Texas A&M starting quarterback Kellen Mond began the 2018 season with 824 passing yards and six touchdowns in just three games.Despite the impressive start, Mond’s performance in the past two games–against No. 1 Alabama and Arkansas, has shown his lack of experience through a cluster of interceptions and sacks.
Last week in Tuscaloosa, Mond had a 48.5 percent passing rating, maintaining 196 passing yards, and a season high of 98 rushing yards. Mond and the A&M offense were unable to catch up to Alabama’s star offense with Tua Tagovailoa at its helm. Mond threw two interceptions and was sacked seven times by the Alabama defense.
He had a similar game against Arkansas, but was ultimately able to lead his team to a 24-17 victory. Mond finished the game with 201 passing yards, completing 17 of his 26 attempts. Rushing wise, Mond didn’t move out of the pocket quite as much and ended up with only 14 rushing yards. Similar to his performance against the Crimson Tide, he was intercepted twice and sacked three times.
Head coach Jimbo Fisher said the amount of mistakes Mond made throughout the game, either from forcing plays or taking sacks, is something they both need to work closely on.
“Those are things as a quarterback, every time you touch the football the game changes good or bad. At least be neutral. Sometimes neutral is a win. You got to understand how to play that. He works hard. I got to get him to more intelligently in those situations and keep educating him so we don’t make those mistakes again.”
Both interceptions thrown against Arkansas were from senior linebacker Dre Greenlaw. These were marked his first of the season. Greenlaw would only gain five yards on the second interception, and finished the game with 13 tackles and 5 solo tackles.
“As soon as I saw his [Mond] head stay to that side, I knew that he was going to break that way. … [for the second one] I just dropped in my zone and he threw the ball. I was trying to take out with it. I was trying to run but somebody got me by the ankles,” Greenlaw said.
Two back-to-back games filled with inconsistencies and offensive issues, Mond said he takes full responsibility for how his mistakes affect the game, remaining hopeful in the new opportunity A&M facing No. 17 Kentucky next weekend.
“I think the offense I think we’re a little bit inconsistent. We knew we could drive on them, and we had a lot of success,” Mond said. “But it takes that one small penalty or interception that I threw to kind of turn the game around, and that’s something I kind of need to clean up. And I knew that. And coming into halftime, I told everybody keep continuing to do what they were doing because those interceptions and turnovers were on me.”