Patterson warns: If TCU not better, Arkansas could score 1,000

TCU did a bad job of tackling and lining up against South Dakota State last week, and if it doesn’t improve, Arkansas could put up “1,000 yards and 1,000 points,” coach Gary Patterson said.

“When you do that, you’re not going to give your kids a very good chance of being successful,” Patterson said Monday on the Big 12 coaches conference call with reporters. “Hopefully we’ll do a lot better job as a coaching staff of getting them put in position against Arkansas. If not, they’ll have 1,000 yards and 1,000 points. We’ve got to do a lot better job this week.”

The Horned Frogs gave up 461 yards and 41 points in their 59-41 victory against South Dakota State. It was the most points given up at home for TCU since the 2013 season finale against Baylor, also the last time the Frogs lost at home. TCU also gave up 41 points in its previous, the triple-overtime comeback victory in the Alamo Bowl.

“We didn’t tackle very well,” Patterson said, looking back at the South Dakota game. “As we get a lot of times, we got a different game plan than what we worked on. To be honest with you, I did a poor job of getting them ready to play. We didn’t tackle very well, and schematically we didn’t do a very good job of lining up.”

TCU gave up three touchdown passes from quarterback Taryn Christion. Last season, the Horned Frogs gave up 17 all year. Running back Isaac Wallace had an 87-yard run on the way to a 112-yard rushing performance, and receiver Jake Wieneke had 196 yards receiving.

Asked if the film review showed a better or worse performance than it appeared, Patterson said, “Same as they looked on the field. We weren’t very good.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2016 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Patterson warns: If TCU not better, Arkansas could score 1,000."