Patterson: ‘That’s my job’ to get TCU defense playing confidently

TCU’s defense was in the right position to make plays against Oklahoma, but tackles and other opportunities were missed perhaps because of a lack of confidence, coach Gary Patterson said.

“That’s my job. My job is to get them to play with confidence,” he told reporters during the Big 12 coaches conference call Monday. “You get them to play with confidence, they can make that play.”

TCU gave up 260 yards rushing to the Sooners in the 52-46 loss, the fourth-highest such total allowed by the Horned Frogs in at least the past 10 seasons. Oklahoma rushed for 333 yards in Norman last year, and Baylor has run for 273 and 272 yards against the Frogs the past two seasons.

“We came back in the fourth quarter and played the way we needed to,” Patterson said. “We played in the first quarter the way we needed to. We haven’t played very well in the second quarter. Defensively, we’ve got to do a better job of not allowing that to happen.”

TCU gave up 28 points in the second quarter, likely the most in a quarter at home under Patterson, and was outscored 42-3 by the Sooners during the second and third quarters before nearly making up the deficit.

The Frogs rank third in the Big 12 in total defense, allowing 414.6 yards per game.

“By my standards, that’s terrible,” Patterson said. “We’ve got to find a way to get stops and go back to our original goals, and that’s red-zone defense, third downs and get people off the field. When we do that, we give ourselves a chance to be successful.”

TCU is ninth in the Big 12 in third down conversion percentage allowed, 43.5 percent (37 of 85).

TCU has given up 66 points in the second quarter this season. By comparison, the other figures are 16 in the first quarter, 38 in the third, 24 in the fourth and 13 in two overtime periods.

Patterson said the pass defense had a good game against Oklahoma outside of two plays, but that the run defense struggled.

“We needed to slow down the run,” he said. “We didn’t do a good job. The last three or four series of the fourth quarter and the first quarter, we did. We’ve got to learn at some point in time to play a full ballgame.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Patterson: ‘That’s my job’ to get TCU defense playing confidently."