Texas A&M spoiled Kentucky’s comeback after UK doinked a field goal in overtime

Texas A&M beat No. 13 Kentucky on Saturday in overtime, 20-14. The Wildcats almost pulled off a bank heist of a late win in College Station but couldn’t finish the job.

Kentucky had the first possession of overtime. The Wildcats had to settle for a field goal try from 43 yards out. Kicker Miles Butler weirdly came up short from that distance, doinking the thing off the crossbar and leaving A&M a chance to win with any points.

The Aggie offense didn’t have a hard time with that. It took four plays for them to go the 25 yards they needed for a game-sealing Trayveon Williams touchdown.

UK put up a nice fight, playing while ranked higher than in any other game since it was briefly No. 8 in 2007. But the Wildcats fell to 5-1, while the Aggies went to 3-2.

A&M led by a touchdown with less than five minutes to play and had a third-and-1 just shy of midfield, with a chance to pretty nearly ice the game. It was at this point that Kellen Mond ran into trouble on an apparent bootleg play-action attempt, fumbled upon a hit by the Wildcats’ Derrick Baity, and then had to watch while the Cats’ Darius West scooped the ball off the Kyle Field turf and and ran 40 yards for a game-tying TD.

The Aggies had taken a 14-7 lead about five minutes into the fourth quarter, when Mond threw a 46-yard scoring pass to tight end Jace Sternberger. At the time West ran back Mond’s fumble, UK hadn’t scored since there were 70 seconds left in the first. The A&M defense did a nice job throughout against Benny Snell and Kentucky’s usually-great running game. The West touchdown was shocking for how sharply it turned the game.

Both defenses got stops after that. Mond got a Hail Mary throw into the Kentucky end zone on the last play of regulation, and it almost got caught, but it didn’t.

This was the teams’ first meeting since 1953, when Bear Bryant left UK for A&M. The schools hadn’t met as crossover opponents any time in A&M’s first six years in the SEC.