The Horned Frogs pulled out a much-needed victory against the Utes on Saturday night.
It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but the TCU Horned Frogs went to Salt Lake City and outlasted the Utah Utes in a defensive battle, winning 13-7 to move to 4-3 on the season and 2-2 in the Big 12 Conference. TCU turned in one of its best defensive outings of the season, holding the Utah offense to a 2-for-15 conversion rate on third downs and limiting standout running back Micah Bernard to 55 rushing yards. Despite continued struggles from Josh Hoover, who threw for 263 yards while losing his nation-leading fifth fumble of the season, Savion Williams shined in an unconventional role, rushing seven times for 72 yards to lead the TCU backfield. Trent Battle added 45 yards on eight runs.
The Horned Frogs will return home for a showdown against Texas Tech next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Here’s what we learned from TCU’s road win over the Utes in Salt Lake City.
TCU’s linebackers continue to be the strongest unit on defense
One of the determining factors as to whether or not TCU would win this game was the defense’s ability to contain Micah Bernard, who entered Saturday’s contest having rushed for 100 or more yards four times in six games. The Horned Frogs, who’ve struggled mightily against the run this season, answered the call with a stout effort against the Utah, limiting Bernard to 4.1 yards per carry as well as his lowest output since the first week of the season. TCU’s success against the run forced the Utes into several third-and-long situations, where true freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson, starting in place of the injured Cam Rising, was unable to make plays for the Utah offense.
Namdi Obiazor led all TCU defenders with six tackles, while EDGE linebacker Devean Deal had his best game as a Horned Frogs, notching a season-high two sacks with five tackles. Marcel Brooks and Kaleb Elarms-Orr provided a punch off the bench, combining for five tackles and two more sacks. While TCU will see better quarterbacks down the road, Saturday’s showing moved the defense in a positive direction, particularly against the run.
TCU’s rushing offense remains in a state of massive flux
Fans looking to see more of Savion Williams got their fill on Saturday, but maybe not in the way they expected. Williams did catch five passes for 27 yards, but his most effective touches came out of the backfield, where the 6-foot-5 receiver averaged over 10 yards per carry with a long of 25 yards. It’s clear that TCU utilized its bye week to get the talented senior more involved offensively, but was this a one-off wrinkle from the Horned Frogs, or will Williams continue to be utilized as a power back for the remainder of the season?
Trent Battle returned from injury to give the offense a boost, averaging 5.6 yards per carry with a long of 10 yards. But starter Cam Cook struggled to find the holes, posting just 13 rushing yards on nine carries. TCU continued to use true freshman Hauss Hejny on select plays, but his touches weren’t effective whatsoever, as the former Aledo star had two runs for three yards. Jeremy Payne, who led TCU in rushing against Kansas just two weeks ago, didn’t see a carry against Utah. Neither did veterans Trey Sanders or Dominique Johnson.
I think the Horned Frogs can continue to deploy Williams out of the backfield if it’s proving effective, but who’s the lead back right now? Cook had solid outings against Houston and Kansas, but he’s lost two fumbles and he’s averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. Payne has seemingly gone back to the bench after leading the way against the Jayhawks and Battle has never been the lead back at any point in his career at TCU. Until someone truly takes the reigns on the position, expect the Horned Frogs to continue riding whoever has a hot hand.
In-game and clock management issues are still a problem
TCU has had issues with late substitutions and burning timeouts/taking delay-of-game penalties under head coach Sonny Dykes. Those issues resurfaced on Saturday, when the Horned Frogs needed to burn two critical timeouts in the second half, one of which came before a fourth-down play where the TCU offense ultimately took a delay-of-game call just to punt the ball back to the Utes. The Horned Frogs were fortunate that Utah’s offense (outside of a one big pass play to Money Parks) was out of rhythm for most of the night, but there are no excuses for TCU to be making these kinds of mistakes over and over again.