By ROBERT CESSNABefore the season, most football fans in Bryan-College Station and Waco circled Saturday's game between Texas A&M and Baylor as a pivotal game with possible bowl implications. It still is, but few predicted that both teams would be in dire need of a pick-me-up victory to help remedy seasons that have been riddled with adversity.
Baylor (4-6, 1-5 Big 12) has nose-dived drastically since a season-opening 24-21 victory at Wake Forest that validated preseason talk that had BU faithful expecting the program's first bowl game since 1994. But the Bears lost their home opener to Connecticut, then lost standout quarterback Robert Griffin the following week.
The Bears have lost five of their last six, including a 47-14 loss last week to Texas.
"We have to move on," Baylor head coach Art Briles said. "We played a good football team and we didn't play real well. They won, we didn't. Now we have to go to the next page."
A&M (5-5, 2-4) can relate.
The Aggies are coming off a 65-10 loss at Oklahoma. It's the second time this season A&M has given up at least 60 points and it was the third time it lost by at least three touchdowns. Baylor and Iowa State are the only other Big 12 teams to lose at least three games by 21 points or more, but A&M's setbacks have been much more lopsided -- including a 47-19 loss to Arkansas and a 62-14 loss to Kansas State.
"I'm disappointed that we don't handle the adversity [in the games]," A&M head coach Mike Sherman said. "I think we have handled the adversity of the season fairly well, when it's hit us and we are able to talk our way through it and practice our way through it. This is a good practice team. But the adversity in the context of the game we didn't always handle well.
"Now whether we would have beaten Oklahoma or not is irrelevant. To have that type of score is relevant. That would be the most frustrating thing to me, how we handle things in the context of the game."
A&M also had trouble handling success. The Aggies bounced back from a three-game losing streak that was punctuated with that blowout loss at Kansas State to play their best game of the season for a 52-30 victory at Texas Tech. A&M hadn't won in Lubbock since 1993.
The Aggies followed that with a complete 35-10 victory over Iowa State, but then stumbled at Colorado. The Aggies led for most of the game but allowed a now 3-7 Colorado team to grab a 35-34 victory.
The blowout at Oklahoma leaves the Aggies needing to beat Baylor or Texas to become bowl-eligible.
"They're honest and accountable," Sherman said of his players. "They don't make excuses. I'm proud of them for that. You can't go anywhere unless you say, 'Hey, listen. We screwed this up. This wasn't our best effort. We can do this better. I can do this better.' And so forth and so on.
"I think that's the most pleasing part, the character of the team and how they handle things from week to week. We can be better on game day, but from week to week I think they've done a good job getting themselves ready."
A&M got a lesson last week in how to handle adversity.
Oklahoma redshirt freshman quarterback Landry Jones threw five interceptions against Nebraska the previous game, but he bounced back with five touchdowns and a season-high 392 yards passing against the Aggies.
"The thing that stood out the most to me [about him] was the fact the week before wasn't a good week, and he came back and had a great game against us," Sherman said.
The Aggies and Bears plan on doing the same this week, which could make for an interesting game.
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A&M senior offensive tackle Lee Grimes, who sprained his MCL in the Oklahoma game, didn't practice Monday and probably won't practice Tuesday, Sherman said. Sophomore Danny Baker, who replaced Grimes against OU, probably would start if Grimes can't play.
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A&M, which has had trouble fielding punts in the last two games because of an ankle injury to freshman Dustin Harris, will work freshman Kenric McNeal at punt returner this week. McNeal did not return punts at Spring High School.
"Well, the errors that we've had the last couple of weeks, which have certainly been monstrous in how they've played out in the ballgame, we've got to make sure that those are solved," said Sherman, who added that he expected to have the issue settled early in the week so it's not a game-time decision.
Sophomore Cyrus Gray, who has 68 career kickoff returns for 1,654 yards (24.3) and two touchdowns, also had trouble catching the football against OU, with a fumble leading to a Sooner score.
"It's something that changes the outcome of a football game," Sherman said. "Along the same lines, kickoff returns for touchdowns do as well. He's been a good returner, a steady guy back there. We'll just continue to work with him and hopefully get this problem solved."
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL
* Saturday's game: Baylor (4-6, 1-4 in the Big 12) at Texas A&M (5-5, 2-3 in Big12), 2:30 p.m.
* TV/radio: None/WTAW, 1620 AM and Sirius Ch. 154
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