Hello darkness my old friend. We’re not going to start out with the typical structure today because the frustration has finally gotten to me so allow me to break professionalism (lol) for one MMQB.

It’s really starting to feel like I’m writing the same things over and over again each week after a TCU loss. The inspiring second half against Iowa State and the thrill of beating ranked Texas may have thrown us off the scent...but looking back at it, this team is potentially a one yard line miracle away from being 0-4.

Now I hate to discount a win, because at some point you are what your record says you are, but I am just about at the end of my rope. Melissa wrote an excellent piece about how the Frogs have underachieved the past 3 years and how two things can be true:

1. Gary Patterson is the reason that TCU is nationally where it is today, and not just for football! The Rose Bowl win in 2010-2011 did so much for the university as well.
2. Gary Patterson and this coaching staff is likely the reason that TCU has been underachieving for the past 3 seasons.

She mentions that she’s not entirely comfortable with calling for the jobs of coaches/individuals, but I am MIGHTY CLOSE to breaking down and just saying who needs to not be on the coaching staff. I admittedly hate being negative, and it feels like that’s what we’ve all been for the past 2 and a half seasons now. Max’s growth was supposed to be encouraging even if we didn’t win every single game this year, but how can you expect a QB to progress with this offensive line?

SPEAKING OF

Since consistently watching just about every TCU football game since 2012, this is the worst offensive line play I have ever seen from the Frogs. In fact, this OL may be the second worst I have ever seen second only to Florida state in 2018. They don’t protect their QB, they struggle to give the running game a chance, they are penalty prone, and they don’t seem interested in playing with any sort of intensity after a mistake happens. Frankly worst of all, when their quarterback does get hit and knocked down they don’t even help him up or on a late QB hit go over and get in the face of the defender that knocked him down. This offensive line is softer than wet tissue paper.

I don’t know if I can even criticize the offensive play calling a ton because I don’t know what the offense is supposed to look like! This unit is putting this offense in hard to win situations, making critical mistakes over and over, and something has to change. If there is a single change that needs to be made, it’s along the offensive line. I’m not blaming the players so I guess that only leaves one place to really place the blame.

Again, I hate having to write all of that. However, when your team is making the same mistake over and over/showing the same weakness every single week for almost 3 seasons I don’t know how you can just stand by and be like “this is fine”. It’s like being best friends with someone that you are totally loyal to, but every time you go out, they make the same mistake and order two long island ice teas and get totally tanked/you have to call an uber home for them before the night can even begin.

If the offensive line is bad, then it’s bad, but there’s talent there and they just need to play with some effort.

Okay now that I’ve burned that straw house down let’s move on. There were some solid play calls here and there, but there were also times where we tried to get cute/run trick plays/run long developing plays - and again with this OL that’s just not going to net you positive yardage. We shot ourselves in the foot over and over and the final score reflected it. This is the second game in a row where TCU waits to move the ball down the field and really push until the fourth quarter...when it looks like the game is already out of reach. We scored 14 points at home in back to back games against teams that do not necessarily have elite defenses.

C’mon Man Give us Some Positives:

Okay okay okay I know, it wasn’t THAT bad. The absolute biggest positive of the day was the performance by Khari Coleman. Coleman came out and had a sack (the team’s only on the day) as well as 3.5 tackles for loss. Seeing him emerge as a potential future trouble maker up front is something that I absolutely want to bathe in. Give me (and opposing teams) all of the pressure up front. He’ll be one to keep an eye on as he continues to develop and get more playing time.

Pro Wells came back and appears to be healthy once again! He only had two receptions on the day, but one of those was for a 47 yard gain and the other one was for TCU’s second touchdown of the game.

A lot of the other receivers made plays as well, Taye Barber led the team in receiving yards with 70, QJ made some plays, heck even highly touted freshman Zach Evans made a really nice play as a receiver out of the backfield. The ball was being spread around and TCU was able to move the ball when they could get their athletes the ball in space. If the Frogs can eliminate shooting themselves in the foot a lot early on, who knows how the next couple of games shake out.

Another positive comes on the scheduling front. While this team has yet to really give us a ton of reason to believe in them, if there were a time to hear the criticism, take it all in, buckle down, and turn the dang ship around it would be in the upcoming weeks.

-At Baylor (their offense is bad, maybe as bad as ours).

-Home against Texas Tech (they are also not good, but we haven’t beaten them at home since 2014 so this could get weird especially since they also shoot themselves in the foot)

-At West Virginia (similar to Tech, this team shoots itself in the foot a lot but we haven’t won up in Morgantown since 2014).

-Bye

-At Kansas (Oh God please win here and take care of business).

-Home against Ok State (could be ugly but we get up for at least one home game a year right......right?)

4-1 in that stretch isn’t impossible, and 3-2 is what we should all reasonably expect at this point...I hope, but with this year being as weird as it is all we can really be looking for at this point is signs of improvement. Signs of playing with a fire again, and signs that this team is tired of losing.

Play of the game:

Pro Wells is back. That’s it. That’s the analysis.

Next Week: It’s Rivalry week

The Frogs look to redeem last year’s loss (Max was in) against the Baylor Bears as they take a trip down the highway into Waco to see if they can turn the season around and beat their bitter rival.

*sad trombone plays in the background*

Go Frogs!