Those boys in the SEC know how to play defense, unlike many Big 12 teams. Yesterday I watched the SEC showcase game on CBS, Tennessee at Alabama, which was a backyard brawl with a lot of sure tackling going on. Like all top teams, the Crimson Tide got lucky at just the right moments when they were able to block two FG attempts by Tennessee, the second with about four seconds remaining in the game. That allowed Alabama to win 12-10, remain unbeaten, and stay in the hunt for The Big Enchilada. Somehow, I think Tide fans have gotten over the loss of Dennis Franchione to TAMU.
And speaking of Aggies, it's like them to upset my applecart. Just about the time I'm becoming accustomed to living in a world of diminished expectations, TAMU goes to Lubbock and instead of losing 70-9 as anticipated, beats Texas Tech by 22 points. Still another dramatic example of why it's foolish to rely on comparative scores when predicting the outcome of football games.
One school of thought is that the red raiders made that mistake, comparing their stomping of Kansas State to the one K-State gave the Aggies, and decided they could take a night off. That makes as much sense as any other possibility.
On paper, it now looks like TAMU could finish the regular season with as many as seven wins. Texas and Oklahoma are out of their class, but the other three remaining games look winnable, assuming last night's result wasn't a total fluke. More than likely, the Aggies will remain true to form and lose at least one game they should win, but 6-6 would still be a tiny improvement over last year's trainwreck. We'll see what happens. When contemplating Aggie football in the 21st century, it's best not to get too excited over any big win.
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