An 11 a.m. start didn’t prevent an energized Donovan Wilson from hijacking the first pass of the second half and turning the tide of the game.
Texas A&M was spotty at times, but the interception from Wilson and five total touchdowns from Kyle Allen held off the lingering Nevada Wolf Pack for a 44-27 victory.
Junior quarterback Tyler Stewart trotted out to a 24-10 deficit to enter the third quarter. After his pass was intercepted, Allen took advantage with a 10-yard touchdown to Josh Reynolds in one-on-one coverage.
After being pulled amid the second quarter in the first two contests, Allen led the Aggie offense each drive until midway through the fourth. On the day, the sophomore quarterback went 18-for-31 passing with 270 yards and four touchdowns. He also recorded 55 yards on the ground with 10 carries and a score.
“The relationship I have with the receivers is great,” Allen said. “They’re all playing for each other and not playing selfishly. You can tell that they’re all going to get the ball and get their part in the offense … Almost everyone in the starting four had a touchdown today.”
The No. 17 Aggies (3-0) never achieved breathing room status throughout the game. A&M allowed the Wolf Pack to make things interesting when Stewart connected with his senior running back Don Jackson for a 9-yard touchdown, cutting it to 41-27 with 9:33 remaining.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Wolf Pack recovered a squib kick to give them possession at the A&M 25. But, Myles Garrett refused to let any sort of comeback occur. On consecutive plays, the defensive end downed Stewart to force a punt and end the Wolf Pack’s aspirations. Garrett said that he was feeling under the weather during the contest, and A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said that impressed him.
“He had his wisdom teeth taken out last Sunday,” Sumlin said. “Anybody who has ever been through that — you have to know that we practice at four o’clock in the afternoon and it’s 100 degrees out here. Putting your helmet on is a real chore when you have your wisdom teeth taken out … What a tough guy.”
A methodical, 2:19 touchdown drive is what opened the game for the Aggies. Allen went 3-for-3 with 41 yards through the air, but capped it with a 1-yard score on the ground.
Nevada (1-2) returned the favor, however, after a pair of punts from both squads. When faced with a 4^th and 1 decision at the A&M 31-yard line, the Wolf Pack elected to go for it and converted with a touchdown from running back Don Jackson.
Sandwiching a Nevada field goal, Allen retaliated twice with a pair of touchdowns. The first connected with Speedy Noil for 10 yards, the receiver’s first this season. Reynolds tallied his first of two touchdowns on the day — this one being 25 yards to conclude a short 3-play, 78-yard drive, making the advantage 21-10.
Against Ball State, A&M starting running back Tra Carson saw reduction in his ball carrying duties, tallying a mere 10 rushes. This time, the bruiser dashed for 137 yards on 22 touches. Despite averaging almost 100 yards per game now, Carson said he still has room for improvement.
“I think I did okay today and there’s definitely some things I can work on to get better,” Carson said. “Overall, the offensive line did a great job opening up the holes and the quarterback did a good job making the right reads.”
Julien Obioha, Otaro Alaka and A.J. Hilliard all missed at least a game entering the contest, but started Saturday. Zaycoven Henderson saw action coming off a two-game suspension, as did Hilliard, and Drew Kaser returned to punting after being hurt.
With the return of the linebacking corps and a now balanced offense, A&M will do its best to prepare for its first SEC opponent, Arkansas, next Saturday in AT&T Stadium.
“There will be a lot of things that we can draw on because we played a lot of guys these last couple weeks,” Sumlin said. “We’ve gotten some guys back today. It was good to get the guys that I’ve talked about. The guys that were injured, missed the first couple games or were nicked up — it was good to get them in here today to try to knock the rust off of them before we get into conference play.”