Knee pads, turnovers and tackling woes highlight takeaways from TCU’s gritty win

TCU found its way back into the win column against Iowa State on Saturday night. It wasn’t easy or pretty, and it may have been costly, but the Frogs will take a 17-14 victory going into an off week.

Here’s five takeaways from the game, excluding Shawn Robinson’s injury. For more on that, click here.

1. What’s targeting? KaVontae Turpin endured a vicious helmet-to-helmet blow in the first half.

Iowa State defensive back Datrone Young collided with Turpin at the end of the 24-yard play, and multiple officials ruled targeting on the field. After review, though, it was overturned.

It left many baffled as to what “targeting” is these days. Referee Reggie Smith explained that Turpin had become an upright runner and wasn’t “defenseless” at the time of the collision.

Patterson’s reaction?

“I thought on the field was a good call,” Patterson said. “I didn’t ask [about the overturn] and I can’t really talk about it so I don’t get fined. Why don’t you call them? My wife said she’s going to call.”

The Star-Telegram has reached out to the Big 12 for further explanation from rules czar Greg Burks.

Either way, it ended the night for Turpin. He had to get stitches and wasn’t seen on the sidelines in the second half. Turpin’s teammates aren’t concerned about his ability to bounce back going forward.

“He’s a soldier,” receiver Jalen Reagor said. “Y’all know Turp. He gets hit all the time, smallest guy on the field, he always gets up. If it was up to him, if we play outside on the parking lot, he would play. I mean, Turp is fine. He’s good.”

2. Knee pads. Speaking of the officials, they were sticklers on knee pads. Multiple players on each side had to be sent off the field for uniform violations.

This is something that teams knew would be emphasized before the season with the NCAA’s new uniform rules requiring players have their midriffs and knees covered.

Patterson had more issues with his players than the officials for enforcing this rule.

“That’s the rules. It’s not like we haven’t been talking to them about it,” Patterson said. “What do they think? This is just some magical … we’ll just talk about it and we’ll just let you do what you want to do anyways? I mean, knuckleheads. I mean, jiminy Christmas, all of us.

“Gotta get longer pants, I guess. We got a week and a half to do that.”

3. Defense shines. Reagor might’ve said it best after the game.

“I’m going to keep it very honest – the defense saves us at times,” Reagor said. “They do their part. We just got to make sure we capitalize on our part, but the defense is playing great.”

TCU’s defense had an impressive night against Iowa State. The Cyclones had less than 200 yards of total offense (198), and were 5-for-12 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down.

Iowa State’s Hakeem Butler – the 6-foot-6 receiver who towered over TCU’s defensive backs – had just two catches for 14 yards.

Linebacker Garret Wallow led the team in tackles again with 11.

It wasn’t perfect, though. The defense had a handful of missed tackles and gave up a third-and-25 in the fourth quarter that kept Iowa State in it.

4. Tackling woes. As stated, the defense played well. But there were tackling issues throughout the game.

On the third-and-25, defensive end Ben Banogu missed an opportunity to tackle Iowa State quarterback Zeb Noland in the backfield.

“I make that play nine out of ten times, I missed that one,” said Banogu, who had a scoop-and-score touchdown early in the second half. “I was disappointed I missed that play.”

Banogu wasn’t pleased with himself and threw his helmet on the sidelines, but acknowledged he has to keep his emotion in control going forward.

Another defensive player disappointed with himself was linebacker Ty Summers. Summers felt he had the most missed tackles in his standout career.

“I don’t even want to say the number,” Summers said. “It was the most, in my mind from what I remember, most missed tackles I’ve had in my career so it was frustrating.

“But, hey, it happens and you’ve got to bounce back. We still got the win, so I can’t be too frustrated about it.”

5. Turnovers. It goes without saying how costly turnovers are in a game. This game is just further proof.

TCU lost a fumble in the first half, giving Iowa State great field position in TCU territory. That led to a Cyclones touchdown.

TCU’s defense forced a takeaway early in the second half to take a 14-7 lead, and it seemed it would pull away after that. But, alas, more turnovers by the offense killed any chance of putting the game out of reach.

TCU had a nice, long drive going in the third quarter and were in the red zone. On second-and-10 from Iowa State’s 10, Robinson found tight end Artayvious Lynn. Lynn, listed at 6-foot-6, 265 pounds, attempted to hurdle a defender and lost the ball in the process.

“I don’t understand why he jumped,” Patterson said. “I don’t get it. It’s not the NFL. We’re just trying to get three points, don’t screw it up, OK? That’s, again, a new player who hasn’t played a whole lot that needs to understand. It is what it is.”

Running back Sewo Olonilua might’ve had the best reaction when asked about it postgame, simply shaking his head and putting it down in his hands.

“I just told him, get two hands on the ball and lower your head,” Olonilua said. “That’s better than trying to jump.”

The Frogs saw another potential scoring drive come to a halt early in the fourth quarter when Robinson was intercepted after throwing into triple coverage on a third-and-6 from the Iowa State 43.

As Patterson said, “We shouldn’t have made it that close. We turned the ball over. It should have been a two-score game. It should never have been a tie game. It shouldn’t even have come to that.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 1:33 PM.