TCU doesn’t want to get into a shootout with Texas and three other keys to victory
TCU doesn’t want to get into a shootout with Texas on Saturday. The reasoning is simple.
“I don’t know if we’ll win a shootout,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “Now I’d like to win a shootout, but for us at home I think you have to be in the game going into the third, fourth quarter and finding a way to win.
“You’re looking at a team that’s got two losses. They lost to two teams in the Top 6 of the country, so they’re playing really well on offense. Defensively, they’ve been banged up.”
The Longhorns have the second-best scoring offense in the Big 12, averaging 40.9 points a game. They also rank first in third-down conversion (55.8 percent) and have scored 24 touchdowns in 28 trips to the red zone.
Credit for Texas’ offensive success starts with quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who leads the league with 21 passing touchdowns. He’s also rushed for five TDs and 318 yards.
“He’s a finisher,” Patterson said of Ehlinger. “He’s really grown up. He’s been the difference in their offense.”
As far as containing Ehlinger, Patterson said it must be a group effort. The Frogs have been burned by a couple running quarterbacks in their last two losses.
Iowa State’s Brock Purdy rushed for 102 yards on 12 carries, and K-State’s Skylar Thompson had a game-changing 61-yard run in the fourth quarter. TCU can’t let Ehlinger have similar success.
“We’ve always said you’ve got to hunt together. That’s what we do,” Patterson said. “There always needs to be more than one person that’s in charge of that.”
Three more keys to a TCU victory —
Jumpstarting Reagor
Jalen Reagor is regarded as one of the most explosive playmakers in the Big 12 and is coming off his best game with eight catches for 85 yards at K-State. He also had two TD catches at Iowa State.
But Reagor has yet to top the 100-yard mark and hasn’t really emerged until the second half in recent weeks. TCU has to try and get him involved earlier against Texas’ suspect defense.
Of course the Longhorns are well aware of his big-play potential. Texas coach Tom Herman recalled watching Reagor return a punt for a touchdown earlier this season.
“He’s capable of doing that on the perimeter offensively too,” Herman said. “He’s always going to be a threat on the perimeter.”
Establishing the run
TCU has one of the top rushing offenses in the country with Darius Anderson on pace for a 1,000-yard season and Sewo Olonilua boasting NFL potential.
The Frogs should be able to establish the run against the Longhorns’ defense. KU’s Pooka Williams had 190 yards rushing against UT last week. Oklahoma had a pair of 100-yard rushers earlier this month in Jalen Hurts (131 yards on 17 carries) and Kennedy Brooks (105 yards on 10 carries).
Oklahoma State had two top the 100-yard mark last month, too, in Chuba Hubbard (121 yards on 37 carries) and Spencer Sanders (109 yards on 18 carries).
Herman made it clear that his team has to handle TCU’s rushing attack.
“You’ve got to make sure your numbers are there to stop the run,” he said.
Takeaways, please
TCU’s defense is on pace for its fewest takeaways of the Patterson era. The Frogs haven’t forced a takeaway since Big 12 play started.
This is a program that had 40 takeaways in its Peach Bowl-winning season in 2014. Now, though, TCU is on pace for just 10 takeaways which would be the program’s worst under Patterson.
The fewest takeaways in the Patterson era were 16 in 2016, one of only three losing seasons during his 19-year tenure.
The lack of takeaways has become a growing talking point for the Frogs.
“We need to get back in the takeaway category and get ready to go,” Patterson said. “When you want to beat a team like Texas, you have to be able to get takeaways and get lost yardage plays.”
