TCU smothers Minnesota 30-7, but offense has room for improvement

Trevone Boykin wanted the ball back as soon as it left his hand.

But he had already spiked it in frustration — drilled it straight into the ground as hard as he could — with everybody watching because of a false start.

That tacked on another 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, driving TCU out of the red zone and forcing another field goal in what wound up being a 30-7 victory against Minnesota on Saturday.

The Horned Frogs (2-0) had salvaged the scoring opportunity, but their offense left much to be desired despite producing more than 400 yards. They were 2 for 12 on third down. Boykin was intercepted once and sacked twice. There were two holding penalties and a false start.

And Boykin himself was called not only for spiking the ball, but also later in the third quarter for striking a defender in the helmet after the whistle.

Kind of a rough day at the office for a 23-point win.

“We were basically shooting ourselves in the foot with the penalties and stuff that basically we can control,” Boykin said. “It was nothing Minnesota did, even though they are a good, quality team. We just shot ourselves in the foot with most of the things we did.”

Fortunately for the TCU offense, the defense provided plenty of room for mistakes. Sam Carter, Derrick Kindred and Marcus Mallet each had interceptions, Paul Dawson and Chucky Hunter each forced a fumble, and Davion Pierson had a sack and shared in another as Minnesota (2-1) managed only 268 yards of offense.

“We just went out there and did our job. We got a W,” Pierson said.

That’s the same thing Boykin thought from the offense’s perspective. It got a W.

But oh, those mistakes. Especially his two 15-yarders.

“I would like to really apologize about it because, me, at the position I’m in, I shouldn’t be doing stuff like that,” Boykin said.

No, he should be doing stuff like throwing touchdown passes — which he did twice in the first quarter to junior receiver Josh Doctson, who hauled in a fade with one foot inbounds to catch one score and went up to catch another with one hand.

And, he should be doing stuff like running when he gets a chance. Boykin led the Frogs in rushing with 92 yards, the sixth time in his career he has been the team’s top rusher.

And, he should let the offense work for him. But that is where he fell short, coach Gary Patterson said, and by extension, so did the rest of the offense.

“You got to understand, it’s not about scoring 60 points in this offense,” Patterson said. “It’s about scoring one more point. That was one of the things that got him in trouble a year ago. Let the offense work for you.”

TCU converted every red-zone chance. But despite the 427 total yards and Boykin’s 258 yards passing and Doctson’s two pretty touchdowns, the performance left an unsatisfying feeling.

“I would say we left a lot of points on the board,” Boykin said. “I felt like we were in the red zone a lot, and our goal is, any time we pass the 25, we want to be 100 percent scoring. We have a good field-goal kicker in Jaden, but three points is not as good as six.”

He must have been reading his coach’s mind.

“In the league we’re going to play in, that many field goals is going to get you in a lot of trouble,” Patterson said.

But it’s time to look ahead. Patterson said the offense will get better once it starts playing every week. For now, it has to get through another bye week and then get ready for SMU.

“I’m excited about the win. We wanted to be 2-0. I’m not going to worry about it tonight,” he said. “In the morning, once I get to about 10:30, once I’ve watched both sides, I probably won’t be very happy. That’ll be tomorrow.”

Everybody can spike the ball all they want then.

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 4:52 PM with the headline "TCU smothers Minnesota 30-7, but offense has room for improvement."