WATCH! KillerFrogs writers Carson Wersal and JD Andress recap the TCU 36-13 victory over Houston on Saturday.
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00:00 Hey guys, welcome back to the Killer Fox Fanation postgame show.
00:16 I'm Carson Wursel here with JD Andres and we are here to cover last night's game between
00:21 TCU and Houston.
00:23 TCU ended up winning 36-13 and really just kind of dominated the entire game for the
00:30 most part, except for a little hiccups here and there kind of throughout the game.
00:34 Yeah, TCU had 564 yards of total offense yesterday.
00:40 Houston only had 266 and Amani Bailey finished on the ground with 126 rushing yards, right
00:46 around 5.5 yards per carry.
00:49 Chandler Morris threw for 314 yards, the defense had two interceptions and six hacks
00:54 on the day yesterday, bringing their season total to 13.
00:58 Overall it was a sloppy but well executed game at the same time, is one of those paradoxes.
01:06 Do you want to go ahead and take over and talk about the defense?
01:09 Yeah, so the biggest thing for kind of the defense yesterday was getting stops inside
01:15 the red zone.
01:17 And you kind of saw throughout the game, especially in the first half, Houston was
01:20 really, really good at moving the ball between the 20-yard lines.
01:25 Like midfield, TCU looked almost inept at tackling, reading play calls, stuff like that.
01:33 But once Houston got into the red zone, they just couldn't finish the job.
01:40 That was something that really kind of spoke to how stingy this TCU defense is and kind
01:47 of the culture around it, especially from last year, because we kind of saw the same
01:51 trend.
01:52 A lot of huge stops and big time moments.
01:58 I mean, limiting Donovan Smith to under 50% completion rate with less than 250 yards of
02:06 offense is pretty darn acceptable, honestly.
02:11 Because in his first two games, I think he almost averaged around 320 to 330 yards a
02:18 game.
02:19 Yeah, I think a lot of it too is Donovan Smith had a great game.
02:24 His performance was not because of him.
02:26 His receivers, like the amount of open balls that they just dropped out of their hands
02:30 was kind of wild.
02:31 And I think it's something that isn't going talked about as much is that Houston's receivers
02:37 beat themselves.
02:38 They did make a lot of poor decisions and our defense did play really well.
02:42 But a lot of their drives could have been kept alive longer had they caught more passes
02:48 that were thrown right into their hands.
02:51 And it's still the big play issue that TCU's defense is struggling with.
02:55 I mean, our secondary is getting caught sleeping way too much at little times, especially on
03:01 going vertical routes.
03:02 Like they're not even getting burned on double routes.
03:04 It's just those are verticals that it's just like busted coverage.
03:07 But I think it's still something that will be addressed and will be fixed as time goes
03:11 on.
03:12 Yeah, I definitely hope so because that's kind of one of those things when you mentioned
03:17 the vertical routes.
03:19 That's one of the things that Texas and OU and K-State, they really excelled at, especially
03:25 Texas.
03:26 I mean, I think in the game against Alabama, Texas had four or five catches like that for
03:31 over 25 to 30 yards.
03:34 And that I mean, doing that against, granted, Alabama doesn't seem to be the same team as
03:40 they are every year, year in and year out.
03:43 But that still speaks to how good they are on offense.
03:48 Yeah, I think I mean, our secondary doesn't have the speed either to keep up with the
03:54 Texas or the K-State or an OU receiving class.
03:58 A lot of our secondary strength is in the fact that they were supposed to be experienced,
04:03 that they mesh well, that they're playing in a 3-3-5 defense that gives them more help.
04:08 It doesn't seem like they're getting that help over top that they should be getting.
04:11 And I don't know if that's a lack of execution on the players part, or if that's a jalopsy
04:16 problem that's going on right now.
04:18 Yeah, I think it's kind of a combination of both.
04:23 I mean, there are a few new faces on defense, but I really don't think it should have affected
04:31 the secondary as much as it really has.
04:35 I mean, we know that Josh Newton is a very good corner, but he really hasn't shown that
04:42 all-star performance yet, honestly.
04:47 I think he's going to be kind of the key to this TCU secondary.
04:52 Once you get him figured out, and once you get him kind of rolling, I think the TCU secondary
04:57 will follow him.
04:58 Yeah, I think that's a lot too.
05:02 A lot of what was supposed to be the anchor of our secondary, Bud Clark and Josh Newton,
05:05 haven't been performing up to standards.
05:07 And that's not to say they've been playing poorly.
05:10 I think it's just more that how we thought coming into this season they've been performing
05:13 hasn't been what we've seen from them so far.
05:16 Which could be said for the rest of the team, minus Imani Bailey.
05:19 That dude has solidified the fact that he might be a top two running back at the conference
05:24 so far this year.
05:27 I think going on, though, I mean, especially this weekend coming up, SMU's coming in town
05:33 and they got some great receivers.
05:37 Two of the receiver transfers were from TCU who are going to want to show off.
05:42 And I think it's going to be a personal match between the secondary and the receiving corps
05:47 this week.
05:48 And it'll be kind of a test of do they actually want it or do they just think that they're
05:52 that good already?
05:54 Yeah, I think so too.
05:55 And this, I mean, the SMU rivalry game is always a little bit chippy.
06:01 But I think there will be an added kind of intensity to this game, especially because
06:08 the skillet bull is not going to be played after this year.
06:12 Yeah, it's not.
06:14 This is not confirmed, but supposedly it will be played in the future.
06:18 Yeah, and I think it's a lot to like, you know, we all saw last night with the Colorado
06:24 Colorado State game.
06:25 Like it doesn't matter what a point spread is when it comes to a rivalry game.
06:29 It's going to be a close game regardless.
06:31 Like it's just that's, you know, whenever you have like, quote unquote, little brother
06:35 like that, that's their Super Bowl every year.
06:38 He's beating you like SMU Super Bowl every year.
06:41 He's beating TCU.
06:43 That's part of the reason of why, you know, the rivalry might be getting canceled is SMU
06:48 beats TCU.
06:49 Everyone's like, oh, my God, SMU beats TCU.
06:50 TCU beats SMU.
06:51 It's like, cool, they did what they were supposed to.
06:55 And I think that's what's going to make this a little bit of a personal game.
06:59 I do think overall, though, the defense has been playing a lot better.
07:04 The defensive line has been meshing a little bit better.
07:09 But I think that's more so because Roy Hodges and Johnny Hodges are finally stepping into
07:14 the role they need to.
07:16 Yeah, they I mean, against Houston, they looked absolutely stellar.
07:20 I mean, like whether it was going in on a blitz or just playing zone coverage, I mean,
07:26 Johnny Hodges looks like he's he's taking his game to another level this year.
07:30 I mean, last year, I mean, I'll be the first one to admit this.
07:34 I wasn't convinced about it.
07:36 I really wasn't until like, I think it was week eight or nine, when I started seeing
07:41 how how well he moves horizontally across the field.
07:45 And he really showed it against Houston last night.
07:48 Yeah, I wasn't I wasn't too convinced when, you know, Hodges was coming into Johnny wasn't
07:53 was coming in.
07:54 I mean, he was a Navy transfer who had no other offers coming out of the portal and
07:58 going, you know, he didn't have the blazing speed to compete in an air raid conference
08:03 like the Big 12.
08:04 But he's proven me wrong.
08:06 And I think he took the week one comments where he talked about after the game, or I
08:10 think it was like two days after the game, he was like, that lockup effort and lack of
08:13 tackling will never happen again, as long as I'm here.
08:16 And I think that game has really caused him to blossom into the leader on defense that
08:21 he kind of was last year.
08:22 But this year, it's he's the leader of the defense.
08:25 And he is the heartbeat.
08:26 You know, you can't take a playoff when you're a secondary D alignment when you see your
08:30 linebacker running in at full speed.
08:33 He might have missed a tackle yesterday or a sack in the backfield.
08:36 But that man was blazing around everywhere.
08:38 I was impressed.
08:40 Yeah, absolutely.
08:44 So I want to ask you, what did you think about Savion Williams and his performance last night?
08:51 I was first of all, more steeped third Savion was beautiful as a thing of beauty.
08:58 Savion made a great adjustment on that was a great catch.
09:01 I think he played well.
09:03 And I I talked about it today in my article, my takeaways, that I think one of the positives
09:09 of this TCU team that we saw yesterday was how deep this receiving core is.
09:15 But yesterday, also, I think it's kind of a negative.
09:18 Morris doesn't get to ride with the same, you know, four receivers that they're swapping
09:22 out one or two here and there.
09:24 Like we're constantly running Joe Darrow and Jalen Robinson.
09:28 You know, Dylan Wright was in and it's like Savion's in, JPR is in.
09:34 He doesn't get to build that rapport, that game speed rapport with every receiver that
09:38 I think I think Savion could be this year's version.
09:43 He won't be, but he could be this year's version of QJ from last year.
09:46 He's got the height.
09:47 He's got the speed.
09:48 He's got the release.
09:49 And I think we're just not using him to his full ability.
09:52 And I think that kind of speaks more about the offense as a whole.
09:56 I think it hasn't been unblocked yet.
09:58 Yeah.
09:59 One of the things that I kind of noticed last night is that the offense, it seems like it
10:07 seems like the offense as a whole is really close to kind of firing on all cylinders.
10:13 But I mean, they just they have to get over that hump.
10:16 I mean, it seems like I mean, this and this could be from a play calling standpoint from
10:21 our briles, but it seems like for four or five plays in a row, we're very I mean, it
10:29 seems like competent and what we're trying to do.
10:33 But then after those four or five plays, I mean, it's usually just two plays that kind
10:37 of make you scratch your head.
10:40 And some of those sometimes those were drive killers.
10:43 And I think that's kind of what that's what could really, really hurt this team in the
10:47 long run is that if they don't get the offense synced up.
10:51 It's a it's a lack of an identity.
10:53 The offense doesn't have an identity of what they want to do.
10:57 And then to build off that right now, we're kind of stuck in a gray area and kind of saw
11:01 it last night, like red zone.
11:04 We're amazing.
11:05 We know Bras calls a great game in the red zone.
11:07 But between the 20s, it's like, you know, we're going to call a dive play, multiple
11:12 dive plays in a row.
11:13 And, you know, Molly Bailey's going to be working off of it.
11:16 And then rather than calling it, you know, a play action pass that we could run out of
11:20 it, now we're just going to run empty.
11:21 And it's like the defense knows what we're going to run at that point.
11:24 Like, yeah, the lack of the identity once, you know, I think it is also I'm not trying
11:30 to be too critical.
11:31 Can overalls because I know it is a new office, new, you know, players and everything.
11:35 But and he's got to understand what they can do well.
11:40 But we're getting close.
11:41 Like we've already started conference play.
11:42 We're getting closer and closer into our last of our six week grace period at the beginning
11:48 of our season before we start taking on tech Baylor, Texas, oh, you like we kind of got
11:53 to figure out that identity and start working on it now because we can't delay that.
11:57 Yeah, I agree.
12:00 And then going on the kind of I mean, we've seen Chandler have problems so far with some
12:07 turnovers last night, the one that on the pass to Jared Wiley.
12:14 Unfortunately, that goes down as an interception.
12:17 Jared Wiley was being held the entire like, I don't I don't think I've seen a more blatant
12:23 call than that.
12:25 That should have been called.
12:27 But I don't think even if you leave the the interceptions and the turnovers in, I don't
12:33 think that's going to be what kills this TCU team.
12:36 I think it's going to be the poor tackling that we've seen in all three games instead
12:41 of the turnovers that we've only seen versus Colorado and Houston.
12:45 Yeah, and I mean, even though go further on that, the turnovers last night, the fumble
12:50 that Chandler Morris had, he was trying to get out of a sack and ran into his own offense
12:56 lineman.
12:57 It was a mess down there.
12:58 And that's how we pump the ball.
12:59 It wasn't like he was stripped of the ball.
13:00 He just was getting tackled and all the way down.
13:02 He pumped the do zone lineman.
13:05 The tackling has been an issue.
13:08 And I think another issue that we haven't really got to see yet is just the defensive
13:17 line.
13:18 Like a three man front is OK.
13:21 You know, our three man front is able to compete.
13:23 But I mean, I just haven't seen a needed push from our defensive line.
13:28 I mean, Demonic Williams has been playing well.
13:32 He's played in the middle of great, but we don't really have it like the amount of times
13:37 that a quarterback has to sit back there all day unless we're bringing up blitz and putting
13:40 our corners on an island, which have been struggling so far is kind of worrisome.
13:44 I think I think it is something that will need to be worked on, but won't be able to
13:49 be fixed.
13:50 It's kind of one of the hills we might die this season.
13:53 Yeah, I mean, because I mean, that's easy defense.
13:56 It doesn't have a D winters to get after the quarterback and under two seconds.
14:01 Yeah, you kind of saw it with.
14:05 So you saw it in the Colorado game.
14:07 You saw the TC three men front get after Shador and actually get him to or it might have been
14:13 three times.
14:15 And that's pretty successful against a mobile quarterback like that.
14:20 But you also if you watch the Colorado Colorado State game last night, that Colorado offensive
14:25 line got absolutely exposed.
14:27 Yeah, like Shador was under duress almost every single play.
14:32 And that just kind of speaks to how bad that offensive line is, and how bad the TCU defensive
14:39 line is.
14:40 He hasn't really, really played a tough running scheme yet.
14:45 And when you get to Kansas State and Texas, they will absolutely bully us with that.
14:51 Yeah, that is the one game that does game is the Texas game.
14:55 I mean, when you don't give up a sack all game to Alabama, then your office line is
15:00 something special.
15:01 And we cannot like, when yours might be able to eat a full lunch back there by the time
15:06 he wants to throw a ball.
15:08 And I think I think it's going to be a tough test on the defense.
15:12 And I think we're starting to see it a little bit more is a little bit more design blitzes.
15:16 Now.
15:17 We didn't really see him much during the Colorado game.
15:20 It was kind of like, hey, our three man front should get after them.
15:23 Because everyone thought our three man front would.
15:25 That was kind of this scouting report.
15:28 And I think now, you know, he's like, hey, let's start throwing some blitzes.
15:33 And hopefully our secondaries finally kind of coming into form and can take away those
15:37 quick little slants that were killing us in the Colorado game.
15:39 And I think now, you know, I think the defense has a lot to grow on Chandler Morris yesterday.
15:46 I think he finally became the leader of the offense yesterday.
15:49 The grit him fighting for first downs not going out of bounds, you know, two yards short
15:53 fighting for those few yards.
15:55 He took the step forward that people needed to see from him yesterday.
16:00 Yeah, I really, really like that he has started using his legs more because I think that just
16:04 adds another dimension to the TCU offense that right now it very much needs.
16:11 Yeah, it's a it's he's finally coming into the role that he needed to be from the beginning.
16:17 And, and I think a crazy stat that was thrown out yesterday was Imani Bailey got his first
16:22 touchdown of the season yesterday, even though he was averaging almost eight yards a carry
16:26 against Colorado.
16:27 He didn't score in Colorado didn't score against Nichols got his first touchdown of the year
16:31 yesterday.
16:32 Houston Yeah, because I believe it's because Trey Sanders is officially our goal linebacker.
16:41 And it's just more so because he's, I thought Imani Bailey is better at, you know, putting
16:46 his foot in the ground and driving and Trey Sanders is more of the addrall back but it's
16:50 the other way around.
16:51 So yeah, I think I think with Jared Wiley and the rest of the offense can be uniform
16:57 and the defense coming in a form.
16:59 I think yesterday was a needed game for them.
17:01 And you saw even postgame videos, the energy seem to be back in the locker room.
17:06 Players seem to be way more energized and having a good time after the game.
17:10 I mean, I know we had the loss Colorado and then you beat Nichols but even after beating
17:15 Nichols that looked like they were just like, Okay, whatever.
17:18 Yeah, I think they I think the Nichols game was kind of an interesting game for that team.
17:26 Because like, I mean, because we saw how much drama was around the Colorado versus TCU game.
17:34 I mean, I mean, this runner up national champion versus a dude that has absolutely overhauled
17:41 an entire football program.
17:44 And I think going from that kind of hype to just kind of a midweek game almost versus
17:51 Nichols.
17:52 I think that's kind of hard to do, especially when football is such a like, like a hype
17:58 induced sport.
17:59 Yeah, like this is a sport that you have to get energized for every single game.
18:04 Doesn't matter if you're oh and 12 or 12 and oh.
18:08 Yeah, and I think I think the energy wasn't there.
18:11 And, you know, suddenly Dyke said it after the first game and he didn't really see it
18:15 during the Nichols game, but I think we saw yesterday and I think that's a sign that this
18:19 team is finally starting to hit their stride in their form at the right time.
18:22 I think it's a good thing.
18:24 I mean, kind of wrap this up.
18:26 I mean, they TCU play Saturday against SMU what could be the last game of the rivalry
18:32 here you know in Fort Worth at 11am and I think I think this is our first real test
18:38 since Colorado.
18:41 Nichols wasn't anything.
18:42 Houston might end up being one of the worst teams in the Big 12 and SMU played Oklahoma
18:48 really tough two weeks ago that I think that this could be our first.
18:51 You know, it's a bit of rivalry game.
18:54 Energy should be there and if they come out flat and that tells us a lot about the characteristics
18:57 of this team.
18:58 Yeah, I mean, I think if they come out flat, I think it I think it deals with more the
19:05 culture of sunny Dykes.
19:08 Yeah, not to throw him under the bus, but.
19:14 It could just be kind of a sign that things are heading into the wrong direction.
19:18 Otherwise though, I think the T I think that's a new game is going to be really, really good.
19:21 Yeah, I think it would be a great game to watch and I'm excited to see the defense take
19:25 the next step and I'm excited.
19:27 I'm really excited to see him on a daily run the wall man every time he touches ball.
19:31 It's five yards carry and I think I think it's he's something special this year.
19:36 So.
19:38 We appreciate everyone listening.
19:42 And we'll be here next week for the postgame.
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