Worst loss in Sonny Dykes coaching era? How Houston stunned TCU in Big 12 embarrassment
TCU was stunned on Friday night in another disappointing showing as the Horned Frogs were upset 30-19 by Houston at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
TCU was favored by three possessions and Houston entered the night just 1-4, coming off two straight shutout losses to Big 12 opponents. But against the Horned Frogs, the Cougars played their best game of the season as they led wire to wire.
“I think they were the more excited team to play, they played harder than we did in the first half,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “They were better prepared than we were and they kicked our tail. That was a total disaster of a football game, we got down early and just had a hard time getting back in the game.”
The Horned Frogs had a brief window for a late comeback after Josh Hoover hit Jack Bech for a 29-yard touchdown that cut Houston’s lead to 27-19 with 9:25 remaining. Although starting quarterback Zeon Chriss was on the sideline for the pivotal drive, Houston methodically marched the ball down the field and milk the clock.
The Cougars (2-4 overall, 1-2 in Big 12) iced the game with a field goal with 1:58 remaining and officially put TCU (3-3, 1-2) in danger of missing a bowl game for the second straight season.
It was Houston’s first win in Fort Worth since 1989 and snapped a nine-game losing streak to TCU.
What’s happened to Hoover?
Through the first three games of the season, Josh Hoover looked like he had a case for being one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12. Over the last three weeks, Hoover has regressed to the gunslinger we saw last year that can put up impressive numbers, but can have also crippling turnovers.
Hoover had two more interceptions against Houston and now has six over the last three weeks. The first interception came when Hoover didn’t see the safety sitting on the seam route and the second was even worse as Hoover was scrambling and just launched a pass deep downfield that was an easy interception for the Cougar defender. And his fumble with 48 seconds left thwarted the Horned Frogs’ final drive and ended any chance of a comeback.
“I have to get it figured out, I had a couple things that were unfortunate,” Hoover said. “I’ve obviously made some bad decisions at times and I’ve got to get it figured out. I’m going to take this bye week and how to move on and fix that. I can’t turn the ball over, as an offense we can’t turn the ball over. We’ve got to get it fixed.”
Hoover’s confidence seemed to be shaken after the mistakes as his accuracy was inconsistent most of the night. He didn’t get a lot of help from his receivers as Houston’s secondary played tight coverage in the second half. Hoover was sacked three times and took more hits during a lackluster showing.
He finished 23 of 37 for 233 yards.
Defensive letdown
This should’ve been a game where TCU’s defense was able to build confidence, facing a team that only averaged 10.4 points per game. Along with two shutouts to Cincinnati and Iowa State, UNLV was able to hold Houston to just seven points. If Houston struggled against every defense, how were the Cougars able to have a breakout performance against TCU’s defense?
Part of was the insertion of Zeon Chriss into the starting lineup. Chriss wasn’t spectacular, but was surgical with how he operated the offense as he kept the chains moving and avoided turnover worthy plays for the most part. Chriss rushed for 97 yards and completed 15 of 18 passes for 141 yards.
But ultimately, this was about TCU’s run defense being pushed around again. Taking out the yards Chriss lost on sacks, Houston rushed for 231 and averaged five yards per carry most of the night. Dykes said the Cougars did a good job of executing their gameplan, but that gameplan was elementary. Houston avoided any passes beyond 10 yards down the field and just attacked TCU’s defense with a series of runs, read options and quick passes to the flats. For some reason TCU continued to give Houston’s receivers cushions and allowed the quick and easy six to eight yard gains.
Despite telling TCU that they had no plans of attacking the Horned Frogs over the top, the Cougars were still able to move the ball at will when they needed to.
Costly mistakes
The two interceptions by Hoover weren’t the only mistakes TCU made. In There were more key blunders with the first coming late in the first half after Hoover completed a fade route to Savion Williams for a touchdown. Freshman kicker Kyle Lemmerman missed the extra point as TCU trailed 17-6 instead of 17-7.
That play would come to haunt TCU on its second touchdown with 5:27 in the third quarter. After Jeremy Payne ran in untouched for a two-yard touchdown, TCU opted to go for two for the chance to make it a 24-14 game. But the play call was easily blown up by Houston and kept the deficit at 24-12. It may have been inspired by analytics, but the decision felt puzzling consider how much time was left in the game.
After forcing a stop on Houston’s next drive, TCU had a chance to cut it to one possession, but on the offense’s first play JP Richardson was stripped and fumbled deep in TCU territory. Houston would add a field goal and increase its lead to 27-12, while taking valuable time off the clock.
“When we had some momentum we just made too many mistakes,” Dykes said. “We turned the ball over four times again, I think we have 12 turnovers in the last three ball games. That’s obviously not playing winning football.”
Horrendous half
There was hope that after a strong finish against Houston that the momentum from that victory would carry over into the matchup with Houston. Instead the Horned Frogs had another stinker of a first half, trailing by double digits most of the night. The Cougars entered the night averaging just 10.4 points per game, but Houston only needed roughly 16 minutes to eclipse that against TCU.
The Cougars’ first drive was set up by a failed fourth down attempt near midfield when TCU tried to use a quarterback sneak to pick up a 4th-and-1. The Cougars marched down field in seven plays to take the lead. That drive saw TCU miss an opportunity to recover fumble and the ejection of starting nickel safety Abe Camara for targeting.
Then Hoover threw his first interception of the night on a badly placed pass to Drake Dabney, who was running a seam route. The Cougars used another methodical drive to take a 14-0 lead in front of a shock home crowd for TCU. Fans began to boo as the half went on with the offense struggling to generate any yards and the defense being picked apart by the worst scoring offense in the country.
The worst play came right after the two-minute timeout with TCU trailing 17-6. Houston seemed content to try and run out the clock with a 11-point lead and the Cougars called a quarterback draw on 2nd-and-6, expecting to pick up a few yards. Instead Zeon Chriss raced 71 yards for a touchdown to put Houston ahead 24-6 headed into halftime. The Cougars gained 260 yards and averaged more than seven yards per play in another disappointing showing for TCU’s defense.
This story was originally published October 4, 2024 at 9:50 PM.
