If this was Johnny Manziel’s last college football game, it was memorable.
Manziel tied a Chick-fil-A Bowl record with four touchdown passes to lead Texas A&M to a 52-48 victory over Duke on Tuesday night in front of 67,946 people in attendance at the Georgia Dome.
The Aggies trailed by 21 points at halftime before Manziel led the rally with touchdown passes of 19 and 44 yards, and a scoring run of 3 yards in the final two quarters. Manziel, who is considered a top-15 pick in the NFL draft if he leaves school early, completed 30 of his 38 pass attempts for 382 yards. He threw one incompletion in the second half, going 12-of-13. He also rushed 11 times for 73 yards.
“It’s an unreal feeling, I know that,” Manziel said. “The biggest comeback in school history … wow.”
The rally was complete when Texas A&M’s Toney Hurd Jr. cut on a poorly thrown pass by Anthony Boone to Johnell Barnes, returning the interception 55 yards for a touchdown to give the Aggies their first and final lead with 3:33 left. It was the first turnover for either team and the best play made by a Texas A&M defense under siege all night.
“Unfortunately a really bad decision on (that play),” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “He took a risk that was calculated and it didn’t work.”
The victory was secured when Nate Askew intercepted Boone, who was trying to throw the ball away as he was being spun around, with 1:19 left in the game.
“Two of the greatest compliments is your team plays hard and doesn’t quit,” Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. “That comes from the locker room.”
The victory tied the record between the SEC and ACC at 11 (since the pairing was made official in 1992) in the final guaranteed matchup between the conferences in the bowl. The Chick-fil-A will become part of the rotation in the new college football playoff system next year.
It appeared that Duke was going to win its first bowl game since beating Arkansas 7-6 in the Cotton on Jan. 2, 1961.
Texas A&M’s defense, one of the worst in the SEC, could do nothing against the Blue Devils, who scored on every possession in the first half as they raced to a 38-17 lead. During that stretch Duke blocked a punt, Cutcliffe went for it two fourth-down situations and even successfully attempted an onside kick because he said he was trying to put the hammer down.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
Sumlin said his team trailed because they didn’t execute well in a bunch of one-on-one situations.
“We just had a little bit of a discussion at halftime about doing your job,” Sumlin said. “Play each play, do your job, be accountable.”
And then things got really interesting.
Texas A&M finally stopped Duke on fourth-and-1 on the Blue Devils’ first drive of the second half. Manziel then did his bobbing and weaving thing — jumping into the line and then bouncing back out — before finding Travis Labhart for a 19-yard touchdown with 9:55 left. It was Labhart’s third touchdown reception of the game and cut Duke’s lead to 38-24.
Texas A&M’s defense caught another break when Duke’s Ross Martin missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt on the Blue Devils’ next possession.
The Aggies capitalized with a 21-yard touchdown run by Tra Carson to pull within 38-31 with 5:05 left in the third quarter.
Duke was forced on its next possession to settle for a 20-yard field goal and 41-31 lead with 43 seconds left in the third, despite having first-and-goal at the 3-yard line.
Duke fans who were crowing on social media were starting to backtrack.
Texas A&M then “Manzieled” its way to 41-38 on a 3-yard touchdown run by the quarterback with 12:48 left. Manziel had mostly an open field on the left side after Duke collapsed on the running back on the read-option play.
But Duke wasn’t done.
The Blue Devils on their next drive picked up four third downs on distances of 8, 11, 3 and 8 yards before Boone hit David Reeves for what looked like a short gain, but Reeves shed the tackle and tiptoed the sideline for a 21-yard touchdown. The score gave Duke a 48-38 lead with 6:46 left.
But Texas A&M wasn’t done.
Manziel needed 62 seconds to bring the Aggies back to within a field goal. After failing several times to hit the deep pass, he finally connected with Derel Walker for a 44-yard touchdown to cut Duke’s lead to 48-45 with 5:44 left.
“I can’t imagine he can play better than he played today,” Cutcliffe said of Manziel.
And then Duke finally made a game-changing mistake, with Hurd capitalizing.
“We got beat by turning the ball over and beat by a great football player in Johnny Manziel,” Cutcliffe said.
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