TCU defense dominates Texas Tech in Lubbock like no team in 17 years

A week after getting pasted by Oklahoma, the TCU defense was back to its old self.

Despite playing without two starting linebackers, leading tackler Travin Howard and Montrel Wilson, and losing safety Ridwan Issahaku in the third quarter, the Horned Frogs stuffed Texas Tech in a 27-3 win Saturday afternoon at Jones AT&T Stadium.

It’s the fewest points for the Red Raiders since TCU beat them 12-3 in 2006. The last time Texas Tech was held to three points at home was a 56-3 loss to Nebraska in October 2000.

“We did some interesting things with our three-man front to try to get enough guys in the box,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “We confused them a little bit until the second half.”

The Frogs’ defense held the Red Raiders to a season-low 327 yards. It was an even more impressive showing for the defense than that yardage total indicates. It wasn’t until the fourth and TCU holding a 17-3 lead that Tech racked up 136 more yards, including 100 yards with under seven minutes remaining and TCU holding a 17-point lead.

“I probably don’t give them as much credit,” Patterson said, leaving off the second half of the sentence (“as they deserve.”). I guess the reason I don’t do that is I just expect them to do that. I guess that’s a shortcoming of mine that I just expect that’s the way we’re going to play. I should probably jump up and down a little bit more about it, but it’s one of those things if you want to be good on defense, you just do those kinds of things.”

TCU got some breaks, too. Tech kicker Clayton Hatfield missed two field goals, including one from 20 yards that would have cut the Frogs’ lead to 10-6 in the third quarter. Instead, TCU marched 80 yards for a touchdown and 17-3 lead.

“We felt great about it,” Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said or settling on the field goal attempt instead of going for it on 4th-and-goal at the 2. “We missed it, they get it on the 20 and go down and score. It’s frustrating. You have opportunities … I think we were in the red zone four or five times and scored three points. We’re not getting it done. I’ll take the majority of the blame on that.”

Tech was threatening again at the start of the fourth quarter but Sammy Douglas knocked the ball from quarterback Nic Shimonek and Ty Summers recovered at the TCU 14. Summers had two of TCU’s three sacks. Cornerback Jeff Gladney picked off Shimonek and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown to ice the game with 4:39 remaining. Technically, Gladney dropped the ball before breaking the plane of the of the end zone and had to recover his own fumble for the touchdown. The result was the same but Gladney is credited with a fumble recovering for a touchdown and not a 94-yard pick six.

“Turnovers are huge. That’s just a complete swing of momentum,” Summers said of the fumble that thwarted Tech’s drive. “It gives our offensive confidence knowing that they can go out there and try to get big plays and big yardage because they know if they fail, we’re going to have their backs and give the ball back to them and give them another chance.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 4:49 PM with the headline "TCU defense dominates Texas Tech in Lubbock like no team in 17 years."