TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Johnny Football and the SEC newbies from Texas A&M took down the biggest bully in their new neighborhood and left No. 1 Alabama with badly bruised national championship hopes.
Johnny Manziel, better known around Texas as Johnny Football, staked the 15th-ranked Aggies to a three-touchdown lead in the first quarter, and Texas A&M held on to beat the Crimson Tide 29-24 on Saturday.
The Aggies (8-2, 5-2), playing in the Southeastern Conference for the first season after ditching the Big 12, also might have ended the league’s run of BCS titles at six years.
The defending national champion Crimson Tide (9-1, 6-1), who have been No. 1 almost all season and had won 13 straight, didn’t go quietly.
AJ McCarron nearly pulled off a second straight scintillating comeback. He threw one touchdown pass and motored the ball downfield before Deshazor Everett stepped in front of his fourth-down pass at the goal line with 1:36 left.
Manziel passed for 253 yards and rushed for 92, confounding the Tide defense with his ability to keep plays alive as the Aggies scored the game’s first 20 points.
“No moment is too big for him,” coach Kevin Sumlin said of his remarkable redshirt freshman.
And no defense or venue too tough, apparently.
“If you’re around him every day, I don’t think it bothers him that much,” Sumlin said.
The Aggies had been 1-10 against top-ranked teams with the only previous win coming 30-26 over Oklahoma in 2002, but Manziel and Sumlin have entered the SEC with speed and swagger — and fit right in.
“They played a tremendous game and certainly outplayed us,” Tide coach Nick Saban said.
Alabama managed a second-shot national title after losing to LSU just over a year ago in the regular season but seems a longshot to do it again. Alabama would have secured a spot in the SEC championship game with a victory and only Western Carolina and Auburn remaining.
“Two of the three national championship teams that I coached lost a game,” Saban said, counting one at LSU. “This team still has an opportunity to win the West and go to the SEC championship game and win a championship. There’s still a lot for this team to play for.”
Now, the Tide will have to beat the Tigers to clinch the West and get into the SEC title game. As for the national title, Alabama will have to hope for another shakeup in the form of losses by Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame. If the Tide wins out, and two of those teams go down, a third national championship in four seasons is still in play — along with a seventh straight for the SEC.
For now though, the SEC is on the outside looking in at the BCS title race.
Thanks to Manziel &Co.
Alabama kept coming back, but never caught up with the slippery, speedy Manziel and the Aggies.
The nation’s top scoring defense, forced a punt with less than a minute left, but A&M never had to kick it away. The Tide was penalized for offisides, giving Texas A&M a first down and a chance to kneel out the clock.
“The players were told ‘make sure you stay onsides, they are going to try to get you to jump offsides with a shift or a motion or something,’” Saban said.
McCarron breathed life into Alabama with a 54-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to freshman Amari Cooper to make it 29-24 with 4:29 left.
A quick three-and-out by the Aggies put the ball in McCarron’s hands again. He opened at the 40 with a 54-yarder to speedster Kenny Bell down to the 6. Two scrambles and an Eddy Lacy run left one final shot from the 2 against a Texas A&M defense often overshadowed by its potent offense.
He had some time on third down, rolling left but finding Lacy well covered and having to try running it, a la Manziel, before Dustin Harris stopped him at the 2.
McCarron had rescued the Tide’s national title hopes with a 28-yard screen pass in the final minute for a 21-17 win over No. 9 LSU. The Aggies, nearly two-touchdown underdogs, didn’t let him do it again. Everett made the play on a pass toward the front corner of the end zone.
“This is one of those meaningful experiences where when you reflect back on your college career, you say ‘We did something great,’” Texas A&M defensive end Damontre Moore said.
McCarron completed 21 of 34 passes for 309 yard but also was intercepted twice, ending his streak without getting picked off at 291 passes.
Eddie Lacy had 16 carries for 92 yards for Alabama and added 35 yards on four catches. Cooper had six catches for 136 yards a week after missing much the second half of the LSU game with an ankle injury, and failing to make a reception.
The Aggies had already lost to top-10 teams LSU and Florida by a combined eight points, proving they’re already challengers in the powerhouse SEC.
“We played with a chip on our shoulder,” receiver Ryan Swope said. “We were just trying to make a statement that we could compete with anybody in this league.”
Manziel completed 24 of 31 passes with two touchdowns and ran 18 times, including four sacks.
He kept finding Swope. They hooked up 11 times for 111 yards and a 10-yard touchdown where Manziel bobbled the ball as defenders swarmed him, reversed field and spotted Swope alone in the back of the end zone.
The Aggies’ first-quarter touchdown drives, giving them a 20-0 lead, stunned the Bryant-Denny Stadium crowd of 101,821. Christine Michael had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs in the quarter, along with Swope’s TD catch.
“We weren’t stunned at all,” Tide linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “As a defense, we knew they were going to make plays, that’s what their offense depends on. They got a great quarterback, they got a great running back. We just have to settle down and play Alabama football.”
The rest of the game was an emotional roller-coaster ride for fans who might have thought LSU was the toughest test on the road to another championship.
Then Alabama flexed its own muscle to counter Manziel’s speed, sticking with power runs to set up 2-yard touchdown runs by T.J. Yeldon and Lacy.
McCarron also converted a fourth-and-4 with a pass to Lacy to set up the first score. Alabama marched back down the field after Mosley pushed Manziel out of bounds a yard shy on fourth-and-6.
The Tide ran out all but 19 seconds with a methodical drive right back into the game.
It was still the first time Alabama had trailed at halftime since a loss at South Carolina in 2010.
Jeremy Shelley kicked a 28-yard field goal with 4:49 in the third quarter to cut it to 20-17 and Taylor Bertolet answered with a short one to start the fourth.
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