The Frogs went up to West Lafayette, put on a defensive clinic, and then proceeded to out physical a Big 10 team in their own backyard.

God bless Gary Patterson.

Alright, let’s jump right into the analysis.

The Good:

-The Defense, the entire defense: Give Gary Patterson 2 weeks to prepare for just about anyone and you’ve got to like TCU’s chances to win against almost any team. I know Purdue had a lot of injuries on offense (starting QB especially) as well as some key defensive injuries, but for the most part our defense dominated that Big 10 offense like it was a JV high school team.

Rondale Moore is a good WR, and the offensive centerpiece for the Boilermakers, but on Saturday night in front of a full home crowd he got SHUT DOWN. Moore finished with 3 catches for 25 yards. You love to see it if you’re a Frog fan. Take it away Mr. Nowitzki:

I’m going to go lightning round on the defense because I could write a whole separate article on how good they looked, but here we go:

Garrett Wallow is fast, hits hard, and can do it all.

Blacklock basically demands a double team.

Jeff Gladney, give him the keys to your house, because he will lock it down.

Trevon Moehrig might be Houdini cause that man has got some magic.

Dee Winters...why hello there.

Again, for anyone that watched the game knows how well the defense showed up. They kept Purdue out of the end zone for almost the entire game, but then with a little over 3 minutes left in the game, Purdue was able to punch one in. Oh well, can’t be perfect I suppose.

Even when the offense wasn’t helping out the defense a ton, the 4-2-5 boys, the TCU Legion of Boom, the padlock 11, whatever nickname for our defense that you want to use, they didn’t seem to mind giving Purdue the absolute least to work with every time they took the field.

-Darius Anderson & Sewo Olonilua: Anderson had his best rushing performance since probably his coming out party against Oklahoma State in 2017, finishing the night with 16 carries for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns. The first touchdown was a run that he busted wide open for 32 yards. Anderson averaged 11.2 yards on the night, and once again I have to ask myself the question, “Why would we ever pass the ball again?” - oh because we have Jalen Reagor - but you all get my point.

Not to be overshadowed, Sewo Olonilua had 18 carries for 106 yards and a touchdown. On multiple occasions Sewo was carrying defenders on his back, arms, legs, and it seemed like it mattered almost nothing to him. Where Anderson brings the speed, Olonilua brings the power. I know he doesn’t have game breaking speed, but maybe we’ve all been underrating Sewo during his time at TCU. I know the Sewo-cat/wild frog formation gives us all heart palpitations, but when he gets going downhill he’s a tough one to bring down.

You know what’s better than 1 one hundred yard rusher? Two one hundred yard rushers.

-Jonathan Song, reliable kicker: A TCU kicker not named Jaden Oberkrom went on the road and went 2/2. That’s it. That’s the analysis.

-The Uniforms: If there is anyone out there right now that didn’t enjoy our all white look on the road...please give me your location so that I can get you some help.

-The Offensive Line: The big boys up front did not give the Purdue front 7 much to work with and opened up lanes for our running backs. This is going to be critical - and I cannot stress that enough - once Big 12 play starts and every drive matters. The better we play now, the more hope that this O-line gives me.

The Bad:

-The drops on drops on drops: I am not sure of the exact number (I think it was 8) but the Frogs receivers left a lot on the table in terms of how bad they could have gashed up the Purdue secondary. A handful of drives stalled due to drops that hit receivers in the chest/hands as well as the lone TCU turnover came from a pass that our receiver tipped up in the air.

Those missed opportunities and drive killing mistakes are going to kill us in big 12 play. I remember a similar TCU team that was plagued by drops back in 2016, and we ended up going 6-7. Please get in front of the receiving machines and put the settings at max...pun not intended.

Other than that there are no real red flags that stood out to me so I guess it is time to talk about the quarterbacks.

The Rational Quarterback Analysis Manifesto:

Once again both quarterbacks saw action in the second game of the season, and according to coach Patterson, this will continue to be the case in the next game against SMU. I know that Duggan played a majority of the game, but to be honest I still have so many questions about the position.

Neither quarterback really played well, but it didn’t matter in the end because the rest of the team did. I know everyone is ready to coronate Duggan as the starter, but he didn’t really wow me in this one. I definitely feel more comfortable with Duggan out throwing passes than I do Delton, but not by very much.

Delton finished his day going 1/6 with 5 yards and an interception - that came off of a tipped pass by our own receiver. Delton went out for the second drive and after it stalled the coaching staff made the decision to let Duggan take the reigns.

Duggan didn’t do much better though, going 7/19 for 70 yards and a touchdown. The lone passing touchdown on the night came on a wide open touchdown pass to tight end (what are those?) Al’Dontre Davis from 22 yards out. It was a pretty ball, but a lot of the other passes from Duggan were not so much.

From what I saw he didn’t make any real bad decisions, but he had a couple of overthrows as well as throwing an absolute missile on every single pass to his receivers, which is most likely why we had so many drops. Going forward he’s going to need to learn that he doesn’t have to put so much english on every single pass. He needs to work on his touch, but for the most part his accuracy is solid, just needs to iron out a few things.

He is a freshman, and hopefully has nowhere else to go but up in terms of performance. I will say, he is clearly the better passer and unless we want to become triple option U, I think he gives us the best chance to win. At least from what I’ve seen through 2 games.

Overall, this TCU team really reminds me of those late year LSU Les Miles teams. We have a great defense, solid skill position players, we just can’t seem to figure things out at QB and that holds us back from going 10-2 and instead we go 8-4/9-3. That doesn’t mean that we won’t find an answer at some point in the year, but at this point neither players have proved much of anything to me. You know who has proved something to me though? Those TCU running backs. If the backs keep playing like that, then we may never need to pass again.

Play of the Game:

Truly I am tempted to choose the Darius Anderson touchdown run from 33 yards out, but instead I am going to go with my favorite defensive play of the game.

While the Jeff Gladney flea flicker pick made me laugh out loud, I have to go with the first TCU interception, where Trevon Moerhig ripped the ball from Rondale Moore’s hands and let him know who his real father was.

Next Week: Battle for the Iron Skillet against SMU

The 3-0 Ponies come into town, and appear to have some swagger and confidence under year two of HC Sonny Dykes. This is rarely a game I like to watch, mostly because we only have everything to lose here, not much to gain other than bragging rights...but hey this could be a good test if SMU is really as good as they have looked through 3 weeks.