Winning is Good
Remember winning? Not just winning over FCS foes or the lowest rung of the Big 12 or even your rivals or former NFL legends who are also bad. I’m talking about defeating a really and truly ranked football
team. It’s an achievement TCU has not unlocked since New Year’s Eve in 2022 when the Horned Frogs took down the Michigan Wolverines in the Fiesta Bowl CFP Semifinal. There’s plenty to say about the ugly nature of Saturday’s game in Houston, some of which we’ll touch on here, but in the end it is better to wake up in the win column after a sloppy performance than with another L. It’s hard to imagine a win that feels more like a loss than this one, but they all count the same. And this one was desperately needed for a Horned Frogs squad coming off two ugly losses and with the fanbase with pitch forks out looking for blood. I expect little about how this game played out will do much to quell people saying what they want about this team’s failure to live up to expectations (expectation that have been set over the last two decades of competing at a national level, not only those derived off a single point of success in 2022), however winning is good. Having frequently squandered leads all season – flirting with disaster even in most of its wins – and in a game where the Frogs committed four turnovers, a turnover on downs, 70 yards worth of penalties including gifting the opponent multiple first downs via penalty, to survive and secure that precious ranked win that has long eluded TCU.
WE RUN THIS STATE
OK fine, that header is overly tongue-in-cheek, but it remains a fact that TCU will finish the 2025 regular undefeated vs. Lone Star State competition, a perfect 4-0. The Horned Frogs earned revenge wins over SMU, Baylor, and now #23 Houston to add to FCS #18 United Athletic Conference champions Abilene Christian. While TCU avoided playing #5 Texas Tech, #3 Texas A&M, #17 Texas, and AP #22 North Texas in order to preserve that pristine record, perhaps the truth is that those other Texan squads are lucky to have avoided the Horned Frogs.
Puzzling Playcalling
Look, this could probably be a section of analysis every week and expect we could fill libraries writing about offensive decisions that just make you go “wh..what? why?” from the Horned Frogs have put on the field over the last three seasons. Today in Houston there was a sequence so questionable it very nearly cost TCU a game it otherwise had in hand. TCU, leading by three points, had just earned a first down at the UH 14 yard line with 2:12 to play in regulation. Houston uses its first timeout. One more first down and the game is on ice. Time to turn to your most trustworthy, safe, successful plays that can both keep the clock running and get the final game-clinching first down. Over the next four plays the Horned Frogs are able to must up eight total yards and consume 18 total seconds of game clock. The play sequence went: direct snap to Jon Denman, direct snap to Jon Denman, Josh Hoover QB keeper, direct snap to Jon Denman. Four straight attempts directly up the middle of the defense, even the too-cute nonsense is so uncreative that it is easily identified and defended.
Fast Start
After being shutout during First Quarters throughout much of Big 12 play, the Horned Frogs came out of the gate firing on Saturday, scoring a pair of touchdowns while allowing just 48 total yards defensively and forcing three Houston punts. Although TCU had a brief three-and-out sandwiched in there, its 1Q was superb. Opening the game with an eight-play, 75-yard drive capped off by an Eric McAlister 33 yard dime from Josh Hoover and then closing the quarter with a ten-play, 83-yard drive with another dot from Hoover to Jordan Dwyer. For one single brief quarter it appeared that the TCU offense had found its footing and was ready to fulfill the promise that it showed in the season opener. Alas that quarter was indeed brief as the offense reverted into a complete disaster for the rest of the game, averaging 23.7 yards per drive over the next 10 possessions. Every TCU drive in the 2nd Quarter resulted in a turnover, with consecutive Josh Hoover interceptions before a Jordyn Bailey fumble. TCU had two touchdowns taken off the board do to penalties: a Dwyer hold and a Chase Curtis chop block. The second half wasn’t much better, but thanks to a 53-yard punt return from Dwyer, the offense didn’t need to get far to be able to attempt what would become the game-winning field goal, converted by Nate McCashland from 29 yards out. Despite the terrible finish from the offense, that flash of brilliance in the first quarter was enough to sustain the duration and deliver the victory.
