TCU’s Patterson: We have to throw the ball better, but young receivers have promise
TCU football has proven it can win games without piling up the passing yards.
Saturday marked the fourth consecutive season that the Horned Frogs have won a game when throwing for less than 100 yards passing. TCU finished with just 73 yards passing in a 34-18 victory over Texas Tech.
While he had no complaints with the outcome, TCU coach Gary Patterson acknowledged the passing game is something that must improve. After all, Texas Tech — despite limiting TCU to just 73 yards passing — still owns the Big 12’s worst pass defense.
Tech, for instance, allowed Houston Baptist to throw for 572 yards in the season opener. The fewest yards passing the Red Raiders had allowed going into the TCU game was 206 yards in a loss to Kansas State last month.
“No. 1, when we get our chances, we’ve got to catch the ball,” Patterson said on the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday. “We’ve got to be where we need to be. With the young receiving corps, people change their coverage and do things. Our young guys have to learn where to be and how to move on the run. We’ve got to keep doing that as we go forward. There’s not anybody that plays defense in this league that is not going to do that, especially West Virginia.
“We just have to throw the ball better.”
TCU quarterback Max Duggan acknowledged that after the Texas Tech game, as he struggled with accuracy and also wasn’t helped by drops. The Frogs have a relatively young and inexperienced receiving corps, especially with graduate transfer JD Spielman sidelined, but there is optimism about the group.
Two of the three leading receivers are freshmen in Quentin Johnston, who has flashed signs of being a dynamic playmaker, and Blair Conwright, who has caught a pass in five of the six games.
“For me, there’s a lot of hope. There’s a lot of optimism to understand that we’re going to be very good,” Patterson said. “We just need to be a lot better at it than we were last week.”
Easier said than done against West Virginia.
The Mountaineers have the Big 12’s best pass defense, allowing an average of 161.6 yards per game. Baylor is the only team to throw for more than 200 yards against WVU. Kansas’ 95 yards is the worst passing performance against WVU.
Patterson pointed to WVU having arguably the best defensive line in the league, led by Darius and Dante Stills along with freshmen Akheem Mesidor (four sacks) and Jared Bartlett (3.5 sacks). Darius Stills also has 3.5 sacks, while Dante Stills has two.
As a team, WVU has 21 sacks, which is tied for second-most among Big 12 teams. WVU leads the Big 12 with nine interceptions among its 27 pass breakups.
Oh, and the Mountaineers are a perfect 4-0 at home this year.
“You’ve got to get ready to play. It’s like anybody else, as a general rule, people play a lot better at home,” Patterson said. “The problem we have is we’re playing them at home. The good part is that we’ve probably played better on the road than we’ve played at home. So we’ll see how that all goes.”
Davis honored
TCU junior returner Derius Davis was named the Big 12’s co-special teams player of the week on Monday.
Davis returned four punts for 103 yards, including a 50-yard return to set up a field goal in the third quarter. The field goal extended TCU’s lead to two possessions, 20-10, with 3:45 remaining in the quarter.
Davis is second nationally with a 21.8-yard punt return average, a mark on pace to break the TCU season record of 20.8 set last year by Jalen Reagor.
