After being unable to match Aggies' rush, Horns a bit humbled

01:15 AM CST on Saturday, November 26, 2005

By CHIP BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

COLLEGE STATION – Texas players were doing more explaining than celebrating after Friday's 40-29 victory over Texas A&M.

"We're used to coming in at halftime and propping our feet up," said Texas tight end David Thomas. "This time, we had to grind into the fourth quarter. It was good to have to get out of our comfort zone."

A Texas offense that made running the football look easy all season had a choppy afternoon, especially Vince Young, the team's leading rusher, who finished with 11 carries for 19 yards.

That was Young's second-lowest output of the season (Young ran six times for minus-4 yards against Kansas). Young's 162 yards passing were also his second-lowest of the season (Young threw for 101 yards against Rice).

Young was sacked three times, fumbled twice (losing one) and had an interception.

"I thought early on Vince went for a couple balls downfield that we had some things open short," offensive coordinator Greg Davis said. "But I didn't have the feeling that he was pressing. I thought he settled down and played much better in the second half."

Davis said A&M's defensive line did a good job of getting penetration against UT's vaunted offensive line and disrupting the Longhorns' bread-and-butter zone-read running play. Davis adjusted by going to the counter play with Ramonce Taylor in the second half with success.

Taylor finished with 102 yards on 15 carries after getting his third straight start at tailback. Taylor scored on runs of 5 and 8 yards.

A&M was able to run the ball at will, averaging 5.4 yards per carry as quarterback Stephen McGee and freshman running back Jorvorskie Lane topped the 100-yard mark. McGee carried 24 times for 108 yards, and Lane ran 17 times for 104 yards. Even Courtney Lewis had success running (four carries for 36 yards – 9 yards per carry) before leaving in the second quarter because of a leg injury.

Photos by MICHAEL MULVEY/DMN

With injured senior Reggie McNeal watching from the sidelines, quarterback Stephen McGee gave the Longhorns a handful in his first start.

"It was an eye-opening experience, and this will help us for next week," said UT defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, whose unit gave up its biggest point total of the season. "We weren't anticipating that much option, and there are different ways they created it.

"They did a great job of scheming us and looking at ways to out-leverage us. The whole game was an adjustment and scramble."

Texas coach Mack Brown said his team would benefit from its narrow escape from College Station, where the Aggies led, 22-21, early in the third quarter and trailed by just eight points through most of the fourth quarter.

"This is the best thing that could have happened to us today," said Brown, whose team will play in the Big 12 title game Saturday for the third time in Brown's eight years at Texas.

"It's got our guys' and our coaches' attention. They're going to go back to work and stop talking about how great we are. We couldn't get the ball back. We've got to run the ball better and stop the run better."

E-mail chipbrown@dallasnews.com