By ROBERT CESSNABOULDER, Colo. -- Maybe it was the high altitude.
The Texas A&M football team had a chance Saturday to continue building momentum, become bowl-eligible and put itself in position for a pretty nice season. All the Aggies had to do was beat Colorado.
But what A&M never seems to do is win a big game in Colorado, and this was no different, except it was much more painful.
The last time A&M came to Boulder, a very talented CU team en route to the Fiesta Bowl scored the game's first 21 points and the game was never close. This time, until the final minutes, the Aggies trailed only once -- and that was only for the 14 seconds it took Cyrus Gray to return a kickoff for a touchdown.
Gray's electrifying run quieted the crowd of 47,227 who seemed giddy after their 2-6 team took a 14-10 lead.
Nothing went Colorado's way the rest of the first half as the Buffaloes could muster only 11 yards on 10 plays. The Aggies extended their lead to 21-10, but they failed to put the game away. The Buffs hung around and so did their fans -- even those wearing sky blue to protest how poorly their team is being coached.
A&M's last big hiccup was settling for a field goal with 3:07 left that made it 34-28. Naysayers in chat rooms immediately typed "28 + 7 = a 35-34 CU victory".
They were right, but how it came about will take some time to get over.
Colorado was immediately hit with a delay of game. Penalties had killed the Buffs all day, including two fruitless drives that started with flags. A&M's Von Miller then sacked CU quarterback Tyler Hansen -- one of eight sacks for the Aggies. A 9-yard shovel pass left the Buffs facing third-and-16.
Third-and-16. Not only did the Buffs pick it up, they made it look easy.
Colorado's Markques Sims had a 45-yard catch and run. He was so open he could have fair caught it. He covered up the football running down the sideline and absorbed a jarring tackle by hustling freshman Sean Porter.
You talk about a busted play. Sims had caught six passes for 90 yards. If there was one guy A&M needed to cover, it was Sims.
"When you can't get off the field on third-and-16, there's something wrong right there," A&M head coach Mike Sherman said.
You just knew Colorado was going to score, and it did on the next play.
Backup tight end Patrick Devenny made a dandy 22-yard catch, reaching out with one hand to bring in his 10th grab of the season.
A&M had plenty of time to answer -- 2:04 and two timeouts -- and just needed a field goal. A&M had scored 19 times this season in less time than that -- and twice in this game.
But this was different, much different. The game was hanging in the balance.
Colorado's defense sealed the victory on Anthony Perkins' interception. Buffs linebacker B.J. Beatty pressured A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson into a poor throw. Johnson had looked shaky on the series with two incompletions sandwiched around a clutch 15-yard catch by Tannehill.
Johnson certainly didn't lose the game, but neither did he win it. That also goes for just about everyone else on the team. There was a lot of good, but not enough, so everyone will accent the bad.
"There were numerous things in the game [where] we had a chance," Sherman said. "Instead of kicking the field goal, we might have been able to score a touchdown. On the goal line [early in the game when A&M was stopped at the 1-yard line], we didn't get that. [We] missed a field goal, dropped a punt; there were different things in the ballgame, as well as tackling the quarterback."
Hansen looked like a Heisman Trophy candidate to the Aggies.
He completed 21 of 32 passes for 271 yards and added 45 yards net rushing, which was impressive considering he lost 60 yards in sacks.
"We know that he is a baller," Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins said. "I said this before, he is a man's man."
The hard-nosed sophomore helped put a big hold on A&M's climb up the Big 12 ladder of success.
A&M finished 1-2 against the North with the lone victory over Iowa State, which was missing its starting quarterback. A&M will always have that big victory at Texas Tech, but it will need more for this to be a successful season.
The Aggies (5-4, 2-3) can still become bowl-eligible, but that's probably not going to be next week at Oklahoma. A&M also needs to get that accomplished before playing Texas on Thanksgiving.
So that means the Baylor game Nov. 21 at Kyle Field is just as huge as everyone thought before the season started.
The reeling Bears, like the Buffs, picked themselves up Saturday. Baylor rallied for a 40-32 victory at Missouri behind freshman quarterback Nick Florence, who threw for a school-record 427 yards. Baylor (4-5, 1-4) is back in the bowl picture and only one game back of the Aggies.
The good news is that A&M almost always beats Baylor at Kyle Field, which is about 5,000 feet below where the Aggies played Saturday.
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