Evans Caglage / DMN
Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman had two of the Buckeyes' five interceptions. He ran this one back 24 yards for a touchdown.Buckeyes' brilliance
5 interceptions blind A&M; Big Ten gets a Cotton champ, 28-12
1/2/1987
Ohio State had come into the 51st Cotton Bowl Classic to play Southwest Conference champion Texas A&M, dragging a staid, stolid, Big Ten style.
Then came the Buckeyes' New Year's revolution.
Ohio State coach Earle Bruce came out in a new suit, the team came out in red shoes and the defense came out in a new scheme. Ta-da. The new-look Ohioans gave the Aggies a Buckeye blackeye, 28-12, Thursday before 74,188 at the Cotton Bowl.
The 13th-ranked Buckeyes (10-3) showed the eighth-ranked Aggies (9-3) coverages they had seen rarely, pressuring quarterback Kevin Murray into a Cotton Bowl-record five interceptions, all in the second half.
Ohio State pulled out all of its defensive tricks. New defenses. Disguised defenses. Multiple defenses.
A&M coach Jackie Sherrill said nothing the Buckeyes did was a surprise and that he and his staff had prepared a solid game plan. His players, however, confessed. First they were baffled, then they were beaten.
The Big Ten, which had not had a representative in the first 50 Cotton Bowls, made its debut a decisive one. The Buckeyes, conference co-champs, beat the best the SWC had to offer on its home turf, tromping on precious Aggie tradition during and after the game.
"We played against the 12th man, the waving white towels and in Texas," said linebacker Chris Spielman, voted the game's outstanding defensive player. "We adapted ... we improvised and ... we won."
Ohio State won convincingly, thanks to a defense that limited Murray to 12-for-31 passing for a season-low 143 yards. Spielman intercepted two of Murray's passes, returning one 24 yards for a touchdown, and linebacker Micheal Kee intercepted another and returned it 49 yards for a score.
"It wasn't what they were doing, it's what we weren't doing," Murray said, after being delivered to the interview tent by police escort. "Five intercepts. That's enough turnovers to lose to the Sisters of the Poor. They didn't whip us. We just didn't move the ball."
Murray, who had thrown one interception in his last seven regular-season games, also said he was not prepared for Spielman to drop back and play the middle as if he were a center fielder.
"It seems like sometimes we confused him with what we were doing," Bruce said. "We were not only blitzing, but we were dropping some guys back, and that might have confused him some."
Said Kee: "Our defensive package fooled him a lot. We used a defensive front that looked the same, but it wasn't. I could tell he (Murray) looked kind of confused."
Even at that, the Aggies still had a chance to win after Roger Vick's two-yard touchdown run got them within 21-12 with 9:10 left.
The Aggies went for two, Sherrill said, because they wanted to have the option of going for the tie or the lead if they scored again. But running back Keith Woodside was rules out of bounds in the end zone when he caught Murray's pass, and A&M stayed nine points behind.
A&M, however, remained in the game because Ohio State's offense bellied up in the fourth quarter. Jim Karsatos passed for 143 yards in the first quarter and 42 the final three, including minus-one yard in the fourth quarter.
After Vick's touchdown, Karsatos almost put the Aggies in better position. From the Ohio State 17, he tried to pass in the right flat to wide receiver Cris Carter but threw it behind him. Cornerback Jeff Holley, with nothing in front of him except end zone, bobbled the interception ... then dropped it.
Murray, who had faced dire situations before this season, tried to rally his teammates, clapping and waving them back to the huddle after each play. During the regular season, the Aggies trailed Baylor, 27-17, entering the fourth quarter and rallied to a 31-30 victory. Against SMU, they were down, 28-25, in the final period before winning, 39-35.
This time, Murray could inspire no comeback. He threw another interception to Spielman with 5:50 left, and Kee ended the Aggies' last real chance with the fifth interception, three minutes after Spielman's.
"They kept making the big plays all the time," Sherrill said. "We played very well defensively and not very well offensively."
His defense played well enough to win. It held Ohio State to 85 yards rushing and also intercepted three passes.
"We just happened to have a few bad plays," nose guard Sammy O'Brient said. "It's always frustrating when you're stopping the other team's offense and your offense is throwing interceptions."
Bruce said his offense wasn't much better. He temporarily changed quarterbacks in the second quarter, subbing punter Tom Tupa for Karsatos even though Karsatos had burned cornerback James Flowers for passes of 51, 34 and 37 yards.
Karsatos threw an end zone interception to Chet Brooks to stop the Buckeyes' first drive, but passes of 34 and 37 yards to All-America wide receiver Cris Carter and Jamie Holland set up Karsatos' three-yard touchdown run on an option right.
All A&M could counter with in the first half were field goals of 30 and 44 yards by Scott Slater. Vick, voted the outstanding offensive player, bulled through the Ohio State defense for 113 yards rushing, but the Buckeyes weren't concentrating on stopping the run.
Spielman and the other linebackers dropped into deep coverages often, much as Arkansas did in beating the Aggies, 14-10. The Buckeyes would sometimes rush only two linemen and leave the other nine players back in pass coverage. Murray would sometimes stand for five, six and seven seconds in the pocket, trying to find receivers through a blanket of red and white.
"Our offense was kind of spotty," Bruce said. "But our linebackers did an outstanding job. Chris Spielman is the best linebacker in the country against the run and the pass. Our defense, facing adversity at times, fought back and put points on the board for us."
Bruce, wearing a dark gray suit, tie and snap-brim hat instead of his usual coach-style warmups, bubbled after the victory. He had been accused of not having as much personality as Sherrill, but he turned it on after the game.
He said Rick Bay, the Ohio State athletic director, challenged him to wear a tuxedo. He decided to be conservative and go with the suit.
"Maybe it's a new image," he said.
The Buckeyes didn't know what to say.
"I couldn't believe he looked like that," cornerback William White said.
Like what?
"Like nothing I've ever seen before," he said.
The Aggies know the feeling.
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