Dennis Franchione stood calm in the face of another barrage of questions about his fourth-quarter goal-line play call that didn’t work.

Mind you, this was Tuesday, three days after Texas A&M’s 17-16 loss to Oklahoma. But the Aggies’ coach knew exactly why the gathered media still was trying to understand why, with A&M down 17-10 and facing a third-down play from the 2-yard line, he sent in a play-action pass.

Why not give the ball to Jorvorskie Lane and let the 274-pound tailback bull his way into the end zone? After all, earlier in the game,  Lane carried three straight times on a first-and-goal situation and scored the Aggies’ only touchdown on third-and-1.

For the season, the sophomore had either scored or picked up a first down on 24 of his 27 third- or fourth-down carries. And he’d done that his last 15 tries. You gotta like those odds.

Then again, maybe Franchione could have given the ball to Mike Goodson and let the highly regarded true freshman, whose mother ran in the Olympics, flash his speed and beat the Sooners on the perimeter? Goodson had ripped off a 58-yard run on his first attempt and would later gain 31 more to set up another field goal.

After being asked about his feelings on the third-and-2 play that resulted in an incompletion to tight end Martellus Bennett, Franchione fielded two questions about Lane, one about the decision to kick a field goal on fourth down, one more regarding the third-down call and another about Lane before somebody brought up Goodson.

“Hindsight is always easy, and you certainly rethink everything that you do in situations,” Franchione reasoned. “We wouldn’t have called the play on third down that we called if we didn’t think it was going to work.”

Franchione delivered those words with no hint of resentment over being asked about his strategy.

In a way, it was his acknowledgement of the abilities of Lane and Goodson, keys to the Aggies being the top rushing team in the Big 12.

While Lane ranks No. 2 nationally with 18 rushing touchdowns, the 6-foot, 192-pound Goodson leads A&M in rushing with 619 yards (3 more than Lane) on 49 fewer carries.

But on the Aggies’ fourth-quarter series that ended up with the field goal making it 17-13, neither carried the ball once it was first-and-goal.

Goodson did start the next possession with his 31-yard run to the OU 26, and then ran for 1 yard on the next play. But after two passes netted 3 yards, A&M kicked another field goal.

“They were difficult to move the ball against. I mean, I didn’t feel like you could just run the ball and move the ball on them,” Franchione said. “I felt like you had to continue to try to have some other elements in the offense.

“As hard as yards had been to come by, and Layne (Neumann) was kicking good, I felt like … we stop them we are going to get the ball back with a minute 20, somewhere in there, (with a) short field. We’ve been really good in the last couple of minutes of halves moving the ball, and in this case we don’t have to have a touchdown. We just need about 25 or 30 yards to be in field-goal range.”

As it turned out, Oklahoma never relinquished the ball during the final 3:28, as the Sooners went for it on fourth-and-inches from their 29 and caught A&M with too many men on the field.

That, of course, seemed a cruel twist, in light of the talk that perhaps the Aggies should have called on different men when their offense was in the red zone.

“We felt like we could capitalize faking it to Jorvorskie and getting a guy open in the flat,” quarterback Stephen McGee said of the third-and-goal play. “Any time you get in the red zone, obviously, they’re going to be taking Jorvorskie up the middle, so trying to play-fake it to him and get a guy in the flat was what we were thinking. They just played it well.

“We feel like we can do both extremely well, whether that’s giving it to (the running backs) or throwing it. We believe in everybody taking care of their job. Jorvorskie’s done a great job all year and … everybody else has, too. I don’t think you can just key one guy in particular.”

McGee would get no argument from defensive coordinators on that point. With A&M, teams have to, at the minimum, key on the changeup-fastball combination of Lane and Goodson.

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.