MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jake Oberkrom’s 37-yard field goal on the game’s final play gave 10th-ranked TCU a 31-30, come-from-behind victory over 20th-ranked West Virginia Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown.
“Three years in a row it comes down to the last seconds,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “I think it was two evenly matched football teams but obviously they’re just a little bit better than us.”
“I’m glad we came out,” added TCU coach Gary Patterson. “Everyone is jumping me about one point. I’m sure glad we got that one point.”
West Virginia (6-3, 4-2) looked like it might escape a turnover-plagued offensive performance when cornerback Terrell Chestnut stripped the football out of the arms of TCU wide receiver Josh Doctson and returned his fumble 35 yards for a touchdown, giving the Mountaineers a 27-14 lead with 6:36 left in the third quarter, but the Horned Frogs (7-1, 4-1) responded with a pair of B.J. Catalon touchdown runs, the second coming from 6 yards to pull them to within two, 30-28, with 7:33 left.
Catalon’s other touchdown run covered 23 yards with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter.
After Josh Lambert’s 23-yard field goal four seconds into the fourth quarter made it 30-21, WVU, it turned into a field position game that the Mountaineers were ill suited to play because the wind was in its face and TCU's defensive line appeared to be controlling the line of scrimmage.
“If we just sit back and try to throw it like Texas Tech did (an 82-27 TCU win last week) that game will probably turn out like that game turned out for them,” said Holgorsen. “We didn’t run the ball very good and when they put two high safeties and double-cover a wide out and we can’t run the ball into a favorable box, we’re going to get beat.”
Twice, West Virginia had three-and-out possessions when it chose to run the ball and the Horned Frogs eventually turned those two big stops into points and the victory.
“I thought our running backs were extremely average,” said Holgorsen.
Three Dreamius Smith runs netted one yard, and after a false start penalty, Nick O’Toole punted to the TCU 49. Quarterback Trevone Boykin began the drive with a 15-yard pass over the middle to Doctson, and runs by Kolby Listenbee and Catalon moved the ball to the 22. Three plays later, Catalon bounced in from the 6 on third and goal. Oberkrom’s PAT made it a two-point game.
West Virginia’s next three-and-out possession came after the Mountaineers stopped the Horned Frogs on fourth and 3 at the WVU 43 when Boykin’s middle screen pass fell incomplete.
This time, three straight Andrew Buie runs went nowhere and O’Toole was forced to punt the football back to TCU and it was downed at the Horned Frog 24 with 2:07 remaining.
On second and six, Boykin found Listenbee running free down the far sideline for a 40-yard completion to the WVU 33. Boykin ran for 6 to the 27 and three more Catalon runs got the ball to the WVU 22, where Oberkrom kicked the game winner.
“I thought that if we could make it through the third quarter, that with the wind we could change the field position and get close enough,” said Patterson. “We were in a lot of trouble but we fought back and got some stops so we could do that.”
Despite scoring on the game’s opening possession – a 23-yard Clint Trickett-to-Mario Alford hookup in the back of the end zone, the West Virginia offense struggled all afternoon to consistently move the football. Trickett was harassed nearly every time he dropped back to pass and finished the game being sacked twice and throwing a pair of picks.
“Clint was incredibly uncomfortable,” said Holgorsen. “Their rush was good. He was uneasy in the pocket; he got spooked. If we sat there and tried to throw the ball it wouldn’t have turned out very good.”
Compounding matters, the WVU run game was unable to hold onto the football on its side of the field with three critical fumbles, one each by Rushel Shell and Wendell Smallwood, and a bad snap by center Tyler Orlosky in the third quarter that TCU recovered at the WVU 27.
In fact, the Horned Frogs spent almost the entire second quarter on West Virginia’s side of the 50 but was not able to come up with any points on its three possessions in plus territory. TCU’s lone touchdown of the first half was the result of an all-out West Virginia blitz that gave Deante’ Gray the space he needed to race 47 yards on a screen pass from Boykin for the score.
After trailing 13-7 at halftime, TCU took its first lead of the game early in the third quarter when Boykin bounced in from the 2 – a scoring drive that covered just 27 yards following Orlosky’s bad snap.
West Virginia then responded with its best drive of the second half by going 79 yards in seven plays. The big play was a 50-yard run by Smith that took the football to the Horned Frog 17. Three plays after that, Smith went in from the 5.
The nation’s No. 1-ranked scoring offense was held 19 points below its season average, but TCU was able to make the big plays in the second half that it needed, especially in the run game, in order to leave Morgantown with its second down-to-the-wire victory since the two programs joined the Big 12 in 2012.
The Horned Frogs outgained the Mountaineers 167-67 on the ground in the second half and that was the difference in the game.
Overall, Boykin struggled to throw the football this afternoon and finished the game completing just 12-of-30 passes for 166 yards.
Catalon led all ball carriers with 105 yards on 20 carries.
“Our defense played well and I thought our special teams played well,” said Holgorsen.
Trickett also had a tough time with the wet and windy conditions (as well as the TCU defense), completing 15 of his 26 passes for 162 yards – all season lows.
And wide receiver Kevin White, who came into the game ranked third in the country in receiving yardage, was almost completely shut down once again today with just three catches for 28 yards. He now has only six catches for 55 yards in WVU’s last two games against Oklahoma State and TCU.
“I take responsibility for what happened offensively,” said Holgorsen. “It was bad. It was not acceptable.”
“I thought we did a great job defensively after the first touchdown,” added Patterson. “We held them to two field goals (in the first half).”
The Horned Frogs are now in the driver’s seat in the Big 12 race with conference games remaining against Kansas State, Kansas, Texas and Iowa State. More than two months into the season, this was the first time TCU left the state of Texas to play a football game.
West Virginia returns to the road to play at Texas next Saturday before playing its final home game of 2014 on Thursday, November 20 against 11th-ranked Kansas State.
