University of Missouri
Texas A&M
Tigers Fall To Aggies
11/13/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 13, 1999
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Ja'Mar Toombs scored three touchdowns as Texas A&M won for the first time in four Big 12 road games with a 51-14 victory over Missouri on Saturday.
Texas A&M (7-3, 4-3) lost by a combined 88-6 at Oklahoma and Nebraska in its previous two road games. This time, the Aggies produced a rout after a slow start and nearly handed Missouri (4-6, 1-6) its third shutout in four games.
Missouri, which lost 37-0 at Oklahoma last week, was trailing by the same score when Dwayne Blakley caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Justin Gage with 8:01 to play. Texas A&M answered with two scores in the next 3:13, including a 70-yard interception return by Michael Jameson.
Toombs, who entered the game with four touchdowns on the season, had 71 yards on 22 carries and scored on runs of 2, 9 and 7 yards. He also had a 33-yard reception.
Freshman backup Joe Weber gave Texas A&M its first 100-yard rusher of the season in mop-up duty, getting 121 yards on eight carries, including a 77-yard pickup _ all in the fourth quarter.
The Aggies' next-best weapon, especially in a 7-0 first half, was punter Shane Lechler. Lechler is closing in on the NCAA career record for average and averaged 53.4 yards on seven attempts, by far surpassing his career mark of 44.5 yards. He added a 32-yard field goal in the third quarter.
Texas A&M is 6-0 against Missouri and Saturday's result was reminiscent of a 73-0 shutout in 1993.
Aside from an unaccountable 34-7 victory over Texas Tech two weeks ago, Missouri's offense has collapsed since quarterback Kirk Farmer broke his leg in the first half of a 24-21 loss to Iowa State Oct. 16. Missouri has lost five of six overall.
Jim Dougherty, who had been sharing the job with Farmer, alternated with Gage, a freshman, on Saturday. Neither had any success as Missouri clinched a losing season after back-to-back bowl trips. Dougherty was 3-for-15 for 22 yards and an interception and Gage was 11-for-24 for 111 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Texas A&M, which lost 37-0 at Nebraska last week, opened the game with a 17-play, 70-yard drive capped by Toombs' 2-yard run. The Aggies needed only three plays on their first possession of the second half as Randy McCown hit Bethel Johnson on a 39-yard pass.
A fumble by Zain Gilmore at the Missouri 29 set up Toombs' 9-yard run that made it 21-0 with 9:53 to go in the third quarter and he added a 7-yarder later in the quarter.
