Drops leave Aggies in a rut
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Every time Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond approached the sidelines Saturday night, Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher accounted for the “rattle” factor. Fisher’s conclusion on each occasion: His quarterback was unfazed by Mississippi State’s unswerving hot pursuit and occasional helmet-jarring hit.
“He came right off the field and told me what was going on,” Fisher said. “He was saying good things, the right things, what he saw and why he did things. They made sense. … We’ll look at the film and evaluate, but as far as rattled, I don’t think he was rattled. When guys get rattled, they can’t process back to you, but he was doing that.”
Plenty went haywire for the Aggies in a 28-13 loss at MSU, their third straight setback to the Bulldogs. But Fisher vowed Mond wasn’t a big part of the problem — the men on the other end of his passes were.
“We probably had about seven to 10 drops on the night, off the top of my head,” said Fisher, whose team has a trip to Auburn up next. “You can’t do that. What that does is set the tone.”
In recent seasons, the Bulldogs have knocked off the Aggies when A&M was ranked sixth in the Associated Press poll (2014) and fourth in the College Football Playoff tabulation (2016), so the Aggies are no strangers to setbacks in Starkville.
“We can point fingers all we want,” said defensive end Landis Durham, whose senior class is 1-3 against the Bulldogs. “We just have to execute, and that falls on us at the end of the day.”
This time around, A&M sank from No. 16 to No. 25 in the AP Top 25, eliminating any late Hail Mary at making the four-team playoff.
Mond is coming under fire for the A&M offense’s failing to consistently get the ball in the end zone against Southeastern Conference opponents.
“It’s something we need to clean up and fix,” he said.
Mond finished 23-of-46 for 232 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Fisher figured about 10 of those incompletions could have been snagged by A&M’s receivers, which is why he wasn’t placing any blame on his quarterback.
“Your offense can’t get in a rhythm,” Fisher said, “because you’re getting behind the sticks.”