A defensive struggle for the most part, marred by two Kansas State turnovers, led to yet another defeat for the visiting Wildcats as they fell 20-10 to the TCU Horned Frogs this afternoon at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
K-State (4-6, 1-6 Big 12) made some progress with their shaky run defense today, but a key fumble early in the game led to an early TCU (3-4, 5-5 Big 12) touchdown, and the Frogs shut down the Wildcat running game well enough to prevent the Cats from mounting an effective
comeback.
The Cats got to midfield before having to punt on the opening drive, then forced a 3-and-out. But Rodney Fields fumbled at the Wildcat 28 and TCU recovered; three plays later, Kari Ashley took a direct snap and raced 19 yards to put TCU on the board first.
Both teams went 3-and-out, then the Cats managed one first down before punting; Jaden Craig then hit Jordan Dwyer for 41 yards into K-State territory. TCU had to settle for a 29-yard Kyle Lemmermann field goal as the defense managed to hold after that.
K-State had to punt again, but on TCU’s drive sacks on first and third down by Kamari Burns and Jayden Bryant with Travis Bates forced yet another punt. Near midfield on 3rd-and-10, Duff’s inexperience led to another sack, and another punt, Simon McClannan’s fifth of the first half. As TCU drove, Darien Whitaker recorded the third Wildcat sack of the half, trapping TCU with a 3rd-and-15 at the 35; Burns and Bates combined for the fourth sack on the next play, pushing the Frogs back far enough to have to punt instead of attempting a field goal. But only 15 seconds remained in the half, and K-State just took a knee to reset.
TCU drove well after the half, marching downfield and scoring on a 5-yard pass from Craig to Jacobe Hayes to make the score 17-0. On the ensuing drive, one 24-yard run by Joe Jackson nearly doubled the team’s entire rushing output on its own, getting K-State into TCU territory for the first time all afternoon. A 55-yard field goal by Luis Rodriguez — a career high — broke up the shutout.
The Frogs got into Wildcat territory, but a pair of big stops inside the 40 left TCU in no-man’s land, and they had to punt. It wasn’t much of a gain, as the punt went into the end zone. Two plays later, Duff found Jaron Tibbs wide open for a 53-yard score to close the gap to 17-10. The defense gave ground, though, and the Frogs reached the red zone. But the Cats held there, forcing a 36-yard field goal by Lemmermann. A small victory, but it did make the game a two-score affair again.
K-State moved the ball in response, but ended up having to punt. A quick 3-and-out got them the ball back again, but as the Cats marched toward the red zone, the offensive line got worked over, resulting in a 15-yard sack and a fumble by Duff, recovered near midfield with only 1:58 to play. TCU was able to kill the clock, and that was that.
Duff was 22-33 for 244 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. On the ground, he had 10 carries for a loss of seven yards and one fumble — but adjusted for sacks, that was actually 10 for 31. The Cats were terrible on the ground; Jackson (5 carries) and Fields (9) each had 33 yards.
Tibbs and Garrett Oakley carried the weight in the air, Tibbs catching eight balls for 115 yards and a score, Oakley snagging six for 60. Derrick Salley had two catches for 32 yards, and Linkon Cure had two for 26.
TCU outgained the Cats 324-302, outrushing K-State 99-58. The Wildcats did outgain the Frogs in the air 244-225. Penalties were a minor issue, K-State picking up four for 41 yards while TCU was only flagged once for ten. The Cats actually gained more yards per play, 5.2 to 4.7, but lost the turnover battle 2-0 and that may have ultimately been the deciding factor in the game. TCU led time of possession 32-28.
WHAT WE… OBSERVED
We didn’t learn much, because this team is irretrievably broken for the season thanks to injuries. But there were takeaways worth noting this week.
1) Whatever they did to work on run defense worked — today.
TCU was held under 100 yards on the ground (although taking sack yardage into account it was 116 yards). Nearly half of that yardage came on a single play; subtract Payne’s 55-yard run and TCU was held to 61 yards otherwise. That’s worth noting, and good. (And four sacks? Gravy.)
2) Dillon Duff was the better quarterback in this game — indisputably.
Duff wasn’t just the better of two bad quarterbacks, either. His passer rating on the day was 138.8, completing 2/3 of his passes, not making any egregious mistakes. He’s still shaky sometimes and runs himself into a sack, but he’s vastly improved over his first start, and showed progress over his relief appearance last week, in which he was also not bad at all. If he’s ultimately the future, he may have what it takes after all.
3) The offensive line, though.
Oof. The line gave up five sacks today, which is almost 30% of the total allowed for the entire season. And they couldn’t run block to save their lives. It’s been an issue all year, off and on, especially in the eye test. Today, the numbers proved the hypothesis.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Have a hundred-yard day, be offensive player of the game, Jaron Tibbs. On defense, the four Wildcats who recorded full or partial sacks could’ve taken the honor, but Asa Newsom was everywhere today, recording 11 tackles, five solo, and was in on a tackle for loss.
NEXT
It doesn’t get any easier. #23 Arizona comes to town for the home finale, time and network yet to be determined.
