Sunday, November 1, 2009

TCU 41, UNLV 0

On the day TCU's offense racked up its highest totals in a couple years (578 yards-- the most since the beatdown of SDSU in '06), the defense again out-shone it. These guys smothered UNLV, holding them to 160 yards (40 of those came on a QB sneak-- the longest running play TCU has allowed all season). Without that long play, the Frogs allowed the Rebels only 2.7 ypc. The pass defense was even better: 1.8 ypa, for only 42 yards.

D.J.Yendrey, a true freshman, started in Cory Grant's place on the d-line. Yendrey is only the second true freshman ever to start at DT for Gary Patterson; he played next to the other ever to do so, Kelly Griffin, who started all 13 games in 2007.

Dalton and the boys on offense were efficient, but slow starting. After the obligatory first quarter fumble, they ran for over 8 ypc. and a touchdown, and hauled in 4 TD passes-- including one from Marcus Jackson to Billy Pizor; it was Pizor's first catch as a Horned Frog.

The effort was good enough to boost the Frogs to #4 in the coaches' poll, and to hold down the 6th spot in the BCS ranking. TCU remains the highest non-cartel team in the poll, by a slightly larger margin than last week (which is to say, now the Frogs have a dull-razor sharp lead over Boise, instead of a sharp-razor-sharp lead!).

Ahead comes the next conference roady; the parallels with the fateful 2000 trip to San Jose State are legion and menacing. Here's to ousting those demons.

highlights:

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