The last time TCU and Baylor played in McLane Stadium, the Bears (6-2, 3-2) came back from a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter the Horned Frogs. Today was a different story as TCU held on to a 24-point halftime lead winning 62-22 and stopped their two game losing streak.
On the second play of the game, the Bears took the lead on an 81-yard pass from Seth Russell to Ishmael Zamora. TCU (5-4, 3-3) answered with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Kenny Hill to Taj Williams to tie it at 7 a mere 53 seconds into the game. This had the makings of a classic Big 12 shootout with no defense; the problem was the TCU defense decided to show up in the first half while Baylor’s didn’t.
“We knew coming in we would have stop the run, tackle, stop the play action, you said we did a nice job and then you look down and they have over 400 yards,” head coach Gary Patterson said about his defense performance. “Anytime you are playing Baylor you are just holding onto your pants, they do such a great job on offense.”
TCU would rattle off 31 unanswered points with 10:37 left to go in the first half, Ranthony Texada capped off the scoring run with a pick 6.
“I’ve been through a lot with the knee injury,” Texada said. “I just trusted my instincts on the play and I was able to do something big.”
The Horned Frogs ground game is where they did the most damage, tallying 431 yards. Junior running back Kyle Hicks rushed for 195 yards on 26 carries and five touchdowns, and junior quarterback Kenny Hill rushed for 95.
Hicks didn’t practice all week due to an injury, but you couldn’t tell with his performance tonight. “I’ll definitely be practicing this week, I need to get the reps but it was great out tonight, I dreamed of performances like these when I was a kid,” Kyle Hicks said with a huge smile on his face.
Lots was to be made about Baylor wearing their black jerseys, as players tweeted out earlier in the week #Truthdontlie and #CAB, with fans selling #CAB shirts outside the stadium before the game showing support for their former coach Art Briles.
“You know we talked about it last week for Texas. We had the Wall Street Journal article come out and that was the question.” Baylor head coach Jim Grobe said. “I think we played TCU great. I hate to make excuses but I don’t really know how to put my finger on that.”
TCU will get a bye week before hosting Oklahoma State and after suffering two tough losses in back-to-back weeks, this could be a break out game for the Horned Frogs.
“I told our guys they shouldn’t feel any different than they did when they woke up this morning, we have to stop worrying about the should of, could of, would of and just go play,” Patterson said.
