Another Hate Week, another Joyous win. The Ponies looked like they were going to put up a fight, but, as we’ve seen this season against inferior competition, the Frogs will eventually prevail. It’s definitely not the swift punishment we so often saw last season, but if it gets the win, it’ll do. Typically I don’t care enough to visit other team’s message boards before or after games, but after this win, I just couldn’t resist. Surprisingly, the majority of the Pony fans were realistic about their situation and pretty downcast about their bowl prospects given the thus far respectable play among their CUSA counterparts. However, there were a few – and there will always be a few – fans who decided to turn a 25 point loss into a slighting of the opponent. Apparently we have no business being a top ten team and we would be “absolutely destroyed” by any of the teams ahead of us. This coming from a team who just lost despite being gifted three turnovers and only scored due to gimpy screen plays- a high flying offense indeed. There’s also quite a bit of complaining about the Dalton “no fumble” call, including from their head coach, as well as shots at the quality of a TCU eduation and, most shockingly, the quality of our girls. I mean, I realize this is probably just sour grapes from fans of a bad football team, but come on now, guys. For a team that’s turning the corner and threatening to retake the metroplex, perhaps the fans need to act the part? I digress though – it was an ugly early performance, and an even uglier gameday experience, but we did what we needed to do and can start conference play on a high note.
Offense – B. Well, it certainly wasn’t impressive at first, but 39 points is 39 points. Surely you have to blame the poor weather a bit, but a couple of our turnovers were inexcusable, and we’re fortunate that SMU is really, really, really bad at organized American football. The Ryan Christian drop is ok as it was a criminally flagrant hit that he never saw coming, but the Bart Johnson drop cannot happen especially as we consistently tout him as Mr. Dependable. Regardless, both occurred in the red zone and were lost which kills our red zone scoring streak as well as kept the game close far longer than acceptable.
Despite all of this, not a terrible game for the offense and let’s start with Dalton. A very quiet evening – 12-20 for 189 yards – but he did have 2 TD passes, including an absolutely ridiculous hookup with Antoine Hicks. Including the big play at Clemson, you have to think Hicks is going to become a full time go to guy for Dalton along with Kerley and Young and knowing that we have him for two more years after this makes me absolutely ecstatic. You have to think UT sees what this kid can do and groans about what could have been– insert UT fan blogger UT vs. TCU education + stable of 5 star receivers quote here. Dalton did have an unnecessary interception- although what INT is really necessary?- but he managed the game fine and gave us the kind of performance we should expect from now on with the running backs we have. I stayed with some friends this weekend and we were talking about the game and one of them mentioned how he absolutely hates Dalton and this just absolutely baffled me. I mean, while the guy isn’t going to be a Heisman candidate or anything, he’s still likely going to wind up TCUs career passing leader and all he’s done so far is lead the team to back to back bowl wins as well as a #7 ranking last year. I guess our expectations must stretch beyond that these days. Another interesting stat: of Dalton’s 50 completions this year, only 4 have gone to a running back or tight end, and while I’ve always disliked his inclination to overlook his tight ends, at least the guy is moving the ball up field rather than just dumping it off in the flats. All I’m trying to say is, for those of you who doubt Dalton’s ability, just look at what he’s done compared to his Katy counterpart on the other sideline…
Speaking of the run game, it was once again the difference between the win and loss column as we totaled 229 yards on 53 attempts including 3 TDs. Joseph Turner led all backs with 81 yards on 19 carries and a TD and, while it’s fun to watch an electrifyingly fast back like a Jahvid Best or a pre NFL Reggie Bush, I don’t know that I don’t find Turner’s bruising style even more entertaining. He doesn’t quite have the baby killing, bull in a china shop rage of someone like Marion Barber, but the way the guy never stops moving his feet to get some extra yards will never cease being fun to watch. Case in point – in the second quarter before our first score, we faced a third and two and while Turner easily got the first, he turned a 3-4 yard gain into 9 simply by not giving up on the run. He’s very deceptive to tackle because he gets low to the point that as a defender you have to think he’s down, but he never touches that knee and will never quit until you forcefully put him down. What a fantastic weapon he’s become.
Moving on, Ed Wesley had 10 rushes for 63 yards and Matthew Tucker had 9 for 52 yards and a score. Even more than the score though you had to take notice of Tucker’s blocking as he got way up in a defender’s pads to spring Hicks on the outside handoff for the Frogs first score. It’s not too often than a young back recognizes his variety of roles in an offense and it’s great to see Tucker leaving it all out there even though it won’t show up in the stats. To finish, neither QB did much in the run game with Jackson (2-14) and Dalton (6-17) mostly allowing the running backs to do the damage. Antoine Hicks (3-8-1TD), Jeremy Kerley (1-10 and Chris Smith (3-3) were the other three Frogs with carries in the game.
The receiving game contributed 2 big scores, with the Hicks one mentioned above being the best. Seriously, replay that thing because it was a nearly impossible catch and pass and Dalton dropped it in there perfectly while Hicks scraped it up before it dropped to the turf. Truly, truly fantastic play and while the game was pretty sealed at that point, pushing the lead from 11 to 18 surely made the win feel much more secure. Once again Dalton spread the ball around to several different players, but Kerley led all with 4 catches for 48 yards. Bart Johnson had 2 for 35, including a fumble, while Curtis Clay, Hicks, Jimmy Young, Christian, Evan Frosch and Luke Shivers pulled in a catch a piece, with Shivers’ going for a TD. I didn’t really keep too close an eye on things, but this two game drought in big play hookups between Dalton and Young is somewhat concerning. Are the defenses keeping better coverage on him? Are we simply choosing not to air it out long? Are the rapid emergence of Hicks and the big play ability of Kerley too tempting to pass up on a given play? Defintely something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.
Final Numbers – 18 first downs, 418 total yards (229 rush, 189 pass) 2 lost fumbles, 1 Int, 34:17 TOP, 7/15 third down, 4-5 red zone, 1 sack allowed.
Defense – A-. Well, it took them a bit of time to settle down – SMU held the ball for 10:26 in first half, mostly due to turnovers- but the Frogs defense came to play once again. After being held without a sack for the first time in 26 games last week, the TCU defense wasn’t about to let the streak run to two. Naturally, Wayne Daniels and Jerry Hughes decided to take out any sort of anticipation in the opening minute as they sacked QB Bo Levi Mitchell for what would be the first of 5 sacks on the night. The biggest focus for the defense tonight had to be getting pressure on Mitchell because he’s going to pass the ball regardless, but when you put pressure on him, he prefers to throw it to the opposite team. This proved true as Mitchell threw into 2 INTs, including one where I hones to god think he just figured, “well, the sooner I give the ball back, the sooner this is over with” and threw a perfect pass to Colin Jones. Pretty incredible for a guy who has “gunslinger” tattooed on his bicep. This guy apparently has some expectations of himself – including a facebook message on Saturday reading “Time to shock the world”-and hopefully June will defer some of his paycheck to fund the removal of said tattoo before Mitchell begins interviewing as a used car salesman post college. SMU came into the game averaging 432 yards per game… and ended with 224, including -16 yards rushing! I mean, yeah, I mentioned that SMUs ground game wasn’t much of a threat, but yeesh! That’s just appalling if I’m supporting the $10 million man.
Leading the charge for the Frogs would definitely be Daryl Washington, who may have only finished with 5 tackles, but he had two sacks and an interception which officially ended the game. I don’t think this guy needs any more superlatives heaped on him… and neither does this next guy, Jerry Hughes, who finished with 8 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Of more mention should be Alex Ibiloye who should be brought up for not only leading the team with 9 tackles – ALL SOLO – but also so our stadium announcer can get his damned name right. Seriously, I know some names are hard to pronounce, but the guy who does this has been around for multiple seasons and, I mean, when all you get paid to do is pronounce names and remind everyone that it’s third down, shouldn’t you get it right? Terrible.
Also of note were Wayne Daniels, 4 tackles and a half sack, as well as Tank Carder with 4 tackles, a half loss, and a fumble recovery. Getting his first start due to the Nick Sanders injury, Jason Teague filled in pretty well, totaling 3 tackles and not allowing any big gains over his head. Another guy who I want to mention is Rafael Priest who, while he didn’t have a huge night – 1 tackle – he absolutely blanketed the SMU receivers all night, not giving up an inch of space. Emmanuel Sanders may have finished with 8 catches for 74 yards and a TD, but it certainly didn’t happen on Priest’s watch.
The only complaint I really have for our defense would have to be how susceptible we seemed to be to screens to SMU RB Shawnbrey McNeal, as his two huge gains resulted in SMUs only two scores. I understand that when you blitz, getting beat on a slip screen is a risk you have to take, but should the guy have really been THAT open? Sure, had we gotten to Mitchell on either of those plays – and we were SO close – I’d be singing a different tune today, so it's really neither here nor there. I can accept messing up once, but I never thought Patterson would be fooled twice by the likes of June Cometh. Truthfully though, I’m just really angry we didn’t shut those assholes out. What a terrible, terrible grouping of individuals. You can have your Boulevard, we’ll take a top 10 ranked team anyday.
Final Numbers – 9 First downs allowed, 224 yards (240 pass, -16 rushing) 2 forced fumbles-1 recovered, 2 INTs, 3/15 third down conversions allowed, 1 red zone possession allowed, 5 sacks, 25:43 TOP.
Special Teams – B+. Before I get completely into the play that we’re all going to be talking about this week, I want to bring up one aspect of said play. With Kerley tearing down the sidelines about to cut back right into an SMU player which would’ve killed the run, true freshman LB Tanner Brock came flying in from out of nowhere and absolutely leveled said defender with a crushing block – all without a helmet. Say what you will about it being a “dumb” play on Brock’s part – and Patterson will tell you that he wants his guys to play smarter, despite the result – you can’t deny how fired up that had to have made our team the rest of the game. Seriously, re-watch the play a few times because when I say without a helmet, I mean he went head to helmet on the guy and walked away from it. Jason Phillips was tough and will always be revered as one of the greatest to play under Patterson, but I seriously think this kid, along with Carder, could make us forget that the Henson/Phillips combo ever happened. Move over Kelton - new favorite player ever.
Moving along though, Kerley finally did it! After 7 years, the Frogs finally returned a punt for a score, and just to keep the suspense up, he didn’t’ make it look too easy. In fact, I don’t think anyone in the stadium believed he’d done it until the referee signaled because he was pinballing off guys pretty much the entire way and had to drag an SMU defender the last few feet into the end zone. In the preview I wrote that SMUs Sanders was thus far the star return man of the two teams but Kerley calmed that argument. It wasn’t just that play either – Kerley finished with 123 punt return yards on 4 tries and set the Frogs up with great field position throughout the game. Unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalize on these returns early, but, like I said, you can’t argue with the final score. Kerley also returned one kickoff for 52 yards which led to the Frogs first score.
Kicking the ball, Ross Evans, you ignorant slut. Alright, so the guy who blocked his first PAT is some ringer the Ponies brought in from Estonia who is a 6’8” discus champion, but from the looks of it, that kick was going to be lucky to skid off the crossbar it was so low. Inexcusable and I have no faith that this kid has recovered enough from the Utah game to be a reliable option. Fortunately we were able to put the ball in the end zone whenever we were close enough for a field goal so we didn’t have to watch his futility there. Other than that though, his kickoffs left a lot to be desired as he recorded no touchbacks, but fortunately none went out of bounds. Kevin Sharples must REALLY feel bad about himself right now.
As I said, Anson Kelton has relinquished his role as my favorite Frog, and he didn’t work too hard to earn it back as he punted 5 times for a 31 yard average, although I will admit most of his kicks were near midfield and he dropped 2 inside the 20.
The Frogs also failed to convert two 2-point conversions.
Final Numbers – 3-4 PATs, 0-2 2PC, 5 punts – 31 yard average -2 inside twenty, 4 Punt Returns for 123 yards and 1 TD, 3 kick off returns for 124 yards.
Overall – It was a dreary and cold game to sit in, but it was a lot more exciting than Stanford last year and the 7PM as opposed to 11AM start helped pull in more of a crowd. Announced attendance was 37,000+, which is fine, but it’s sad to think how much better it could’ve been had the weather stayed away. Like most of our games, first half attendance was much more favorable than second half despite a close halftime score, but I’m tired of complaining about that. The offense was fine and did the most with what they had considering the weather, the defense was fantastic, and Kerley set us up with beautiful field position most of the night. In the future, hopefully we can hold onto the ball and capitalize on said position. Not too much jibber jabber from SMU fans which is a shame because I was definitely ready for a little confrontation. In fact, judging from my voice, or lack thereof, the morning after, I’m pretty sure I must have challenged most of the SMU bench to a sparring match as well. Props to WWHD and I HATE H for harassing the referees so much at halftime that they called a fair game the rest of the way. Congrats to SMU fans not winding up dead from cocaine overdoses in the portapotties as they’ve been prone to do – seriously. Cheers to the TCU police for staying away from our tailgate section for the most part re: clearing the aisles because we're a fire hazard. Jeers to the usher who made WWHD empty his treat on the ground in the third quarter. Huge Cheers to the Frogs for plowing through non conference and emerging 4-0. Huge opening conference game this weekend in Colorado Springs and as lyle pointed out to be earlier, it’s supposed to be in the 20s and snowing hard. Looks like it’s our ground game against theirs, and I’m pretty sure our defense isn’t budging. Go Frogs!
