Aggies Escape With A 17-10 Win

Texas A&M's offense is famed for its strong rushing attack, but lately the Aggies are getting tricky.

Shane Lechler, a quarterback in high school, threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Campbell on a fake field goal, sparking No. 8 Texas A&M to a 17-10 victory over No. 25 Texas Tech on Saturday.

The Aggies (7-1, 4-0 Big 12), stymied by three first-half turnovers after committing only six in the first seven games, overcame a 3-0 deficit when Lechler, holding for a supposed field goal, rolled out and found Campbell for a touchdown.

"Now that you look back on it, that was a big play but at the time you didn't know how big it was," said A&M coach R.C. Slocum.

Randy McCown, the Aggies' regular quarterback, lost two fumbles. The first set up Chris Birkholz's 46-yard field goal; the second paved the way for an 11-yard TD run by Ricky Williams that gave Texas Tech (6-2, 3-2) a 10-7 lead.

In last week's victory over Baylor, the Aggies had touchdowns on a reverse and a halfback pass.

"The fake field goal was a great play," Tech coach Spike Dykes said. "We had an all-out block set up and they executed the play well."

McCown made up for the mistake with a 55-yard pass to Dante Hall that set up Hall's 1-yard run, giving A&M a 14-10 lead 47 seconds before halftime.

McCown,

Texas A&M tight end Daniel Campbell celebrates after scoring on a fake punt early in the Aggies' 17-10 victory over Texas Tech. (AP)

Tech almost came back in the closing minutes as quarterback Rob Peters threw incomplete passes into the end zone, one a close play to Donnie Hart, who was ruled out of the end zone.

Field judge Larry Weeks said, "The receiver did catch the ball but both receiver and defender (Sedrick Curry) came down out of bounds."

The Aggies capitalized on Texas Tech miscues in the second half, with one of its two interceptions setting up a 24-yard field goal by Russell Bynum that made it 17-10 with 9:47 to play.

Dykes said the Raiders had a play ready if they had scored at the end.

"If we did score that touchdown we already had a play set up to go for two," Dykes said. "This game is what college football is all about. It was a great stadium, great crowds and two great teams."

Williams, third nationally in rushing at 166.8 yards a game, finished with 94 yards on 21 carries.

"That was a tough game and a tough loss," Dykes said. "We played good enough to win but we didn't quite get it done. I'm proud of our guys but A&M has a good team and their defense is hard to run against."

The Aggies snapped a three-game losing streak to the Raiders, who won all three games by a combined 13 points.

"That was pretty typical of games we've had with them," Slocum said. "It was very hard-fought. We tried to make it interesting (in the first half). I'm just happy we won."

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