Aggies react, make sense of shootout in Shreveport

Kevin Sumlin's post-game comments

Opening comments...

“You know, we won. A whole lot of things happened in that football game and it could have gone either way right there with the onside kicks and those different plays, but we made enough plays to win.”

“I give them credit. They can score like that on anybody. It took them awhile to get going. Once they did, they got it clicking. They were riling us a little bit defensively. Not a little bit, but we did not help ourselves. With all that said, they did a great job. We were going to have to play well in Shreveport to come out of here with a win and somehow we did.

On special teams...

“I do not think it was a big … as many positives as we had in those situations, there were negatives. We get a block, the two-point and then miss an extra point; did not recover the onside kick. There were plays we made all over the field.”

“You know the two-point conversion, so as many positives as there were on special teams, there were negatives. That is just the way the game was. You cannot have a game with that many yard and that many points without having big plays and with that kind of offense. That was a historic game.”

On Ryan Swope and how his injury affected the game...

“I think we would love to have a guy like that in there. It is a combination of the pressure it puts on everybody. Mike Evans was limping around out there a bunch and had to come out of the game, so we had some young guys in there who had not been out there before, but we are a better football team with Ryan out there.”

On last week’s confidence carrying over to this week...

"I hope so. I think our mindset is different. I think we are doing what we need to win games and not lose games. We did a lot of things that really cannot be explained. To get the ball at the 30 and drive it out to the 50 and just a number of penalties that put us all the way back.”

“That is stuff we have been talking about since we got here with ball security and penalties. That is something we have been working on and emphasizing, but obviously we have done a poor job and we did a poor job of that tonight. I have never ever been in a football game with that many penalties.”

On Manziel’s response to the pick six...

“I asked him, and we never yell at him unless there is no answer. He said he was trying to throw the football away and it got away from him and was a pick six. For him to come back, and made really two or three really good plays with the option that got called back on the holding call and he had and the scrambles earlier.”

“So, there were a number of plays he made after the interception that were great plays. The big one was just the touchdown run, so we have come to get used to that. He threw some good balls tonight. I think he is improving as a passer and obviously he keeps the defense on their feet and that is what he has been doing.”

“He has only played six games, so I do not think anyone expects him to be … he has only played six games as a freshman. I think he will be the first to tell you he is working to get better every game.”

On changing momentum after a couple three-and-outs...

“Rolling is scoring every time you get the ball, and we were, so if we stop, then we have a momentum change rather than scoring every time we got the ball.”

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Post-game notes

* The Aggies won their fifth straight game with their 59-57 victory over Louisiana Tech.

* The 116 combined points by the two teams were the most in program history, surpassing the 110 points scored in the Aggies’ 110-0 win over Daniel Baker in 1920.

* It was A&M’s first win over a ranked opponent away from Kyle Field since beating No. 21 Texas Tech 52-30 in Lubbock, Texas in 2009. Overall, it was A&M’s first win over a ranked team since the Aggies whipped No. 20 Baylor, 55-28, in College Station in 2012.

* A&M improves to 11-0-0 all-time vs. Louisiana Tech.

* The victory was the 40th of Kevin Sumlin’s career (in his fifth season).

* Redshirt freshman QB Johnny Manziel broke his own school and Southeastern Conference record for total offense with 576 total yards against the Bulldogs. He passed for 395 yards and rushed for a career-high 181 yards, including a career long 72-yard TD run. The 181 yards were the second most in school history by a QB behind David Walker’s 182 vs. SMU in 1977.

* Texas A&M had 13 400-yard total offense efforts prior to this season, but Johnny Manziel already has three in his first six games, including the top two in school and SEC history — 576 vs. Louisiana Tech and 557 vs. Arkansas.

* Junior DE Damontre Moore had a career-high 17 tackles, including 1.5 QB sacks for a loss of 13 yards and 2.5 total tackles for a loss of 14 yards. His previous high was 12 tackles vs. Kansas State and Texas last year.

* Texas A&M has scored 282 points in the first six games of 2012, which is the most prolific start in school history. The previous high six-game scoring total was 253 by Coach D.X. Bible’s 1917 Aggies, which including a 98-0 victory over Dallas University.

* The Aggies gained 680 total yards against Louisiana Tech, which is the second-highest offensive output of the season and the third 600-yard plus effort of 2012.

* The Aggies rushed for 285 yards, their second-highest output of the season, and their fifth-straight 200-yard-plus effort.

* Senior WR Ryan Swope was knocked out of the game with an illegal hit by the Bulldogs, but not before he grabbed the 200th catch of his career. He is the second Aggie to reach the 200 catch plateau, joining Jeff Fuller who had 233 catches from 2008-11.

Swope’s single catch vs. the Bulldogs extended his streak of games with at least one catch to 38 games, which is the second-longest in school history behind Fuller’s 46-game string.

* The 20-yard TD catch by sophomore WR LeKendrick “Beep Beep” Williams was the first score of his career.

* The 75-yard TD catch-and-run by redshirt freshman WR Mike Evans was the longest of his career. Evans finished the night with a career-high 137 yards on four catches.

* Game captains for the Aggies were: senior center Patrick Lewis, senior safety Steven Terrell, senior linebacker Sean Porter and senior wide receiver Ryan Swope. Louisiana Tech won the toss and deferred to the second half. A&M received and defended the north goal.

* Making his fourth career start at 12th Man was Justin Bass, a sophomore linebacker from Plano, Texas. His older brother, 2011 senior Ben Bass, is on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad.