Aggies blow out Iowa State, 35-10

Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson’s arm and tailback Cyrus Gray’s legs lifted the Aggies over Iowa State 35-10, despite two turnovers.

Johnson threw three touchdown passes and accounted for 234 yards on 24 completions. Gray’s only TD came on a seven-yard pass-and-run in the second quarter.

The Aggies (6-4, 2-2 Big 12) jumped on the Cyclones early. Johnson scored on a one-yard run with 4:55 in the first quarter. Then he threw a 32-yard scoring strike to tight end Jeff Fuller with one minute on the clock. That was followed by Gray’s seven-yard pass-catch-and-run at the 3:27 mark in the second quarter. Texas A&M was up 21-0 before ISU (5-4, 2-3) got on the scoreboard with a 29-yard field goal with one second left on the clock.

The Aggies dominated the game from the opening kickoff, leaving some analysts to believe that the 52-30 blowout win over Texas Tech a week earlier was no fluke. The Aggies have rung up eight straight brilliant quarters of Big 12 football. They have outscored opponents 87-40. The Aggies have never trailed in any of these quarters. ISU was riding a two-game winning streak. They defeated Nebraska in Lincoln a week earlier.

Freshman running back Christine Michael, fullback Jaime McCoy, and Johnson combined for another 148 yards on the ground. The Aggies tallied 501 yards of offense. Some 267 yards came on the ground.

“I think we are getting more confidant and into each other. Our quarterback is into a rhythm,” Sherman told reporters after the game.

“We gave up a couple of plays here and there [on defense] … the guys are becoming better ball hawks. We have been practicing that. We bent …we gave up one or two big plays but nothing that killed us,” he said about the defense.

“We have still got a long way to go in all facets of our football team. The players are stepping up. You saw that today with [Justin] McQueen and [Jordan] Pugh. You saw that on the goal line stand,” he said. “I think we learned a lot after the K-State game. My may not have won the last two game if we had won K-State,” he said.

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The Aggies have won one more than their 2008 output and are on course to possibly win as many as seven game and enhance their bowl eligibility. That will please long-suffering Aggies supporters. The Aggie turnaround comes only two weeks after the college newspaper called for “someone to take the fall” for the 62-14 blowout at Kansas State.

The Aggie defense had a stellar day. Its biggest test of the game was at the beginning of the second half. Aggie Lionel Smith fumbled the opening kickoff on the Aggie 24. That opportunity for ISU was ended when McQueen intercepted QB Jerome Tiller’s pass in the end zone.

An Aggie defensive back, Jordan Pugh, ended another Cyclone drive. He picked off Tiller’s pass on the 34 and returned it to the 50-yard line. Five plays later, Johnson threw 32 yards to tight end Jeff Fuller. At that point the Aggies went up 14-0. They never looked back.

Next week the Aggies travel to Boulder to play the Colorado Buffalos.

By Jay Goode
Big 12 Fans Texas A&M Correspondent

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