Box Score
Aggies manage just 102 yards of offense

GREENSBORO, November 8, 2008 – Dropped passes and injuries led interim head coach George Ragsdale to one conclusion. The North Carolina A&T football team’s best formation on Saturday was its punt formation.

The Aggies offense continued to struggle, while Florida A&M put together an impressive air attack to down the Aggies 45-7 Saturday afternoon at Aggie Stadium. Rattlers quarterback Curtis Pulley threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns on 14-for-28 passing. Kevin Elliott caught six of those passes for 93 yards and a touchdown.

Senior middle linebacker Brandon Long led the Aggies with 12 tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss. Junior safety Nick Clement added eight tackles and junior defensive end Jarrell Herring had two sacks.

Long and Clement not only played well defensively. But they also produced two of the Aggies biggest offensive plays of the day. As the Aggies set up for a first-quarter punt on 4^th-and-5 from the Florida A&M 45-yard line, Clement took a direct snap from center, dodged a few Rattler tacklers and ran 37 yards for a first-and-goal from the Rattlers 6.

Clement’s run set up a 5-yard touchdown from Aggies quarterback Carlton Fears for a 7-0 Aggies lead three minutes into the game.

In the fourth quarter, the Aggies again lined up for a punt. But instead of booting the ball, Woodson lofted a pass to a wide open Long for a 21-yard completion to the Rattlers 25. The pass led to an Aggies 39-yard field goal attempt that was blocked by Curtis Holcomb. Those two plays pretty much amounted for the Aggies offense.

“We’ve been having trouble moving the football,’’ said Ragsdale. “(Defensive coordinator Tayrone Odums) is in charge of the punt team. “We got a few injuries, so when it came time for us to punt,  he called a few good fakes. As a matter of fact it might have been our best offense today.”

Ragsdale watched as his offense turned the ball over four times, while receivers dropped five passes. Therefore, he had a quick answer when asked what will remedy the Aggies offense. “We’ve got to catch it,’’ he said.

“Today, we weren’t as efficient in passing the ball as we would like to be. We had some passes today that I know should have been caught that could’ve been turned into first downs to keep those chains moving and keep our defense off the field. Who knows what happens if we catch some of those passes and keep our momentum going.”

The Rattlers didn’t have as much trouble catching the football. Eight different Rattler receivers caught passes on Saturday. Florid A&M answered the Aggies early score as Pulley completed four passes on a 8-play, 39-yard drive that ended when Adrian Smith caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Pulley to tie the game at 7 with 8:34 remaining in the first quarter.

The score was set up by on an onside kick the Rattlers recovered at the Aggies 39. After an Aggies three-and-out, the Rattlers were set up with good field position again as LeRoy Vann returned a Woodson punt 21 yards to the Aggies 44. It took two Pulley to Elliott passes to give the Rattlers a 14-7 lead as Elliott caught a 14-yard pass to start the drive and a 30-yard pass to end it.

Another excellent punt return gave the Rattlers a two touchdown lead as he took the punt on one bounce, turned left and ran through a wave of blockers for a 61-yard punt return for a touchdown with 11:22 remaining in the first half.

The Rattlers, whose average starting field position was the Aggies 44, used another Vann punt return to start their final scoring drive of the first half at the Aggies 41. Nine plays later, Lonvontae Page scored a 1-yard touchdown for a 28-7 Florida A&M halftime lead.

The Aggies will welcome a bye week before closing out the season at home against S.C. State on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 1:30 p.m. “We will have a chance to get a few people healthy, so we can get back in the fight,’’ said Ragsdale.