt made the last two audibles look like pure genius.

The plan: Let's bring in a backup quarterback in place of the punter and have hit a receiver on a 15-yard out. Nobody will see it coming!

Only the Aggie defense did - as if they had called the play itself. Aggie cornerback Marquis Carpenter appeared to be the intended receiver and made a nice interception thrown by his former teammate, Michael Machen who played with Carpenter at Colleyville Community College in Kansas.

Things didn't go much better for Baylor's starting quarterback. The same Szymanski who had thrown 14 touchdown passes the past three weeks looked confused when flushed from the pocket, and when his passes weren't being dropped, they were being thrown so high and hard that they couldn't be caught.

A&M didn't help push the excite-o-meter in the first 30 minutes. Penalties, missed field goal attempts and an interception slowed the pace and, more importantly, kept the Bears in the game.

Even A&M quarterback Stephen McGee, whose double-triple of 200 yards passing and 110 yards rushing, addressed the first-half sloppiness when he took a break from his passionate statements defending his coach. VERSUS should have stuck around for that. It was more intriguing than most of the first half.

Two of the biggest cheers early on were for incompletions, passes from near midfield into the end zone by the Aggies. The one thrown by tailback Jorvorskie Lane had the fans standing, even after the pass to Kerry Franks fell a touch long in the corner of the end zone.

Mike Goodson finally gave everyone a reason to come back from the concession stand with a 58-yard catch-and-run late in second quarter. Goodson did his best Lane impression by knocking over a Baylor defensive back and breaking two other tackles before outracing everyone to the goal line.

After sitting through the first half, a running clock seemed like a good idea for the second 30 minutes.

To A&M's credit, the Aggies almost made it that way with their dominance on both sides of the ball.

There wasn't much more suspense in the final 30 minutes than the first, but there was no way not to appreciate the efficiency of the Aggies. A strong running game with the occasional pass, mostly midrange throws downfield, kept the Bears' defense on its heels. And the Aggie defense had coordinator Gary Darnell smiling all the way through the press conference.

Both A&M coaches who made the postgame press conference used the term, or something similar to, dirty-shirt, blue-collar football for the victory.

If that's the way the Aggies have to go about it, why not? Win the time of possession battle - in this case, own it - convert on third down and get your defense to hold on third down. Sounds a lot like last season, which produced a 9-4 mark. It's hard to argue with double the yardage, nearly three times the time of possession, more than four times the first downs and, of course, a 34-10 victory.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.