Aggies can’t get over hump
Special teams play helps Crimson Tide pull away in convincing victory at College Station
COLLEGE STATION — Jimbo Fisher softly and perhaps subconsciously groaned as he stood from the postgame interview table on Saturday, while reaching for a box score from his latest setback at Texas A&M.
By then it was a familiar refrain at Kyle Field, because more than 100,000 fans had spent a good chunk of the previous three hours groaning at the latest Aggie miscue in the top-ranked Crimson Tide’s 47-28 victory.
“We’ve just got to learn to get over that hump —we’ve got to push through it,” Fisher said. “Against good people, you can’t almost get there.”
The No. 24 Aggies are 3-3 overall with a losing record in SEC play (1-2), but their previous misgivings primarily occurred on offense or defense. This time around it was special teams, with former A&M special teams coach Jeff Banks on the other sideline with Alabama.
“We just couldn’t do enough to keep up with their offense,” A&M quarterback Kellen Mond said. “I felt like their offense was able to get a lot of good field position based on their returns.”
Mond, who had an overall solid game for the Aggies, was right, and plenty of the damage was done by a Houstonian whom the Aggies just missed on early in Fisher’s A&M tenure.
Former Episcopal High star Jaylen Waddle returned four punts for 128 yards, each time setting up Alabama in enviable field position. In addition, Alabama’s Ale Kaho blocked a Braden Mann punt early in the fourth quarter, and Tyrell Shavers coolly scooped up the ball for an easy 2yard touchdown.
“Those guys on our special teams, they were the ones to kind of mediate the shift of the game,” Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said.
Fisher declined to put the blame for the 19-point loss on special teams, although Alabama scored touchdowns on each of the drives following Mann’s four punts that weren’t blocked.
“We win and lose as a team,” Fisher said. “There’s nothing that costs us a game, except our whole football team and our coaching staff. We’re all in this together. We’ll look and evaluate these things, but field position is a big part.
“Those are things we usually do a really good job of, and they actually got the advantage in that part today, no doubt.”
Tagovailoa, a leading Heisman Trophy candidate midway through the season, was sharp from the start, firing four touchdown passes — including one to the do-it-all Waddle — while finishing 21 of 34 for 293 yards. He also happened to throw his first interception of the season to go with 27 touchdown passes, when A&M safety Demani Richardson picked him off in the end zone late in the second quarter.
That helped keep the score relatively close at halftime (24-13), and Mond claimed the Aggies “fought the whole entire game” for maybe the first time this season.
“We have a long way to go, but I like where we’re at,” Mond said.
The Aggies are where most prognosticators picked them to be halfway through the regular season, save perhaps for a 28-20 home loss to Auburn on Sept. 21. A&M was slightly favored in that game, but trailed 21-3 early in the fourth quarter before mounting a mini-comeback.
The Aggies’ other two losses were to teams ranked No. 1 at the time, and they failed to score a touchdown at Clemson (now No. 2) until six seconds remained in a 24-10 loss on Sept. 7.
Mond, a junior who started his third game against Alabama, said fighting the entire game this time around meant a decent start, as opposed to failing to score touchdowns in their first three quarters against Clemson and Auburn.
On Saturday on their opening drive the Aggies marched 75 yards on 15 plays, with Mond stretching into the end zone to cap the drive eight minutes into the game, and before Tagovailoa & Co. had touched the ball.
“Obviously a great win for us,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “This is a tough place to play against a good team.”
A&M played Alabama much closer at Kyle two years ago, when Mond was a freshman and Kevin Sumlin was on his way out as coach. The Crimson Tide won that one 27-19, en route to their fifth national championship under Saban.
Saban improved to 18-0 against his former assistants, including 3-0 against Fisher.
The Aggies try and get back on track in SEC play on Saturday at Mississippi.