No. 7 TCU survives scare in Morgantown with 41-31 win over West Virginia
Another losing streak to a Big 12 opponent ended as TCU snapped a four-game losing streak to West Virginia on Saturday with a 41-31 win over the Mountaineers.
The Horned Frogs had dropped their last three games in Morgantown, but emerged victorious thanks to another masterful second-half defensive performance. After surrendering 21 points in the first half, TCU allowed just 10 in the second as Dylan Horton led a tenacious pass rush.
“We’ve got to play better. West Virginia was ready to play today, they had a good plan, they played hard. You have to give them a lot of credit, I thought their guys really took it to us early in the game,” head coach Sonny Dykes said. “We’ve got to do a better job of starting games and settling in more quickly.”
The offense started fast but sputtered in the second half, largely due to their own mistakes. TCU started the fourth quarter at the WVU 1-yard line, but settled for a field goal after the Mountaineers blew up a reverse to Quentin Johnston on third-and-goal.
Leading 31-24, TCU had another chance to create separation in the fourth. On two carries Kendre Miller picked up 29 yards and got the offense into field goal range. Facing a second-and-and-1, he didn’t get another touch as the Horned Frogs had to settle for another field goal. Dykes said Miller was dealing with a hand injury that limited his touches.
A touchdown pass by JT Daniels to Reese Smith cut TCU’s lead to 34-31 with just over four minutes remaining. After recovering an onside kick, it appeared TCU was in prime position to milk the clock. But the Horned Frogs attempted three straight passes with the third resulting in Max Duggan’s second interception of the year.
“Stalling out in the second half like that, I think it was more about what we were doing. There were a couple things we just busted on that just really impacted what happened in the second half,” Duggan said.
In the end, the Mountaineers could not threaten. The Horned Frogs got the ball back and Duggan connected with Savion Williams for a 29 yard touchdown pass to ice the game with 20 seconds left.
Duggan finished the day 16-of-28 for 341 yards and threw three touchdowns.
Other things to know about the win:
Gillespie a master motivator
TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie must have some of the best halftime speeches because once again the Horned Frogs defense looked completely different in the second half compared to the first. After being carved up in the first half TCU buckled down as they began to get after JT Daniels.
“(Gillespie) is real calm at halftime, he’ll just talk to us and say ‘We know what we’re doing, just tackle and communicate, communicate, communicate.’ And that’s what we did,” safety Bud Clark said.
Horton picked up his first sack to end a potential WVU scoring drive. Jamoi Hodge added another in the fourth quarter to get the offense the ball back. Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson had excellent coverage on fourth-and-goal attempt and kept the Mountaineers out of the endzone.
West Virginia manged just 71 yards in the third quarter and came up with the huge stop after the bad interception by Duggan. It was an awful start, but the defense saved the day and made for an offense that lost its way in the second half.
An officiating blunder?
What is it about TCU and weird calls on punt returns? The Horned Frogs found themselves on the wrong end of a controversial call on a punt return. Only this time it wasn’t a phantom fair catch call, but a missed kick catch interference.
After the Horned Frogs forced a stop on West Virginia’s first drive of the second half on the ensuing punt a Mountaineer player ran into Derius Davis and in the chaos West Virginia recovered the fumble. A flag was initially thrown for kick catch interference, but the referees ruled that the Mountaineer player was blocked into Davis. Replays showed a bit of friendly fire.
Josh Foster was pushed by a West Virginia player into Mountaineers receiver Sam James who then collided with Davis. Yet the flag was still picked up. The Mountaineers added three points to cut the lead to 28-24 after recovering the fumble inside the TCU 20.
It’s either a missed call or a bad interpretation of the rule that waves kick catch interference if a player is blocked into the returner.
“I kind of understand what happened. DD wouldn’t have been able to catch the punt anyways because the guy was right in his face,” Dykes said. “I felt like that was kick catch interference because there was no way he was going to be able to get to that ball. Then the whole thing blew up.”
Dykes added that more and more teams are starting to use tactics like that.
“The defensive player can take the guy blocking and run him into to the guy trying to catch the punt. That’s what happened, it’s a smart, heads up play by West Virginia, but it makes it a very difficult thing for the returner to do. You can see guys seeking guys out and trying to run him into the returner,” Dykes said. “I think there probably needs to be some conversation about that maybe in the off-season.”
Hodges-Tomlinson’s big play
In the first half, the TCU defense was under duress as West Virginia used a balanced offense to produce 298 yards. The Horned Frogs struggled to bring down WVU quarterback JT Daniels and allowed six of eight conversions on third down plus another on fourth. It was a tough outing as the defense started slow again, but as it has all the season, somebody stepped up to make a play.
With West Virginia driving to retake the lead, defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie sent Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson on a corner blitz. Not only did he get home on Daniels on third-and-11, he also forced a fumble that was recovered by Lwal Uguak. On the very next play Kendre Miller raced for a touchdown to give TCU its first lead of the game.
Hodges-Tomlinson’s play helped the Horned Frogs retake control of the game despite how the defense struggled early.
“Tre is a helluva player. I was talking to him on the sideline and I can’t repeat what I said, but I said ‘Tre show them what you’re about. It’s heart over height baby.’ That’s what we do, and that’s what we did,” Clark said.
Having their way in the first half
Facing one of the worst defenses in the country, TCU was supposed to come into Morgantown and put up numbers. That’s exactly how it played it out in the first half as TCU had three touchdowns of over 50 yards and another for 30 yards.
The beauty of the 28-point first half was four different players scored. Taye Barber caught a 71-yard strike from Max Duggan to tie up at 7. Then Quentin Johnston had a 55-yarder that evened it at 14. A 51-yard from Kendre Miller gave TCU its first lead midway through the second quarter.
Finally, Emani Bailey scored from 30 yards with under 30 seconds to put the Horned Frogs ahead 28-21 before halftime. In one half, the Horned Frogs generated 332 yards. Max Duggan had 234 yards passing and Barber had 99 yards as he and two more receivers had 60 yards. The full arsenal of the TCU offense was on display in the opening 30 minutes.
“We just tried to back up our defense just like they back us up at times and try to play complementary football. Complementary football will win you a lot of games,” Barber said.
This story was originally published October 29, 2022 at 2:54 PM.
