The Frogs dropped their second straight game in embarrassing fashion this past Saturday.
Last week, the Frogs lost to UCF in embarrassing fashion, blowing a 21-point lead at home. I thought TCU would rebound from that loss and respond with a win over SMU to quiet some of the questions fans had about the direction of the team. Instead, TCU let up 66 points in a 24-point loss, making those questions about the program warranted. The Frogs were dominated in all three aspects of the game by SMU and the game felt like even more of a blowout than the final score of 66-42. It was just an all-around bad performance from the Frogs on Saturday.
The Good
Jack Bech: Jack Bech has been a consistent bright spot for TCU this season and had another outstanding game against the Mustangs on Saturday. Bech hauled in eight catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns and has solidified himself as the top target for Josh Hoover. Through four games in 2024, Bech has 25 catches for 516 yards and four touchdowns. Bech has shown the ability to beat man coverage with great releases and route running. He has also been reliable avoiding drops and is good at making defenders miss in the open field. Bech has turned into a star wide receiver for the Frogs.
The Bad
Lack of Composure: SMU started the game off hot with a long drive on their first possession that ended in a field goal and a scoop-and-score by their defense to go up ten points in the first eight minutes of the game. TCU needed to score points on their next drive to steady the ship and stay in the game. Instead, the offense went three and out, and special teams gave up a punt return touchdown to extend the lead to seventeen points. It seemed like every time SMU had a big play on offense, defense, or special teams, TCU was not only unable to respond but also lost composure and dug themselves a deeper hole in the ensuing plays. Another example of this was toward the end of the half following the pick-six. TCU had the ball with over a minute left and a timeout remaining, plenty of time to move down the field, and at least set up for a field goal to create some momentum going into the half. Again, the offense went three and out and had to punt, giving the ball back to SMU. SMU proceeded to break off a 29-yard rush on the first play of their drive, setting up for a field goal that extended their lead to 20 points heading into halftime. The Frogs even struggled to maintain focus after their own successes on Saturday. TCU’s first drive after halftime was a solid one that resulted in a touchdown that cut the lead to a manageable 13 points. Needing a stop to keep the momentum on TCU’s side, the defense instead let up a 50-yard completion on the first play of the drive. These examples along with unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, roughing the passer penalties, an ejection of the head coach, and an unacceptable amount of presnap penalties on offense demonstrated a lack of mental toughness from TCU.
Defense: The deciding blow for Joe Gillispie’s tenure at TCU was letting up 69 points to a very good Oklahoma team on the road in 2023. The Frogs just gave up 66 points to SMU. I realize there were two defensive touchdowns, a special teams touchdown, and turnovers that gave the Mustangs good field position, but the TCU defense got torched for the second week in a row. TCU again struggled to stop the run with the Mustangs averaging 5.7 yards per carry as a team for 238 total yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Brashard Smith feasted on the TCU run defense, averaging 7.1 yards per carry for 127 yards and two touchdowns on his own. The defensive line was consistently getting dominated at the point of attack, putting TCU’s linebackers in bad positions which SMU ball carriers took advantage of for big gains. Being unable to stop the run has perfectly set up the secondary to be torn apart by play-action passes for two straight weeks. SMU did not have to throw the ball much on Saturday but found success when they did as Kevin Jennings completed over 70% of his passes and had two touchdowns through the air. TCU struggled to get pressure on Jennings when he did drop back to pass as the Frogs had no sacks on the day. Missed tackles were also an issue, SMU ballcarriers consistently made TCU defenders miss to pick up extra yards after the catch. The defense is a real issue for TCU.
Running game: TCU’s running game is abysmal. The Frogs failed to break 100 yards on the ground as a team for the second straight week as they averaged two (2) yards per carry against the Mustangs. Four different running backs received carries on Saturday and none had success with TCU’s longest run of the day going for eight yards. It concerns me that TCU’s current offensive coordinator was known as a running game specialist during his time at Arkansas and the Frogs are incapable of running the ball at all in 2024. TCU made more of an effort to run the ball in this game than they did against UCF and it had an adverse effect on the offense. First-down rushing was especially an issue as TCU handed the ball off on first down 18 times against SMU and averaged 2.6 yards per carry on those runs. Getting less than three yards on first down is a failure and immediately puts the offense behind the chains. I appreciate that TCU would like to run the ball, but running the ball just for the sake of running the ball is putting the offense in bad positions. The rushing attack also needs more creativity and more gap scheme runs because the simple zone runs are not working.
Offensive Line: The TCU offensive line was thoroughly beaten on Saturday both in pass protection and run blocking. SMU technically only had one sack on the day but Josh Hoover consistently had to work through traffic in the pocket to get passes thrown. Pass protection had been a strength of the offense coming into Saturday but SMU was constantly able to get pressure on Hoover. The lack of movement while run blocking continues to be an issue. Opposing defensive lines have no problems holding their ground or even resetting the line of scrimmage a yard in the backfield. The running backs for TCU probably could do a better job making the first defender miss but they just do not have a lot of room to run. The offensive line has struggled through four games.
Special teams: TCU struggled on special teams as well against SMU. The Frogs gave up one punt return touchdown and were half an inch away from giving up a kick return touchdown as well. The Frogs averaged only 16 yards per return on kickoffs against the Mustangs. There were plenty of special teams penalties too with a holding penalty negating a big return by Jordyn Bailey, an offsides call on a kickoff, and a kick catch interference on a punt. It was just a sloppy performance from the special teams unit for the Frogs.
Turnovers: The most shocking stat from the game on Saturday is that TCU outgained SMU by over 100 yards of total offense. And still lost by 24 points. A big reason why was that TCU turned the ball over five times. A big part of the blame for the first turnover needs to be directed at the playcall. It was fourth and one near midfield and the TCU coaching staff decided to run the triple option from I-Formation. The triple option is a difficult concept to run if it is not a big part of the offense because it can be prone to bad decisions and turnovers. Sure Hoover should have had a better grip on the ball but I have no idea why the coaching staff thought it was a good idea to run the triple option on the first fourth down of the game. Josh Hoover threw his first two interceptions of the season on Saturday and both were questionable decisions at best. SMU taking a big lead early played into these interceptions as Hoover probably felt like he needed to make big plays happen to keep TCU in the game. The coaching staff needed to keep Hoover and the offense calm and just emphasize getting a little back at a time but as I wrote earlier, TCU lacked composure and instead tried to force the issue. TCU needs to do a better job of protecting the football moving forward.
Regression: The most concerning part of TCU’s struggles on Saturday was that a lot of the things that TCU has struggled with this year, they also struggled with last year but to a lesser extent. Instead of addressing these issues in the offseason, these weaknesses have gotten worse. The offensive line has taken steps back from 2022 to 2023 and from 2023 to 2024. The defense, especially the run defense, has taken steps back from 2022 to 2023 and from 2023 to 2024. Special teams have gotten progressively worse since 2022. Penalties have consistently become a bigger issue over the past two years. The running game took a step back in 2023 and has taken an even bigger step back in 2024. Obviously, 2022 was a magical year and there was always going to be some regression following that team but two straight years of the same issues getting worse is a bad omen for the overall direction of the program. The Frogs need to quickly make changes if they want to find a way to six wins and a bowl game this season.