On Friday, No. 24 TCU had a chance to put Arizona State‘s College Football Playoff hopes on thin ice.
One of last season’s 12 playoff teams, Arizona State fell from its preseason No. 11 ranking amid an early-season loss to Mississippi State. TCU looked poised to hand the Sun Devils another loss with a 17-0 lead in the first half, but the Horned Frogs couldn’t hold on in a 27-24 loss.
“We kind of kept shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes told reporters afterward. “Had some penalties and things in the first half that got us behind the chains.”
“Our inability to run the football hurt us the whole night. Just couldn’t get anything going in the run game and had to abandon it,” Dykes added. “And when you do that, people can really come after you. That put our quarterback in a hard spot.”
TCU’s Josh Hoover Shined and Then Didn’t
GettyJosh Hoover had a strong start but two interceptions cost him in the end.
TCU quarterback Josh Hoover shined at times in the national primetime spotlight as he threw for 242 yards on 20-32 passing. However, he threw two interceptions, and he lost 38 yards on the ground, but scored one rushing touchdown.
Hoover’s backfield troubles left the Horned Frogs with 12 yards rushing overall, but that’s also because no one else got anything going. Trent Battle had 30 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, and Jeremy Payne had 20 yards and a touchdown on six carries. The problems didn’t end there.
“We turned the ball over three times. Obviously, that’s the difference in the game,” Dykes said. “You can’t turn it over in the red zone like that. You can’t turn it over in a critical situation at the end of the game like we did. Just can’t afford to do that.”
Arizona State defensive lineman Prince Dorbah delivered the biggest one of all in the fourth quarter when he sacked and forced a fumble from Hoover. That allowed the Sun Devils to pull ahead afterward, 27-24, on a 23-yard field goal by kicker Jesus Gomez.
TCU couldn’t tie afterward as Hoover threw his second pick, hauled in by linebacker Martell Hughes. Adrian Wilson had the other interception for ASU during the third quarter, and the Sun Devils followed that up with a game-tying field goal, 17-17, by Gomez.
ASU Had Control After TCU’s Hot Start
Takeaway the first quarter and part of the second quarter, ASU took control overall 27-7 after TCU’s 17-0 start. ASU piled on 500 yards of total offense in the process.
“I thought our defense really played hard. We played with our back against the wall, had some big fourth down stops,” Dykes said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win with the way we played defense, but the turnovers killed us.”
TCU had a promising start to the season with blowout wins over Bill Belichick’s North Carolina squad, Abilene Christian, and a 35-24 win over SMU. The Horned Frogs’ playoff hopes aren’t done, but TCU will have no room for error going forward.
TCU has at least two ranked opponents left in No. 14 Iowa State and No. 24 BYU, and the Horned Frogs also have unbeaten Houston on the schedule in November.
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