A win is a win, but now TCU football must build off of it to reach a bowl game

When the clock finally struck 0:00 in TCU’s 13-7 win at Utah on Saturday night, there was a collective sigh of relief unleashed across the Horned Frogs fandom.

It was an ugly and frustrating game, but with their season hanging in the balance, the Horned Frogs came through when it mattered most and finally found themselves on the right end of one of these types of games.

Going back to last season, this was a game TCU has usually lost. The Horned Frogs went up 13-0 in the second half against a wounded Utah team that was without their leader and starting quarterback Cam Rising.

All TCU needed to do to shut the door was score one more touchdown, but the offense couldn’t come through and forced the defense to step up time after time. Even with Utah’s limitations offensively with a freshman quarterback, TCU’s defense deserves a ton of credit for limiting the Utes to just seven points.

Any time you can hold a team from a power conference program below 10 points, it’s something to be proud of, regardless of the circumstances. Considering that the last time TCU’s defense took the field they were pushed around by one of the worst offenses in the country against Houston, it was an encouraging sign that the defense didn’t fold in the face of adversity again.

Devean Deal, who had two sacks starting in place of Cooper McDonald, said the defense had a gut-check moment during the bye week after the Houston defeat.

“We had to take a look in the mirror to be honest,” Deal said. “We knew we put out a performance that isn’t us, at the end of the day we got back down to the fundamentals and Coach (Andy) Avalos really emphasized winning your 1-on-1s and your brothers will have your back.”

In the second half the defense resembled what the media saw during the preseason with the Horned Frogs generating pressure from all over the field, whether it was from players like Deal or safety Abe Camara or edge rusher Marcel Brooks.

The Horned Frogs also deserve a ton of credit for going into one of the toughest environments in the country, becoming the second straight unranked team to win in Salt Lake City this season. Before that, the Utes had won over 30 in a row against unranked competition.

It’s a hard place to get a victory and no matter how ugly it was, a win is a win. Now with that being said, this win isn’t enough to completely salvage the season or ease lingering concerns on the other sides of the ball.

It may feel like nitpicking, but the reality is that the Horned Frogs should have never been in a close game in the fourth quarter. So why were they?

It starts on offense where the Horned Frogs had another uneven performance. TCU gained almost 400 yards, but only generated 13 points. Lack of execution in the red zone continues to be problematic as TCU had five drives that got inside the Utah 10-yard line, but only scored one touchdown when they got there.

The other four trips resulted in a fumble, a blocked kick and two short field goals after not trusting the run game to break through Utah’s final line of defense. You can’t necessarily blame TCU for its tendencies to be so pass-reliant inside the 10-yard line as the running backs combined for under 60 yards.

Savion Williams was actually the leading rusher as he took seven direct snaps in the backfield and powered his way to 72 yards. Part of the strategy was just getting one of the best playmakers on the team the ball more, but it was also a sign of how desperate the Horned Frogs are to generate yards on the ground.

It’s probably not sustainable to get Williams that many carries while also trying to feed him in the passing game, but whatever it takes at this point, right?

Game management also remains a question mark. Early in the fourth quarter TCU had a head-scratching two-play sequence in the fourth quarter. Facing a 3rd-and-2 at the Utah 34, the Horned Frogs took a timeout and then tried to freshman quarterback Hauss Hejny to pick up the first.

The snap was low and Hejny was hit for negative yardage. The Horned Frogs lined up to go for it on 4th down, but had to burn a second timeout due to confusion on the field. In the end, TCU burned two of its timeouts just to take a delay of game and punt on fourth down. On the bright side TCU was able to pin Utah at the 1-yard line.

Defensively, as impressive as the performance was it’s important to acknowledge again that this Utah team is bad offensively. The Utes have been held under 20 points in three straight games including by Arizona, which has similar numbers to TCU on defense.

In many ways, the Horned Frogs did what they were supposed to do on defense which deserves credit, but it’s too soon to believe the defensive issues have been completely cured.

TCU showed fight and physicality, but they also continued to show tendencies that led to the disappointing defeats earlier in the season. A win is a win, but now the Horned Frogs must build off of it.

“It was huge for us to look and see we’re just scratching the surface,” running back Trent Battle said. “There’s so many things we could’ve done better, we know that. We’re going to get in, watch the film, try to get better, figure out what we did bad and try to do it better next week.”