Mourning another loss by the TCU football team, while saying a prayer for Gary Patterson, who is mourning the loss of his mother, after burying his father earlier in the year ...
Thanks, a lot, Longhorns!
Not only did you help derail TCU's season nearly a month ago, on September 22, by defeating the Horned Frogs, 31-16, for the first time in five tries, you had to follow that two weeks later with a last-second 48-45 victory over Oklahoma in your annual Corny Dog Showdown at the State Fair of Texas.
Hopefully, y'all got sick on the Tilt-A-Whirl after the game!
Your improbable win over the Sooners ruined a potential TCU match-up against a Top Five team this Saturday, October 20, in Amon G. Carter Stadium during the Horned Frogs' Homecoming. Now Oklahoma comes into Cowtown ranked only as the country's ninth-best team (Associated Press Poll). But, hey, dating back to its 37-33 home win over No. 3 Oklahoma in 2014, TCU is 5-5 in its last 10 games versus top-10 ranked teams.
Of course, in addition to UT beating Oklahoma, the Frogs didn't exactly uphold their end of the bargain, getting upset by Texas Tech, 17-14, last Thursday, October 11 (Midnite had predicted a 28-27 TCU win).
The TCU-Tech game was the ESPN nationally televised college football game of the week. So, sadly, millions of people across the country witnessed the Frogs' offensive ineptness. So much for free advertising.
As a result of their latest loss, TCU not only is not in the Top 25, the Frogs no longer are receiving votes, in either poll.
In fact, in some sports circles, the Horned Frogs are being mentioned as one of the college football teams that have greatly under-delivered this season.
Ouch! Not even a funnel cake or a deep-fried Oreo can ease that pain.
Thus, with all things considered, Saturday's contest between the Frogs and the Sooners was relegated by the TV networks to an 11 am start. Set the alarm clocks. Bring on the Mimosas and breakfast burritos.
TCU marketing gurus promoted the TCU-Tech game as a "Black Out," which turned out to be appropriate, in more ways than one
The main purpose of color-coded games is to sell already cash-strapped fans more logo merchandise. But this "Black Out" set the mood for the evening. The Frogs' offense continued to fade away, and TCU head coach Gary Patterson's mother Gail had passed away a week earlier, on Thursday, October 4. Back in January, Patterson's father Keith had passed away.
So, Patterson was in an even more somber mood when he penned a song after the loss to the Red Raiders. Listen here.
Every year, Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury seemingly is on the hot seat, one big loss away from having to vacate his Lubbock residence. But he somehow coaxes his Red Raiders to get that one victory that saves his butt. The road win over the Frogs may well be Kliff's saving grace in 2018. As King of the Plains for at least another game, the jubilant Kingsbury penned a song after the victory. Listen here.
For the third time this season, the Frogs lost a game they were leading at halftime, due to turnovers and a lack of play-makers who can create touchdowns, especially at crucial times during a game.
Thursday night, TCU had another three turnovers.
Sophomore quarterback Shawn Robinson threw two more interceptions, and had a couple of other potential interceptions dropped by Tech defenders. For the season, Robinson has been intercepted eight times.
Running back Sewo Olonilua lost a fumble. The Frogs fumbled three other times in the game, but fortunately recovered those loose footballs.
And, kicker Jonathan Song missed a 47-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the first half. In case your math is bad, the difference between the Frogs and the Red Raiders Thursday night was three points.
Does that jog your memory? Remember the Frogs' game against Texas Tech in 2016 in Fort Worth? The TCU offense was mysteriously and hauntingly missing in action. And to make matters worse, TCU placekicker Brandon Hatfield missed three field goals, including one in the game's second overtime. TCU lost to Tech 27-24 in double overtime.
Remember when TCU's offense was humming? And remember the Frogs' game against Texas Tech in 2014 in Fort Worth? TCU defeated the Red Raiders 82-27. The 82 points were a Big 12 record and the most scored by a team in an FBS-FCS game since 2010.
Oh, well, back to the present.
The Frogs have turned the ball over 13 times over their last four games, during which they have gone 1-3 and blown leads in each of the losses.
They’ve scored just 47 points the last three games, bottoming out with the 14 against Texas Tech.
TCU is last in the Big 12 in turnover margin (minus-9), giveaways (15) and interceptions thrown (nine; in addition to Robinson's eight, KaVontae Turpin also has thrown an interception, in the game against Texas).
Before the season, TCU offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Sonny Cumbie said a key to the Frogs' offense would be explosiveness.
"If we can be explosive this year on offense, and with our defense, we should give ourselves a good chance to win the game," proclaimed Cumbie.
Cumbie was right. But, except for a couple of plays (in particular, Darius Anderson's 93-yard touchdown run against Ohio State), that explosiveness has been missing from TCU's offense. The Frogs rank last in the Big 12, by a wide margin, in gains of 20 or more yards.
Against Tech, Robinson completed only 26 of 45 passes to his own players, for 290 yards. He threw two touchdown passes, to Jalen Reagor and Turpin.
Reagor hauled in a 20-yard second quarter touchdown pass. It was his team-best third of the season and the 11th of his career, moving him into 13th place on TCU's career list. Reagor has at least one reception in his last 11 games, the longest current streak by a Horned Frog. He has a catch in 19 of his 20 games at TCU.
Reagor finished with 73 receiving yards against Tech, on a career-high tying eight receptions, pushing his career total to 1,008 yards. He became the 17th player to surpass the 1,000-yard receiving mark for his career during Patterson's head coaching tenure.
Turpin's 31-yard fourth-quarter touchdown catch put the Frogs ahead 14-10 and was the 12th of his career, tying him with Jeremy Kerley (2007-10) and Phillip Epps (1978-81) for 10th on TCU's career list.
Turpin's six receptions against the Red Raiders moved him ahead of John Washington (135, 1993-96) into eighth place on TCU's career list with 140. His 120 yards receiving gave him his first 100-yard game of the season and fourth of his career. It was the first 100-yard receiving game by a Horned Frog in 2018.
The Frogs' Al'Dontre Davis had five receptions for 56 yards, after entering the game with one catch on the season. True freshman Tevailance Hunt had his first collegiate reception.
A telling sign of TCU's continuing running game woes is that Robinson was the Frogs' leading rusher against Tech, with 42 yards on seven carries. Anderson had 39 yards on 12 carries. Olonilua had 32 yards on six carries.
The TCU defense put forth another strong effort and was the reason the Frogs led 7-3 at halftime. The combined 10 points in the first half were the lowest in a TCU game since the Frogs led 7-3 versus West Virginia last season en route to a 31-24 victory.
TCU's defense limited Texas Tech to 353 yards. The Red Raiders were the nation's leader in total offense entering the game at 591.4 yards per game. Tech also was tied for seventh in scoring in the FBS at 48.4 points per game.
Again, just in case you are bad at math, the Frogs held Tech to more than 31 points below its scoring average.
The Frogs' defense recorded four sacks, two each by Ben Banogu and L.J. Collier. The four sacks equaled a season high from the SMU game. TCU had two players with multiple sacks for the first time since an October 8, 2016, win at Kansas when Josh Carraway had 3.0 and Mat Boesen had 1.5.
Banogu had a TCU career-high eight tackles. His collegiate career high was nine stops for ULM versus Tulsa in 2015.
Six of Banogu's tackles in the Tech game were solo stops, setting a new career high. This was his second multi-sack game of the season and third of his TCU career. He now has 4.5 sacks on the year and 13 in his two seasons as a Horned Frog. Banogu has 21 tackles for loss in 20 career games at TCU and 35 in his collegiate career. He had 14 tackles for loss for ULM in 2015.
Collier has 3.5 sacks on the season and 11.5 in his career.
Ty Summers had four tackles to give him 300 in his career. He ranks third for most stops in the 18-season tenure of Patterson, trailing only former teammate Travin Howard (343, 2014-17) and Jason Phillips (315, 2005-08).
Julius Lewis had an interception, the first in his career.
TCU's defense controlled most of the game against the Red Raiders, but, in addition to a 22-yard first-quarter field goal by Clayton Hatfield, unfortunately gave up two big scoring plays: A 62-yard touchdown pass from Texas Tech quarterback Jett Duffey to Ja'Deion High, and a 38-yard decisive touchdown run through the heart of the Frogs' defense by Duffey midway through the fourth quarter.
Thus, TCU fans were left mourning another loss, which, of course, paled in comparison to the reason for Patterson's mourning.
After the game, he was flying home to bury his mother.
Not only did you help derail TCU's season nearly a month ago, on September 22, by defeating the Horned Frogs, 31-16, for the first time in five tries, you had to follow that two weeks later with a last-second 48-45 victory over Oklahoma in your annual Corny Dog Showdown at the State Fair of Texas.
Hopefully, y'all got sick on the Tilt-A-Whirl after the game!
Your improbable win over the Sooners ruined a potential TCU match-up against a Top Five team this Saturday, October 20, in Amon G. Carter Stadium during the Horned Frogs' Homecoming. Now Oklahoma comes into Cowtown ranked only as the country's ninth-best team (Associated Press Poll). But, hey, dating back to its 37-33 home win over No. 3 Oklahoma in 2014, TCU is 5-5 in its last 10 games versus top-10 ranked teams.
Of course, in addition to UT beating Oklahoma, the Frogs didn't exactly uphold their end of the bargain, getting upset by Texas Tech, 17-14, last Thursday, October 11 (Midnite had predicted a 28-27 TCU win).
The TCU-Tech game was the ESPN nationally televised college football game of the week. So, sadly, millions of people across the country witnessed the Frogs' offensive ineptness. So much for free advertising.
As a result of their latest loss, TCU not only is not in the Top 25, the Frogs no longer are receiving votes, in either poll.
In fact, in some sports circles, the Horned Frogs are being mentioned as one of the college football teams that have greatly under-delivered this season.
Ouch! Not even a funnel cake or a deep-fried Oreo can ease that pain.
Thus, with all things considered, Saturday's contest between the Frogs and the Sooners was relegated by the TV networks to an 11 am start. Set the alarm clocks. Bring on the Mimosas and breakfast burritos.
TCU marketing gurus promoted the TCU-Tech game as a "Black Out," which turned out to be appropriate, in more ways than one
The main purpose of color-coded games is to sell already cash-strapped fans more logo merchandise. But this "Black Out" set the mood for the evening. The Frogs' offense continued to fade away, and TCU head coach Gary Patterson's mother Gail had passed away a week earlier, on Thursday, October 4. Back in January, Patterson's father Keith had passed away.
So, Patterson was in an even more somber mood when he penned a song after the loss to the Red Raiders. Listen here.
Every year, Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury seemingly is on the hot seat, one big loss away from having to vacate his Lubbock residence. But he somehow coaxes his Red Raiders to get that one victory that saves his butt. The road win over the Frogs may well be Kliff's saving grace in 2018. As King of the Plains for at least another game, the jubilant Kingsbury penned a song after the victory. Listen here.
For the third time this season, the Frogs lost a game they were leading at halftime, due to turnovers and a lack of play-makers who can create touchdowns, especially at crucial times during a game.
Thursday night, TCU had another three turnovers.
Sophomore quarterback Shawn Robinson threw two more interceptions, and had a couple of other potential interceptions dropped by Tech defenders. For the season, Robinson has been intercepted eight times.
Running back Sewo Olonilua lost a fumble. The Frogs fumbled three other times in the game, but fortunately recovered those loose footballs.
And, kicker Jonathan Song missed a 47-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the first half. In case your math is bad, the difference between the Frogs and the Red Raiders Thursday night was three points.
Does that jog your memory? Remember the Frogs' game against Texas Tech in 2016 in Fort Worth? The TCU offense was mysteriously and hauntingly missing in action. And to make matters worse, TCU placekicker Brandon Hatfield missed three field goals, including one in the game's second overtime. TCU lost to Tech 27-24 in double overtime.
Remember when TCU's offense was humming? And remember the Frogs' game against Texas Tech in 2014 in Fort Worth? TCU defeated the Red Raiders 82-27. The 82 points were a Big 12 record and the most scored by a team in an FBS-FCS game since 2010.
Oh, well, back to the present.
The Frogs have turned the ball over 13 times over their last four games, during which they have gone 1-3 and blown leads in each of the losses.
They’ve scored just 47 points the last three games, bottoming out with the 14 against Texas Tech.
TCU is last in the Big 12 in turnover margin (minus-9), giveaways (15) and interceptions thrown (nine; in addition to Robinson's eight, KaVontae Turpin also has thrown an interception, in the game against Texas).
Before the season, TCU offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Sonny Cumbie said a key to the Frogs' offense would be explosiveness.
"If we can be explosive this year on offense, and with our defense, we should give ourselves a good chance to win the game," proclaimed Cumbie.
Cumbie was right. But, except for a couple of plays (in particular, Darius Anderson's 93-yard touchdown run against Ohio State), that explosiveness has been missing from TCU's offense. The Frogs rank last in the Big 12, by a wide margin, in gains of 20 or more yards.
Against Tech, Robinson completed only 26 of 45 passes to his own players, for 290 yards. He threw two touchdown passes, to Jalen Reagor and Turpin.
Reagor hauled in a 20-yard second quarter touchdown pass. It was his team-best third of the season and the 11th of his career, moving him into 13th place on TCU's career list. Reagor has at least one reception in his last 11 games, the longest current streak by a Horned Frog. He has a catch in 19 of his 20 games at TCU.
Reagor finished with 73 receiving yards against Tech, on a career-high tying eight receptions, pushing his career total to 1,008 yards. He became the 17th player to surpass the 1,000-yard receiving mark for his career during Patterson's head coaching tenure.
Turpin's 31-yard fourth-quarter touchdown catch put the Frogs ahead 14-10 and was the 12th of his career, tying him with Jeremy Kerley (2007-10) and Phillip Epps (1978-81) for 10th on TCU's career list.
Turpin's six receptions against the Red Raiders moved him ahead of John Washington (135, 1993-96) into eighth place on TCU's career list with 140. His 120 yards receiving gave him his first 100-yard game of the season and fourth of his career. It was the first 100-yard receiving game by a Horned Frog in 2018.
The Frogs' Al'Dontre Davis had five receptions for 56 yards, after entering the game with one catch on the season. True freshman Tevailance Hunt had his first collegiate reception.
A telling sign of TCU's continuing running game woes is that Robinson was the Frogs' leading rusher against Tech, with 42 yards on seven carries. Anderson had 39 yards on 12 carries. Olonilua had 32 yards on six carries.
The TCU defense put forth another strong effort and was the reason the Frogs led 7-3 at halftime. The combined 10 points in the first half were the lowest in a TCU game since the Frogs led 7-3 versus West Virginia last season en route to a 31-24 victory.
TCU's defense limited Texas Tech to 353 yards. The Red Raiders were the nation's leader in total offense entering the game at 591.4 yards per game. Tech also was tied for seventh in scoring in the FBS at 48.4 points per game.
Again, just in case you are bad at math, the Frogs held Tech to more than 31 points below its scoring average.
The Frogs' defense recorded four sacks, two each by Ben Banogu and L.J. Collier. The four sacks equaled a season high from the SMU game. TCU had two players with multiple sacks for the first time since an October 8, 2016, win at Kansas when Josh Carraway had 3.0 and Mat Boesen had 1.5.
Banogu had a TCU career-high eight tackles. His collegiate career high was nine stops for ULM versus Tulsa in 2015.
Six of Banogu's tackles in the Tech game were solo stops, setting a new career high. This was his second multi-sack game of the season and third of his TCU career. He now has 4.5 sacks on the year and 13 in his two seasons as a Horned Frog. Banogu has 21 tackles for loss in 20 career games at TCU and 35 in his collegiate career. He had 14 tackles for loss for ULM in 2015.
Collier has 3.5 sacks on the season and 11.5 in his career.
Ty Summers had four tackles to give him 300 in his career. He ranks third for most stops in the 18-season tenure of Patterson, trailing only former teammate Travin Howard (343, 2014-17) and Jason Phillips (315, 2005-08).
Julius Lewis had an interception, the first in his career.
TCU's defense controlled most of the game against the Red Raiders, but, in addition to a 22-yard first-quarter field goal by Clayton Hatfield, unfortunately gave up two big scoring plays: A 62-yard touchdown pass from Texas Tech quarterback Jett Duffey to Ja'Deion High, and a 38-yard decisive touchdown run through the heart of the Frogs' defense by Duffey midway through the fourth quarter.
Thus, TCU fans were left mourning another loss, which, of course, paled in comparison to the reason for Patterson's mourning.
After the game, he was flying home to bury his mother.
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