PHOENIX – After four quarters and a late-night overtime . . .
After an absurdist duel of quarterbacks, featuring a beleaguered TCU fifth-year senior, two (yes, two) Cal QBs named “Chase” and nine (yes, nine) interceptions . . .
After a football game played in a baseball stadium that needed soccer subtitles . . .
After it all, for the TCU Horned Frogs, Cheez-Its seemed to taste a lot like steak.
When Jonathan Song’s 27-yard field goal sailed through the left-field uprights at Chase Field, giving the Frogs a 10-7 win over the Cal Golden Bears, it launched an on-field celebration of equal parts joy and relief.
There was trophy-hoisting and picture-taking. There were handshakes for the seniors and hugs for the mommas.
The beauty of the bowls – some say it’s also their bane – is that it sends some 36 or so teams home a winner, with a well-earned trophy to show for it.
Years from now, somebody will be cruising the Hall of Fame aisles at TCU’s Schollmaier Arena, see the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl trophy, and they will probably just laugh at the funny name.
They’ll be missing the real story, of course. They’ll miss the battle tale of two of the nation’s truly best defenses, who smothered and stole from each other all night long. They’ll miss the footnote about the quarterbacks, who misfired passes and appeared to misread defenses all night long.
But there the Frogs were at the end, partying like they had just gotten straight-A’s.
Well, almost. Offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie, posing for a picture with his kids perched on each shoulder, showed the wear and tear of the defense-dominated night.
“We won the Ugly Bowl,” Cumbie said. “What can I say?”
We should have seen this coming. Coach Justin Wilcox’s Cal team came into the Cheez-It Bowl with the nation’s No. 16-ranked defense, but with an offense that was 112th nationally and dead-last in the Pac-12.
Coach Gary Patterson’s TCU defense, meanwhile, was 26th in the nation and first in the Big 12, but ranked 91st in offense by the NCAA. Injuries reduced Cumbie’s offense to only a vague resemblance of what it was back in September against Ohio State.
The ensuing mayhem Wednesday night, therefore, lit up the internet. One seven-minute stretch in the first half produced, in order, an interception, Cal’s only touchdown, a punt, and then four successive interceptions.
By halftime, the two starting quarterbacks, California’s Chase Garbers and TCU’s Grayson Muehlstein, had been picked off a combined six times. Muehlstein, befuddled and heavily rushed, was 4 of 14 for a net minus-2 yards.
Twitter, in particular, was captivated by this.
“At one point of the game, I was going to walk up to Coach P and ask him if I could play a little DB, because it seemed like everybody was getting picks,” joked TCU defensive end Ben Banogu.
The Frogs didn’t wake the scoreboard until their final play of the third quarter, Sewo Olonilua’s 1-yard lunge.
But Cumbie kept digging deep into the playbook, looking for something, anything, that would keep the Frogs moving forward. At one point, Muehlstein passed to receiver Jalen Reagor in the right flat, who threw back to Muehlstein who, suddenly surrounded by Bears, threw back into the right flat again.
To no one’s surprise, that pass was intercepted – the second of three picks by Cal’s Jaylinn Hawkins – and returned to the TCU 17. Two plays later Garbers’ pass was intercepted in the end zone by Frogs senior Niko Small.
And so the night went.
“It was one of those deals where, fortunately for us, as the game went on, our offense was starting to control the ball a little bit more and we got more rest,” Patterson said. “When we got more rest, we were able to play better. That first quarter, when we had the ball about five minutes, there wasn’t much rest.”
With two evenly matched teams, the difference is often determined by elite playmakers – Reagor, in TCU’s case. But Muehlstein had trouble getting him the ball all night long.
As excellent players do, however, Reagor found another way to make his impact, returning a punt 58 yards to the Cal 33 late in the third quarter. Seven running plays and one call reversal later, the Frogs knotted the game 7-all.
The rest of the game remained faithful to the silly script.
Cal’s backup Chase – Chase Forrest – couldn’t move the Bears, either, and threw yet another interception. TCU’s Muehlstein was injured and had to leave the game, forcing true freshman Justin Rogers into the game for one series.
TCU had a chance to win on the final play of regulation, but Cole Bunce missed from 44 yards after some debate among the coaches about who should take the kick.
“We lost Grayson there for a while,” Patterson said. “That’s when we went to Justin, who had not played this year. So we were down to our fourth quarterback.
“Grayson came back, but he couldn’t run. So we needed to run the read because they weren’t taking the quarterback, but he couldn’t run.”
The overtime featured one more bizarre twist. Forrest’s third-and-7 pass was – what else? – intercepted by Frogs linebacker Jawuan Johnson, who set sail down the sideline in front of the TCU bench. He was finally stopped after 72 yards at the Cal 13.
Instead of starting their overtime possession at the 25, however, the Frogs were penalized 15 yards for sideline interference on Johnson’s return.
“Mark Cohen has gone viral,” Patterson joked later.
The penalty was called on Cohen, TCU’s sports information director, for getting in the way of a trailing official. Patterson teased about it in the interview room, but Cohen seemed understandably mortified.
“Jeeminy Christmas,” Patterson said. “That’s got to be the first time in 150 years of football that an SID got a penalty.”
Happy endings, though, have a way of wiping the memory of messy details.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Patterson announced. “Where we sat five or six weeks ago, at 4-6, and have an opportunity to win four out of our last five ball games and claw back and do the things they’ve done. It’s a testament to the kind of kids that we have, plus what the program’s been able to do.”
Out in right field at makeshift Chase Field, Frogs were still taking selfies and exchanging hugs. Players were posing with boxes of Cheez-Its. The TCU Showgirls were posing with boxes of Cheez-Its. Thank goodness it wasn’t the Gator Bowl.
But the way the night went, the Frogs would have posed with just about anything after turning a 3-5 season into a 7-6 one.
Song, who confidently stroked the winning field goal, had his arm wrapped around the football that won the game.
“I’m keeping it,” he announced.
Ugly Bowl. Cheez-It Bowl. It makes no difference when you win.
Years from now, somebody will see the trophy in the display case at TCU, and they’ll probably laugh at the funny name.
They should have seen the actual game.
