While fall break may have kept the student fans out of the stands, it didn’t hamper the the No. 5 TCU Horned Frogs who advanced to 6-0 on the season with a 45-0 victory over the University of Wyoming Cowboys Saturday at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Saturday’s victory marks back-to-back shutouts for the Horned Frogs for the first time since 1955.
Senior quarterback Andy Dalton had one of his strongest performances of the season passing for 270 yards and three touchdowns against the Wyoming Cowboys with no interceptions. Senior wide receiver Jeremy Kerley put the first points on the board on TCU’s opening drive in the first quarter. Junior wide receiver Antoine Hicks, sophomore wide receiver Skye Dawson and senior wide receiver Bart Johnson followed with touchdowns of their own.
The Cowboys defense struggled to keep up with the Horned Frog offense as the Frogs ran the score up throughout the first half. After heading into the second half with a 31-0 lead, the Frogs continued to shine on offense racking up 2 more touchdowns in the second half.
On the ground, TCU rushed for 297 yards with touchdowns by sophomore runningback Ed Wesley and sophomore runningback Matthew Tucker.
Senior quarterback Andy Dalton said, “We had to come out and play with intensity,” he said. “And we did that.”
Head football coach Gary Patterson said that he was pleased with the offensive effort today as well.
“Offensively I thought we were efficient and did what we needed to do today,” Patterson said.
He also attributed the success of the defense to the strong offensive performance today.
He said, “You’re going to play a lot better defense when you’re offense does what they do.”
Junior kicker Ross Evans also scored a 37-yard field goal in the second quarter ending the Frogs offensive efforts for the first half.
TCU’s defense also had a strong showing holding the Wyoming offense to 191 yards.
Junior safety Tekerrein Cuba led the Frogs in tackles with 12.
Cuba said that although he realizes he had a strong game there are still some things he could work to improve on.
For the Cowboys, senior quarterback Dax Crum started the game off with a 40-yard pass to senior wide receiver Travis Burkhalter on their opening drive. Despite the strong start off a trick-play, the Cowboys did not make it past the 50-yard line again in the first quarter. Crum passed for 116 yards with one interception.
Although the Frogs shutout the Cowboys 45-0, Patterson said that it was an interesting game and it kept the team thinking.
He also said that wins, “don’t have to be flamboyant to be great,” and that it’s more important that the team came out of the game healthy with a win than if they had continued to run up the score.
The Frogs advance to 2-0 in Mountain West Conference play. Their will look to continue their winning record next Saturday, Oct. 16, against Brigham Young University at 3:00 p.m. as the second of a three-game homestand.
