Alabama 41, Texas A&M 23
When: 3:30 PM ET, Saturday, October 17, 2015
Where: Kyle Field, College Station, Texas
Temperature:
82°
Head Official:
Matt Austin
Attendance:
105733
By The Sports Xchange
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - In the first 10 minutes against Texas A&M, Alabama returned an interception for a touchdown and scored on a 55-yard run. That's one way to silence a crowd of 105,733 at Kyle Field.
Running back Derrick Henry rushed for a career-high 236 yards and two touchdowns while freshman defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns as the No. 10 Crimson Tide trounced the No. 9 Aggies 41-23 on Saturday.
"He's a workhorse; he's tough," Alabama coach Nick Saban said of Henry. "He does a great job of instinctively running the plays the way he's supposed to. The guy had a great game."
Henry, who recorded a career-high 32 carries, topped his previous career-high of 148 yards (versus Georgia on Oct. 3) in the first quarter against the Aggies with 153 and his game total is the fourth-most in school history.
"Alabama did a great job of making plays early on in the first half," Texas A&M linebacker A.J. Hilliard said. "We did a poor job of pressing our gaps and playing our defense the way we need to play it. A lot of that is one me. They were hitting up the middle and we just weren't pressing our gaps. Derek Henry was hitting his holes and making it hurt."
Defensive back Eddie Jackson also returned an interception for a touchdown as the Crimson Tide (6-1, 3-1 SEC) recorded the second game with multiple touchdowns on interceptions in Crimson Tide history.
"We were feeding off the secondary," Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen said. "They were the ones hyping everyone up in the locker room."
Quarterback Kyle Allen was 20 of 40 for 263 yards with three interceptions and one touchdown for the Aggies (5-1, 2-1).
A special teams blunder by Alabama set up a Texas A&M touchdown early in the third quarter. Senior defensive back Cyrus Jones fumbled the ball on a punt return, which led to a 3-yard touchdown pass from Allen to Ricky Seals-Jones to cut it to 28-20.
"Alabama is a great team," Seals-Jones said. "They are physically sound. Every mistake we made, they capitalized on it. That was on us. We just weren't clicking when we were supposed to and they capitalized."
The Aggies also blocked a punt in the third quarter, but the offense stalled despite the great field position. Texas A&M ultimately missed a 52-yard field goal attempt.
On the ensuing drive, the Crimson Tide sustained a six-minute possession, but could only come away with three points as kicker Adam Griffith made a 32-yard attempt to make it 31-20.
Griffith was good on a 20-yard attempt early in the fourth quarter which pushed the score to 34-20. The Aggies added a field goal to make it 34-23 before Fitzpatrick's second touchdown sealed it.
With the offense stalling on its first drive, Alabama's defense struck first as Fitzpatrick intercepted an overthrown pass from Allen and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0.
Two drives later, Henry found the end zone on a 55-yard burst up the middle for a 14-0 lead.
Texas A&M's Taylor Bertolet drilled a 54-yard field goal with 1:14 left in the first quarter to cut the deficit to 14-3.
Henry punished the Aggies again at the start of the second quarter, capping a five-play, 68 yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown while dragging two Texas A&M defenders into the end zone to make it 21-3.
Bertolet drilled another long kick, a 52-yarder, to bring the score to 21-6 early in the second quarter.
The Crimson Tide received another defense score when Jackson returned an interception 93 yards to increase the lead to 28-6.
The Aggies responded on special teams with a 68-yard punt return for a score by freshman Christian Kirk. The wide receiver shook a couple defenders before sprinting down the left side with a wall of blockers escorting him to the end zone to make it 28-13 at the half.
NOTES: Alabama center Ryan Kelly was ruled out of the game with a concussion. He was replaced by sophomore J.C. Hassenauer. ... Alabama RB Kenyan Drake left the game in the first half with a right quad/thigh injury, but returned midway through the fourth quarter. ... Alabama only previous game with multiple interception returns for a touchdown occurred against Arkansas in 2008. ... Texas A&M fell to 1-6 versus ranked teams at home under coach Kevin Sumlin. ... Alabama sophomore LB Shaun Dion Hamilton was ejected in the first half for targeting.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
Alabama |
|
Texas A&M |
Derrick Henry
|
Player |
Tra Carson
|
32 |
Attempts |
13 |
236 |
Yards |
46 |
7.4 |
Avg Yards |
3.5 |
2 |
Touchdowns |
0 |
0 |
Long |
0 |
Team Stats Summary
|
Yards |
Scoring |
Defense |
Team |
Tot |
Rus |
Pas |
TD |
FG |
INT |
Sck |
FF |
Alabama
|
396 |
258 |
138 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
6.0 |
1 |
Texas A&M
|
316 |
32 |
284 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
1.0 |
1 |