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1982 Cotton Bowl: Texas 14, Alabama 12
But to do it, the Tide had to get past the sixth-ranked Longhorns. Alabama had never beaten Texas in seven tries and Bryant had accomplished the feat just once in nine games, a 34-21 triumph in 1956 when he was the coach at Texas A&M. But on this day, the Tide appeared to have UT’s number. Jesse Bendross grabbed a Walter Lewis pass and scored from six yards out to cap a seven-play, 82-yard drive midway through the second quarter. After 25 minutes of scoreless play, Alabama extended its lead to 10-0 following a 24-yard Peter Kim field goal with 12:27 left in the contest. Jitter Fields got things going for Texas on the ensuing kickoff, scrambling 22 yards to spot the ball at the Texas 40. In five plays, Longhorns QB Robert Brewer marched his squad to the Alabama 30, UT’s deepest penetration of the afternoon. But a pair of incompletions left Texas staring at a third-and-10, and Brewer marched to the line ready to run a sprint-out pass. Brewer got to the line of scrimmage and didn’t like what he saw of the Alabama defensive alignment, so he called timeout to confer with Fred Akers. The timeout produced the perfect call: a quarterback draw. The ball was snapped and Alabama came with the all-out blitz. Brewer calmly found the seam and raced untouched to the endzone and the Longhorns trailed 10-7. Within five minutes, Texas was driving again. Starting from their own 20, the Longhorns moved 72-yards in 10 plays and found themselves at the Alabama eight with less than three minutes to play. On the 11th and final play of the drive, Terry Orr punched in his first touchdown of the year, scoring from eight yards out to hand Texas its first lead at 14-10. With just over two minutes remaining, there was plenty of time for Alabama to make things interesting. And, on the ensuing kickoff, Joey Jones peeled off a 61-yard return and the Tide were in business at the Texas 38. On the first play, Alabama QB Walter Lewis went for the win, firing the ball downfield toward the goal line. But William Graham picked off the pass and was immediately tackled at the one-yard-line and Texas took over. Three Brewer sneaks moved the ball to the four and a two-yard delay of game penalty moved it back to the two with 56 seconds left. Then, Texas punter John Goodson, standing at the back of the end zone, took the snap and scrambled for eight seconds before stepping out of bounds for the safety. Alabama, out of timeouts, got the ball back with 43 seconds to play, but time ran out and the Longhorns pulled the upset. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||