Texas A&M Football: What close win means for Aggies’ playoff hopes

Here are three takeaways from Texas A&M football’s road win against the Auburn Tigers. 

The Texas A&M football team kept its faint playoff hopes alive with a 31-20 win on the road against the Auburn Tigers. The Aggies offense was led by senior quarterback Kellen Mond who had 256 total yards and three total touchdowns against the Tigers. It was the Aggies’ rushing attack that dominated what ended up being a close game.

Texas A&M football rushed for 313 yards and two touchdowns in this game. Running back Isaiah Spiller led the Aggies rushing attack with 120 yards on 20 carries. Devon Achane chipped in 99 yards nine carries. Kellen Mond ran some designed quarterback runs and option contributing 60 yards and a touchdown.

Mond showed his progression in this game taking care of the football making key decisions with both his arm and legs.

On the drive that put the Aggies ahead, Kellen Mond made a key 17-yard run and a beautiful 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jalen Wydermyer. On the drive that led to the game clinching field goal, Mond saw a lane and had a huge 14-yard run on 3rd and nine to give the Aggies a fresh set of downs.

The Tigers, however, could not get much going consistently in this game. Auburn did not score in either the first or fourth quarter and did not challenge the Aggies’ secondary down field at all in this game. That allowed the Texas A&M defenders to stay close to the line of scrimmage.

Here are three more takeaways from today’s game.

3. New and improved Mond

When the Aggies began their season, Mond was the concern. Mond can be maddening as a player; you see all of the attributes and traits any coach would love in a starting quarterback. Mond, however, did not show up in big games his first three seasons and did not make great decisions all the time.

This game was indicative of Mond’s maturation and improvement as a quarterback and leader. Also, there was some progression in the offensive philosophy for the Aggies as well.

Mond made good decisions with the football including running when there was a lane. Fisher even ran Mond on some option. The numbers were not super flashy (18/23 196 yards and two touchdowns/10 carries 60 yards one touchdown), but Mond made good decisions in a close game today.