STILLWATER, Okla. — Growth is predictable. It’s measurable. Every few days or weeks, a kid can back up against the door frame and have someone mark the spot at the top of their head, then turn around and see that it will be a little higher than the one before.
It doesn’t work like that on a football field.
On a football field, progress depends on 10 other players, not to mention your own. Max Duggan is growing — but in increments that might be very small at a time, maybe even backward sometimes.
Saturday’s 34-27 loss to Oklahoma State showed that for the TCU quarterback. The emerging young signal-caller, coming off his first rousing victory — last week’s thriller against Texas — appeared poised to take the next step. Instead, he threw three interceptions, was victimized by drops, got scramble-happy, rallied, and then knocked out of the game late.
In a pressurized road environment, he made plays and ran headlong into mistakes. He learned. He grew.
And, as Gary Patterson said, he lost.
“I don’t analyze like you guys want to analyze,” the coach told reporters. “I don’t do that. Bottom line is, we won or we lose. And today we lost. We didn’t do enough on offense, and we definitely didn’t do enough on defense to get done what we need to do.”
Bottom line is, the Horned Frogs are 4-4 with four games to go. They’re trying to raise a freshman quarterback. For the first time, he played in the arena-like setting that is Boone Pickens Stadium. He faced adversity and kept giving his team a chance.
There is value in that.
“There’s no value in losing,” Patterson said. “Soon as you put value in losing, then you need to quit. It’s simple. It’s like Andy Dalton when we played Air Force and we threw a fade when we’re supposed to be running so we can kick a field goal, and they intercept and went down and beat us in overtime. There was no value in it. We got beat in overtime. That’s what you need to understand. There’s no in-between. That’s how we built this program. There’s no moral victories.”
The Frogs lost by a touchdown on the road to a team now .500 in the Big 12, missing its best receiver, starting a redshirt freshman quarterback and seventh in scoring defense in the league. Who said anything about moral victories?
“We’re just good enough we can beat anybody we got in this league, and we’re just good enough we can get beat by anybody in this league,” Patterson said. “You can’t make the mistakes we made on defense. Probably gave them 200 yards, 300 yards on guys just not doing their jobs. So we understand that. Offensively you can’t turn the ball over. We did a good job of moving the ball at times. That’s what I told them. At times we played — did the things we need to do football-wise. Still, as bad as we played, it’s a seven-point ballgame, on the road. Seven-point ballgame on the road, as bad as we played.”
If Duggan at least grew a little, the Frogs can take that back home from Stillwater.
There were lessons for him the entire game.
One is that sometimes the receiver won’t be where he expects. In the first quarter, Jalen Reagor got knocked down in his route, and the ball intended for him deep in the middle of the field instead became an interception.
In the second quarter, Taye Barber attempted a slant-and-go pattern, ran into his defender, and never got to the catch point — where again, Barber’s ball was sailing, but into the hands of the safety for an interception.
Second half — again. Reagor and his defender made contact, Reagor stopped running and a deep ball kept going and going … landing in the hands of a defender for another interception.
That’s not to mention a third-down drop by John Stephens, a first-down drop by Pro Wells, also in the second half, each short-circuiting a drive with the Frogs down 24-17.
Given another chance, this time down 31-17, Duggan engineered a touchdown drive and then got the Frogs going again to near midfield before an injury to his right hand forced him to the sidelines. A play later, he was back in.
Knocked down three plays later, Duggan left the field again because of the hand, which braced his fall.
Mike Collins finished the game, setting up a field goal with his 27-yard pass to Reagor, and TCU tried an onside kick that didn’t pan out.
The Frogs were stuck with a seven-point loss and lessons for their quarterback.
“Maturity,” Reagor said, asked what Duggan can gain from the day. “He can only grow up and get more experience and become better because he’s so young. With it being his first year and him playing as much as he is, he has nothing but room to grow.”
The growth will come for the young TCU quarterback. It just won’t necessarily be in predictable increments. Don’t look at the lines in the door frame.
(Photo by TCU Athletics)