FORT WORTH — TCU got a lot done Saturday.
In a 51-14 victory against Kansas to start the Big 12 schedule, three Horned Frogs quarterbacks played, all effectively. The defense reasserted itself. Darius Anderson went over 100 yards for the third straight game. Jalen Reagor returned a punt for a touchdown. Freshman running backs Darwin Barlow and Daimarqua Foster got a ton of carries. Even Cole Bunce got back on the field for his specialty — kickoffs into the end zone — after once being thought to be out for the year after a traffic accident in August.
Pretty nice little Saturday.
“We were just working, working, wanting to get another game so we could taste that victory,” said Anderson, who’s now reeled off consecutive games of 179, 161 and 115 yards, averaging 6.4 yards, with five touchdowns. “It was a long week. Long week.”
Losing to SMU made for that long week.
Scoring on all six possessions of the opening half against Kansas made for a quick afternoon. The Frogs led 38-0 at halftime as Max Duggan threw two touchdown passes, Reagor returned a punt for a touchdown (despite muffing it) and the defense allowed no third-down conversions.
Frankly, TCU looked like a different team than the one that played last week.
“Very motivated,” cornerback Jeff Gladney said.
And, if coach Gary Patterson has his way, very unsatisfied.
“What I told them downstairs was this: good first half, I wasn’t particularly happy with the second,” Patterson said. “You want to be a great football team? Then you’ve got to finish.”
The veteran coach was irked that two blitzes were improperly executed in the fourth quarter, resulting in 45- and 25-yard Kansas touchdowns, one on the ground and one through the air.
“Somewhere along the line, we’re going to have to be able to blitz better football teams to be able to stop them,” Patterson said. “That was a problem last week, and it was a problem this week. They need to communicate. Actually, to be honest with you, we should have put the 2s in earlier because the 2s played better than our 1s did in the fourth quarter because they wanted to be in there. So we’ll have a conversation tomorrow about that.”
For TCU fans, their conversations can include the work of the quarterbacks. Duggan led an offense that went 10-for-10 on third down and put up 38 points in the first half. Alex Delton opened the second half and threw for 186 yards, leading a fourth-quarter touchdown drive for a 45-7 lead. Third quarterback Mike Collins, healed from a foot injury that knocked him out of the competition for the starting job, got his first action and led two drives.
On the game’s final drive, Collins’ 20-yard pass converted a third-and-6, and his 11-yard touchdown keeper as time expired accounted for the final points.
“Everybody on the team loves Mike,” said receiver Dylan Thomas, who opened the scoring with a 26-yard touchdown catch in double coverage. “We hadn’t seen him since camp, so it was just good to see him out there having fun, playing football again. Being able to get a score, too, that’s even more icing on the cake.”
Meanwhile, on the ground, Anderson became the first TCU rusher with three straight 100-yard games since Lonta Hobbs in 2002, and Sewo Olonilua scored. Foster made his first college appearance and had 66 yards on eight carries, including a touchdown. Barlow carried 13 times for 55 yards.
Blair Conwright played his first game and made three catches, and Te’Vailance Hunt made his first start and caught two passes, including a 49-yarder.
Meanwhile, the defense gave up a mere 159 yards.
And the Frogs got everything done before the 2:30 p.m. games kicked off.
The Frogs made the most of their Saturday. It’s their last one in Fort Worth for a while. Next week is a trip to Iowa State, then a bye, then a trip to Kansas State. The next time the team sees Amon G. Carter Stadium, it will be to host Texas on Oct. 26.
But wait. Don’t go there yet.
The Frogs just got done learning a lesson about taking each week for what it is.
“The big games take care of themselves. OK?” Patterson said. “”The big games take care of themselves. You got to win the games you’re supposed to win. That was one of the things we felt like we should do today, and we should have done it last week. Now we got to go on the road next week to a very hard place to play. So you got to find a way to win and do the things you need to do.”
And on his particularly Saturday, they did.
