Do what you love, and you’ll never work a single day in your life. The old adage did not apply to anyone watching, playing for, or consequently writing about TCU visiting Iowa State on Saturday night. During the fourth quarter — because the game had become almost unwatchable at that point — I traded text messages with several fellow Frog alumni. One reply said it all: “I turned it off. I need to get high and watch Equalizer 3.” Honestly, they may have made the better decision than prolonging the suffering.
Sonny Dykes’ Frogs are at a crossroads, and unfortunately so were their opponents. Now, those two teams are taking opposite trajectories. For the Cyclones, a lackluster beginning to their season has pivoted to two consecutive conference wins, and they seem to be rediscovering their identity as a hard-nosed rush-first team. The Frogs have no identity, except maybe as a team that can’t execute on offense, defense, or special teams and especially not during the same game.
Mercifully, Saturday didn’t take long. A 7:05 kickoff — sandwiched with 74 combined rushing attempts — hustled toward a 10 p.m. finish in a game that felt manageable early for Fort Worth’s finest but was seemingly out of reach by halftime. It’s difficult to imagine when TCU outgained their opponents by 45 total yards and moved the chains seven more times, but — much like last week against West Virginia — it simply boiled down to repeated failed execution. Iowa State intercepted the Frogs an almost inconceivable four times and turned them over on downs twice for a combined six takeaways. The Corncob Kids did what they like to do: throw successfully to tight ends, run the ball, and milk cows, uh, I mean “the clock.”
Defensively, the Frogs defended the downfield pass well but provided little pass rush, and the ’Clones pulling linemen meant misdirection and power-running plays that regularly gained between six and eight yards on first down, which opened the offensive playbook while keeping Frog linebackers worried about defending the box.
Special teams, which were especially egregious in the placekicking game against the Mountaineers, struggled to punt on Saturday. Jordy Sandy, who is a decorated senior, and well above requisite age to rent a car, was blocked deep in his own end near the end of the first half with the game knotted at 7, though TCU’s defenders did hold their hosts to only three while defending only 11 yards. Sandy struggled repeatedly to flip the field, averaging well below his career and season numbers on successful kicks and, with the block factored in, barely netted 25 yards per attempt.
Kendal Briles’ offensive unit — despite scoring only 7 during the first three quarters — moved the ball effectively until they reached enemy territory. Emani Bailey continues to stack impressive numbers (152 yards on 21 carries on Saturday) for a unit who just can’t put the ball in the end zone often enough.
Truthfully, I’m burying the lead, because the most significant storyline other than the 27-14 loss at ISU was the third-quarter exit of starting quarterback Chandler Morris, who went down with a knee injury. Redshirt freshman Josh Hoover was quickly cocked into the shotgun to finish the contest. This change, in my opinion, might be the only positive to grasp from yet another frustrating visit to Iowa. No one wishes an injury on anyone, yet Morris going down last season prompted the revival of Max Duggan and one of the most magical seasons in Frog history. I’m definitely not saying that will happen again, but based on what fans saw — those who hadn’t turned off the game at that point — Hoover might be the bathroom handrail bump this offense needs to get over the hump.
Morris, whose good qualities include above-average speed and scrambling ability, was not executing Briles’ offensive system adequately. Even before leaving the field, it was obvious he couldn’t comfortably pass the ball downfield more than 10 yards in the air. The ’Clones picked him off twice, including once when the Frogs were about to score, just like Colorado did twice. The former Sooner has only 12 touchdown passes against five interceptions and has completed more than 65% of his passes only once so far this season, and that was against SMU. Nicholls State doesn’t count.
Hoover didn’t come into the game and catch fire. Actually, quite the opposite happened. He fumbled the mesh exchange on his first play, was promptly sacked following that, and threw an interception on the next possession. Despite all that, he showed the ability to stand in the pocket and confidently throw the ball downfield so that his receivers could run past defenders to retrieve it, something Morris has yet to do this season. Morris’ completion numbers aren’t awful, but the stat sheet doesn’t tattle on how many of those are dumps to running backs and flat routes to tight ends. Morris doesn’t threaten a good or even average secondary, and Iowa State’s D quickly discovered that if they committed to stopping Bailey most of the time, Morris would be forced to beat them, and he wasn’t going to.
In retrospect, Saturday shouldn’t have been a surprise. The Frogs haven’t left Ames with a victory since Obama was in office, and Matt Campbell has never Feared the Frog as long as they were surrounded by cornfields and cordial judgment. The surprise was how poorly the Frogs’ offense played and how quickly a game that seemed close pulled out of their reach because of a handful of poor decisions. Hoover, despite playing fewer snaps with less preparation than Morris, bested his predecessor in overall yardage, completions, yards per completion, and touchdown-interception ratio. A drop at the Iowa State 4-yard line and a questionable pass — which was intercepted — by TCU’s best receiver, are two notable plays that could have changed the complexion of what was still a horrendously executed game by the Frogs.
Dykes and Briles have already named Hoover the starter as our ol’ Mountain West Conference friends the Stormin’ Mormons from BYU come to Amon G. Carter on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars are 4-1 but started their season with two cupcakes before beating Arkansas by a touchdown in Fayetteville and then losing to Kansas in Lawrence. The Cougs have some momentum after a win against Cincinnati last week, and I’ve yet to watch a Provo squad whose offensive line wasn’t composed of grown men with property taxes and Roth IRAs. The Cougars, similar to the Cyclones, prefer to run the ball and control the clock but aren’t above letting their quarterback air it out 40 or 50 times if they fall behind like they did against the Jayhawks. Joe Gillespie will prepare his defense for BYU to attack TCU where they’re weakest, which at this point seems to be the front six, though we’ve seen the secondary struggle against quarterbacks who can hit a timing or crossing route, as well.
Briles’ early playcalling will be the indication of how confident the coaches feel with Hoover at the helm. I firmly believe that a competent passer can make Briles’ system a force. We just haven’t seen that yet. If nothing else, the Frogs will look different this coming week, and after the last six quarters that diehards have labored through, it’s hard to imagine that can be any worse.
