Texas Bowl: Mond overcomes shaky start to lead Aggies over Cowboys

Read Time:4 Minute, 33 Second

This was the 28th game between these schools, a series dating back to 1913. They met annually as members of the Big 12 conference, but last met in 2011 in A&M’s last year in the Big 12 before moving to the Southeastern Conference. The Cowboys won that game 30-29 to extend their winning streak in the series to four games. Last night, the two teams met in the 2019 Academy Sports and Outdoors Texas Bowl.

The Cowboys were 19-10 in bowl games and their 65.5% winning percentage ranks second nationally among schools with at least 20 bowl appearances. Oklahoma State was 7-3 in its last 10 bowl games.

The Cowboys were appearing in their 14th straight bowl game, the ninth longest streak in the country.

Oklahoma State entered the game with an 8–4 record (5–4 in conference) and ranked 25th in the AP Poll. The Cowboys finished in a four-way tie for third place in the Big 12. Oklahoma State was 2–3 against ranked teams.

This was Texas A&M’s third Texas Bowl, the most appearances of any team. Their 2011 team won that season’s Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (as the game was then named) over Northwestern, 33–22, and their 2016 team lost that season’s Texas Bowl to Kansas State, 33–28. Texas A&M entered the game at 7–5 (4–4 in conference), having finished in fourth place in the SEC’s West Division. Texas A&M was 0–5 against ranked teams.

A second and seven fumble by A&M’s Kellen Mond on the second play of the game was recovered by OSU at the A&M 25-yard line, but OSU was unable to capitalize. A missed 53-yard field goal turned the ball back over to Texas A&M. After a three and out series, A&M punted and downed the ball on OSU’s three-yard line. On first and ten, RB Chuba Hubbard ran for five yards setting up second and ten in which time he broke open a 37 yarder to the OSU 43 yard line.

A 15-yard pass to RB LD Brown to the A&M 42 yard line for a first down set up OSU Quarterback Dru Brown who connected on a 42-yard pass on first and ten to WR Braydon Johnson for a touchdown at the 7:47 mark of the first quarter. It was a five-play, 97-yard drive and it was OSU 7 – A&M 0. The 97-yard drive was the longest drive in Texas Bowl history. After a failed offensive series by A&M, OSU’s Brown later scored on a nine-yard run at the one and a half minute mark of the first quarter to make the score OSU 14 – A&M 0.

Five minutes and thirty-nine seconds into the second quarter, A&M RB Isaiah Spiller scored on a one-yard run to cap off a six-play twenty-two yd drive. (OSU 14 – A&M 7).

At the 10:32 mark of the third quarter, A&M QB Kellen Mond connected with WR Jhamon Ausbon to score again on a seven-play, 60-yard drive and the score was tied at 14.

At the 10:45 mark of the fourth quarter, A&M put together a three-play, 88-yard drive in where Mond burst free on a 67-yard touchdown run that took only 1:08 off the clock. (A&M 21 – OSU 14).

A&M kicked a field goal at the 2:52 mark of the game to increase their lead to ten points, A&M 24 – OSU 14. OSU managed to put together a successful two-minute offensive drive scoring a touchdown on a passing play from Brown to Johnson with 1:04 left on the game clock. (A&M 24 – OSU 21).

An onside kick by OSU was recovered by A&M with 1:04 left on the game clock. A&M killed the clock with two offensive plays to end the game. The final score was A&M 24 – OSU 21.

A&M QB Kellen Mond was named game MVP and OSU RB Chuba Hubbard became the second player in OSU history to rush for over two thousand yards (2,094). Second only To Barry Sanders 2,628 in 1988.

Game Notes:

Oklahoma St

Dru Brown would finish the game 15-28 for 184 yards passing and two touchdowns, but yielded only a 43.6 QBR.

Chuba Brown had a good game with 158 yards on 19 carries to get over the 2,000-yard mark for the season.

Braydon Johnson caught five passes for 124 yards and two scores.

On the defensive side of the ball Amen Ogbongbemiga has 12 total tackles, seven of them were solo, one sack, and a tackle for a loss. Malcolm Rodriguez added nine tackles with three of them being solo.

Texas A&M

Kellen Mond had a good overall game after that shaky start. He would finish 13-19 for 95 yards and a touchdown and added 117 yards rushing on 12 carries to go with his 67-yard score. He would also fumble twice losing both.

Isaiah Spiller chipped in 77 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown on the ground.