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Aggies Win a Shootout
December 29, 2014 04:11 PM | Football
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Kyle Allen threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in leading Texas A&M to a 45-37 victory over West Virginia in the 56th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl played here at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee.
Allen completed 22 of 35 passes for 294 yards and was the beneficiary of an Aggie rushing attack that produced 235 yards and two scores.
Tra Carson ran 24 times for 135 yards and Trey Williams added 86 yards on 11 totes to help A&M to its eighth win of the season and it’s first ever against West Virginia.
“Too many missed chances,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen.
The Mountaineers (7-6) led 17-7 at one point in the first half before the Aggie offense caught fire.
A&M got on the board first on its second possession of the game when Allen escaped pressure and hit a wide-open Josh Reynolds down the near sideline for a 44-yard touchdown. On the play, defensive backs Daryl Worley and Karl Joseph were looking at each other while the rest of the stadium watched Reynolds catch the ball and jog into the end zone.
West Virginia answered on the ensuing possession, thanks to a pair of A&M penalties - including a targeting infraction on safety Howard Matthews that ended his day early and resulted in a Josh Lambert 32-yard field goal. On fourth and one at the A&M 40, DeVante Harris was called for pass interference on Kevin White resulting in a 12-yard penalty and a first down at the 28. Later, on a third and 17 at the 35, Matthews's personal foul gave the Mountaineers a first down at the 20 before the Aggie defense eventually stiffened.
West Virginia’s next two possessions resulted in touchdowns, both of them via the pass. Skyler Howard hit Mario Alford on a third-down screen pass to the near sideline where he got a nice block from Cody Clay to spring free and race to the end zone. The play covered 45 yards.
The next scoring throw came from A&M’s Allen and went right into the arms of KJ Dillon out in the flat where he took it 35 yards to the end zone to give the Mountaineers 14 points in a matter of only 11 seconds.
But, WVU’s two-possession lead lasted as long as it took for Allen to take his jacket off, the freshman hitting short passes to Reynolds and Speedy Noil before lofting a fourth-down pass over a blitzing defense that went right into the arms of Trey Williams for a 40-yard touchdown.
The first quarter ended for West Virginia the same way it began – with Lambert booting a field goal. The big play was a 43-yard, Howard-to-Jordan Thompson hookup down the middle of the field to the Aggie 29. One play before Lambert’s kick, Howard missed a wide-open Thompson running down the seam that would have been an easy touchdown had his pass not sailed high.
The scoring continued in the second quarter.
A&M marched 60 yards to paydirt, getting 31 of those through the air on two Allen throws to Malcome Kennedy before the combo connected a third time over the middle for an 11-yard score and a 21-20 Aggie lead.
But two plays later, Kevin White was right back in the A&M end zone after grabbing a 49-yard TD bomb from Howard. White’s touchdown was set up by Kennedy’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that required the Aggies to kick from the 20 and Alford returned the kickoff to the 48.
After a pair of punts, A&M was able to take advantage of a big special teams miscue to score its fourth touchdown of the first half. A&M benefited from a roughing-the-kicker penalty called on Jalen Myers that gave the Aggies new life at their own 44.
Williams runs of five and 12 yards got the ball to the 39, and then an Allen 20-yard pass to Tre Carson moved the ball to the 17. Two plays later, on third and seven at the Mountaineer 14, Allen was boxed in to his right, spun around and found open turf to his left to reach the pylon. Josh Lambo’s PAT gave A&M a 28-27 lead.
With 43 seconds left, Alford returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards to midfield, but the Mountaineers were unable to get close enough for Lambert to try a long field goal as the half ended.
The Aggies scored the first points of the second half after forcing a short Nick O’Toole punt that bounced backwards to the 35. An Allen-to-Reynolds pass gained 10 to the 46, and then Carson broke free for 39 yards to the WVU 15 to set up Josh Lambo’s 26-yard field goal when the drive stalled at the eight, making it 31-27, A&M.
Following another WVU punt, Texas A&M added to its lead with a 54-yard scoring drive that featured more Allen playmaking. Allen hit Frank Iheanacho for 13 yards to the West Virginia 41, and later escaped contain to fire a 21-yard pass to Ricky Seals-Jones on third and 19 that moved the ball to the 18. Williams’ next run down the far sideline covered the remaining 18 yards to make it 38-27.
WVU finally answered on the next possession with three more points from Lambert, but the Mountaineers were seeking more when DeVonte Harris was called for a roughing the kicker penalty on Lambert’s successful 38-yard field goal.
The infraction gave WVU a first down at the 15, but the Mountaineers missed a great touchdown opportunity when Alford dropped Howard’s first-down pass in the back of the end zone. An unsuccessful Rushel Shell run and another Howard misfire forced Lambert to kick a 31-yard field goal.
At this point A&M kept its foot on the pedal with Allen engineering an 11-play, 73-yard drive that ate up 4:40 and once again ended in West Virginia’s end zone. Allen accounted for 20 of those yards on the ground before he located Kennedy behind Worley for a nine-yard scoring pass to put the Aggies up 15, 45-30.
The score remained that way for most of the fourth quarter until the Mountaineers drove 91 yards in nine plays, culminating in a Howard-to-Elijah Wellman 4-yard touchdown pass. Howard completed four passes on the drive, but the big play was a Wendell Smallwood 35-yard run to the Aggie four.
West Virginia opted to kick the ball deep and use its timeouts to try and stop the Aggies, but that strategy was unsuccessful when Allen’s third-down pass to Kennedy went for 21 yards to the WVU 47.
“These guys were competing,” said Holgorsen. “We’ve made some improvement this year but 7-6 is not good enough. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back and hopefully we can make as much improvement next year as we did this year to compete for a championship.”
Howard completed 20 passes but he needed 45 attempts to do so, the sophomore finishing the afternoon with 346 yards and three touchdowns through the air.
White’s outstanding two-year career concluded with seven catches for 129 yards and a touchdown. His senior season ended with 109 catches for 1,447 yards and 10 touchdowns.
WVU must also find a replacement for Alford, who caught three passes for 57 yards and a touchdown today to finish the season with 65 catches for 945 yards and 11 touchdowns.
West Virginia got 126 yards on the ground, but most of those came in the second half from backup Wendell Smallwood when the Aggies were protecting a two-possession lead. Smallwood finished the game with 77 yards on just eight carries.
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