Texas Tech hands TCU another disappointing Big 12 defeat
TCU was primed to pull off a dramatic comeback on the road at Texas Tech on Thursday, reminiscent of last season’s come-from-behind win over the Red Raiders.
Instead, a crucial Horned Frogs turnover was the difference in their 35-28 loss to Texas Tech.
Now sitting at 4-5, the possibility of missing a bowl game is bigger than ever.
“A disappointing one tonight,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “We made too many mistakes to win a football game and that’s what it really boils down to. Too many errors and when you do that you’re not going to win.”
TCU overcame a 20-7 halftime deficit to take a 21-20 lead late in the third quarter. Josh Hoover had an opportunity to lead the offense on another scoring drive, but instead he threw a pass directly to a Texas Tech defender and it was returned to the TCU 16.
The Red Raiders turned the turnover into points for a 28-21 lead with six seconds left in the third.
On the ensuing possession, a Horned Frogs promising drive stalled in Red Raiders territory. Texas Tech then needed just three plays to go 92 yards as quarterback Behren Morton connected with a Drae McCray for a 44-yard touchdown for 35-21 with lead 10:33 left in the game.
The Horned Frogs were not done. They pulled within 35-28 on Trey Sanders’ 1-yard run with 4:54 remaining.
After the TCU defense held the Red Raiders and forced them to punt, the Horned Frogs had one final opportunity to win the game or tie it and force overtime.
However, Hoover, with 55 seconds remaining, was intercepted for a second time on an errant throw after leading the Horned Frogs into Texas Tech territory.
“At the end I was just trying to make a play and we weren’t on the same page,” Hoover said of the turnover.
Hoover is inconsistent
Josh Hoover’s second road start got off to a rocky start just like his first one. While Hoover faced less pressure against Texas Tech than he did Kansas State, the redshirt freshman still struggled in the first half. Hoover’s accuracy and touch just wasn’t there initially against the Red Raiders.
At least four passes were just thrown over the heads of receivers and one of those passes was intercepted, but Hoover was bailed out due to a roughing the passer penalty. There were some promising moments like the only scoring drive where Hoover completed three passes in a row and then fit in a beautiful pass through two defenders to DJ Rogers for a touchdown to tie up at 7 with 4:13 remaining in the first quarter.
In the second half Hoover settled down and made one of the best throws of his young career. On 3rd-and-14, the Red Raiders sent the house at Hoover, but he was able to escape and spin to his left before eventually floating a deep ball to Jared Wiley for a 35-yard gain. On that same drive Hoover converted another third-and-long with a strike to JoJo Earle.
The throw eventually led to a touchdown that cut the deficit to 20-14 midway through the third quarter. Despite his costly error later in the quarter, Hoover had one final opportunity on the final drive to lead TCU to victory. With 2:18 remaining, Hoover had to drive the offense 88 yards down the field and he started the drive 5-of-7, but threw his second pick of the night to end the game.
He finished the game completing 32 of 52 passes for 353 yards. He also ran four times for 10 yards.
“He’s a young quarterback and he’s learning,” Dykes said. “He’s having to throw the ball a lot, we haven’t been very good running the football and that’s put a lot of pressure on him. I thought he threw the ball well at times, we had some guys open today, but didn’t get them the football.”
Secondary comes up short
Tech’s Behren Morton has been an average quarterback this season until Thursday night.
Despite coming off an injury that sidelined him for two games, he had his best game of the year. For the first time this year Morton went for over 200 yards passing and he completed over 75% of his passes.
Admittedly, Morton wasn’t asked to make many difficult throws, but when he was he was on the money. His two touchdown passes were right on the money and he took advantage of his receivers matching up on TCU’s safeties. His second score of the night was his best throw as he stood in the pocket in the face of a blitzing Jamoi Hodge and found Drae McCray for a 44-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. It was his only catch of the night, but he beat Bud Clark in the process for the backbreaking touchdown.
Morton completed 28 of 36 passes for 282 yards. Most importantly, he did not turn the ball over.
Bringing down Brooks
TCU had a firm understanding of what it needed to do defensively and priority No. 1 was to shut down Red Raiders star running back Tahj Brooks. The Horned Frogs failed that task as Brooks rushed for 146 yards on 31 carries, including 98 yards on 20 carries in the first half.
He bounced off tacklers, picked up key conversions and even drew a defensive pass interference when he beat freshman safety Randon Fontenette on a wheel route. In the second half, the Horned Frogs began to buckle up against the talented rusher. On fourth down, the Red Raiders attempted a direct snap to Brooks, Mark Perry and Johnny Hodges met him to stop Brooks short of the line to gain. TCU would eventually turn that stop into a touchdown and took its first lead 21-20, off the miscue late in the third quarter.
Brooks was kept in check, but did punch in a touchdown to give Texas Tech the lead back after a costly turnover.
First half blunders prove costly
There’s always a sequence or two during a game that ends up being the difference and that drive occurred midway through the second quarter. After marching all the way to the Texas Tech 25, TCU was facing a third-and-2. Emani Bailey was stuffed for no gain and the Horned Frogs were forced to settle for a field goal.
After blowing a timeout to get the field goal team set up, Griffin Kell missed the 43-yard field goal wide right. TCU seemed poised to get the ball back after an unsportsmanlike penalty placed the Red Raiders behind the chains. On 3rd-and-21, TCU allowed Tahj Brooks to weave through the defense off a halfback draw to pick up 20 yards.
The Red Raiders went for it on fourth down, but were stuffed. However, the Horned Frogs were flagged for illegal substitution and allowed Tech to convert anyways. A few plays later Behren Morton stepped up in the pocket and connected with Myles Price for a touchdown to increase Tech’s lead to 17-7. The drive wasn’t just the difference in the game, it pretty much summed up how things have gone for TCU with a defensive breakdown and the usually reliable Kell not coming through.
“That killed us,” Dykes said of the sequence. “We had a substitution issue on fourth down when we had them stop. Obviously to me that was the turning point in the game.”
The Horned Frogs trailed 20-7 at the half after another sluggish opening 30 minutes.
This story was originally published November 2, 2023 at 9:45 PM.
