“It’s frustrating”, Patterson said. [But] today was a survival game. There have been 16 players who have made their first career starts for the TCU defense. In their natural habitat, the Horned Frogs avenged last season’s loss to the Bears with a 28-21 win in double overtime, essentially knocking Baylor out of the College Football Playoff conversation and putting the Big 12’s chances for a bid in the hands of Bedlam on Saturday.
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Baylor running back Johnny Jefferson (5) is upended by TCU safety Travin Howard (32) as Davion Pierson (57) watches during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas. The game was played in a driving rain with a wind chill in the mid-20s, which is just about the most miserable weather imaginable. (Baylor’s 7.93 yards per play leads the Big 12, and TCU’s 7.15 yards per play ranks second.) TCU finished the game averaging 3.8 yards per play, and Baylor managed only 3.5 yards per play as the endless rain overwhelmed everything each offense attempted.
Boykin played for the first time since turning his right ankle awkwardly in the first half of TCU’s last home game, November 14 against Kansas.
It looked nothing like the Big 12 football we’ve become accustomed to.
Baylor fumbled on its next possession, which resulted in another drive by TCU.
“It was a real dogfight”, said defensive end Josh Carraway, who had a critical 56-yard fumble return for a touchdown to tie the score in the second quarter and score the final points of regulation. “They know what it feels like to play in a big game”. Over under has seen the Baylor Bears go a 5-2 so far, while the TCU Horned Frogs go 4-4.
The game-winning score came on the fifth play of the second overtime, when Boykin threw an eight-yard pass to KaVontae Turpin, who was open under the uprights in the south end zone. Baylor is the only team in the nation to score on its first drive in every game this season – and all of those have been touchdowns. Since going undefeated in conference play in that latter season, the Tigers have lost two, three and four games the next three seasons; they are 4-3 in conference play ahead of the A&M game.
When the Baylor lined back up, Chafin took the handoff and ran into TCU defenders Julius Lewis and Ty Summers, the last of Summers’ school-record 23 tackles. “Some of the guys we expect to be our future guys that make plays, stepped up”. “We brought one of our corners off the edge and he was able to get ahold of his legs”, Patterson said. “Sometimes I guess practice is overrated”.
TCU outlasted Baylor in the rain on Friday night. Five of TCU’s 10 wins were by seven points or fewer as TCU continually fought its way into the win column. That this monstrosity of a game was the successor to 61-58 is strangely fitting, in a way, but it just goes to show no matter how much teams can talk about not letting outside factors affect them, there are limits to that talk. All the downs we had this year, we never gave up. “There’s something special about this group”.
The Horned Frogs had to overcome a series of injuries on defense early this season.
“Having a 10-win season is awesome”, Boykin said.
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“It was a little shake route and Turp broke free and I tried to put the ball in the air and just hope he catches it – and he did”, Boykin said.
