TCU beats Texas playing Gary Patterson-style defense

AUSTIN

Despite the best efforts of Gary Pattersonhis old team got his new team playing the type of game that has been their identity for 20 years.

Even without Gary, TCU still owns Texas.

And Sonny Dykes still owns Gary Patterson.

On Saturday night, the second-largest crowd in Darrel K. Royal Memorial Stadium history saw No. 4 TCU beat No. 18 Texas 17-10.

Close score.

Ugly game.

Exciting game.

Not a close game.

TCU is now 8-3 against Texas in the Big 12. TCU coach Sonny Dykes is 3-0 against Gary Patterson’s teams in their last three games.

To be fair to Gary, he’s a special assistant in Texas. That Texas loss can’t be blamed on him, despite some of the obvious characteristics he brought to the game.

That Texas loss goes to UT coach Steve Sarkisian, who has a lot to answer for in his second season in Austin. But that’s another series of columns and rants.

Nobody wants to believe it, especially those who run the SEC, ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, NBC, ABC, New York Times, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Planet, Animal Planet, Food Network and the college football playoff committee , but TCU is just better than Texas.

TCU is 10-0 with two games left in the regular season and a guaranteed date in the Big 12 title game.

And, yes, the No. 4 TCU came to the University of Texas as a touchdown underdog; you would have needed Indiana Jones to find a single national expert who believed the line was unwarranted.

It was hard to find a national observer who didn’t think Texas was going to send TCU back to Fort Worth, and straight to the Hoosier Bowl in Fort Wayne.

Perhaps (dubiously) those who voted and bothered to watch the game saw enough to finally believe TCU deserved a playoff spot.

At No. 4, technically, TCU is “in the playoffs,” but even a two-month-old baby trusts this committee.

The irony is that TCU hired a head coach whose forte is offense, just beat their former coach playing a style he preached for decades.

TCU held Texas to 199 yards and, offensively, the Horns scored just one field goal. The Horns were 1 of 13 on Third Down.

UT was denied touchdowns on multiple trips inside the red zone in the second half.

“To hold that 3-point offense? Are you kidding?” Dykes said after the game. “This offense is loaded with future NFL players.”

It’s a Texas Lane Kiffin-style quality shot, without the intent.

Texas has 5-star quarterback Quinn Ewers, future NFL first-round running back in Bijan Robinson, who has an NIL deal with a Lamborghini dealer, and star receiver in Xavier Worthy.

Against TCU, this trio was pretty much worthless.

Ewers played like a walk without a purse. He completed 17 of 39 passes for 171 yards with one interception.

Bijan.

The best running back in college football. The running back worthy of a first draft pick.

He ran 12 times for 29 yards.

Bijan Robinson. Ran. 12. Schedules. For. 29 yards. It’s almost as bad as this sentence structure.

The last time TCU stopped a running back of this stature was September 2005, when an unranked young team of Gary Patterson of the Mountain West Conference stopped Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson in Norman.

All Day rushed 22 times for 63 yards in that loss (also 17-10).

To round up the Texas Top Three, Worthy caught four passes for 32 yards.

For the TCU defensive players who wrote this, the production didn’t register.

“We will enjoy it, of course. It’s not like it’s our last game,” TCU linebacker Johnny Hodges said. “But, yeah, you want to dabble in it, but it’s nice.”

It looks like a party.

The TCU players and coaches celebrated and “partyed” on the DKR field after the game, which included long handshakes and conversations between Patterson and several of his former players.

The longest conversation seems to be for the quarterback he recruited from Iowa, Max Duggan.

“Just respect from both sides,” Duggan said. “It was good to see him again.”

As hard as Patterson’s defense tried to kill Duggan, who was sacked three times in the first quarter, the elder didn’t stop. He just kept playing, even when it appeared sometimes that he was injured.

In the second half, TCU’s offensive line finally started pushing and running back Kendre Miller took off.

Miller rushed 21 times for 138 yards, including a 75-yard rush in the third quarter for the game’s first touchdown.

Leading 10-3 in the fourth quarter, Duggan hit receiver Quentin Johnston on a 31-yard touchdown pass. That was it.

Even though UT scared all of TCU to death with a late defensive touchdown, it wasn’t going to be enough.

That wasn’t going to be enough because TCU is just better than Texas.

Maybe the “responsible” will eventually recognize it.

This story was originally published November 12, 2022 10:58 p.m.