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Well, I'm sure that everyone expected this result and the margin, so there's not too much to be said about it, right?
. . .
Well, all right, if you insist. TCU's defense played the finest game I've seen in years, crushing each facet of the Ole Miss offense in turn- sacking and hitting Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace repeatedly early and often, and scoring more points (via a lineman pick 6) than the Rebel offense managed to collect all game. TCU established the tone early, swallowing the Rebel's first plays and then getting a pick from Chris Hackett to open up a little trick play touchdown pass from Kolby Listenbee to Aaron Green that gave the Frogs a lead one minute in that would prove to be insurmountable. When Ole Miss' offense again couldn't muster anything, TCU marched down with a more impressive drive, adding a second touchdown with seven minutes left in the first quarter, and it was very easy to see what sort of tone the game would take. From that point on, even while Trevone Boykin didn't have a particularly good day (two of those three interceptions were dreadful, and the last one robbed the defense of their well earned shutout), the TCU defense not only answered the call, they did it with authority- Ole Miss finished the game averaging 0.2 yards per carry with a final game tally of 9 rushing yards and it could have easily been a lot worse.
That, I think, may be what is the most surprising thing about this game- TCU winning wasn't too big of a surprise. TCU blowing Ole Miss out was certainly a surprise, but the fact that it was a lot closer to being 70-0 than it was to being 42-10 will resound with me as we prepare the inevitable hype build for what should be a wonderful 2015 season. When TCU's defense started throwing up the "Land Shark" fin hand sign that the Rebels have been using I was afraid that it would fire up our opponents and get them into the game- when really I don't think anything could have gotten them into this game today. With the way the TCU defense played today, I don't think it's an overstatement to say that we would have beaten any college football team in the country. For some this exclamation point on the end of the season will lead to a lot of "What if..." moments- it will be easy to speculate, thanks to the drop from 3 to 6 at the end of the season, but I think that everything that needs to be said on that front will be proven right over the course of the next 365 days. 2015 is uncharted ground, waiting to be claimed, but there is little doubt right now that 2014 belonged to the TCU Horned Frogs.