Five Things to Know about Oklahoma State-TCU

Oklahoma State heads to Fort Worth for its penultimate regular season game. A late-surging TCU team will be bent on spoiling any hopes the Cowboys have of returning to DFW for a Big 12 title game.

Here are five things you should know ahead of Saturday’s matchup between the Cowboys and Horned Frogs.

1. The Horned Frogs might be better than you think

After a tough 1-3 start, the Frogs have won three of four coming into this weekend. That opening stretch was tough to stomach for fan in purple, but it ended up being their schedule was front-loaded with a close loss to Iowa State, a close win coming at then-No. 9 Texas and then, a Kansas State team that was ranked after leaving Fort Worth and then OU.

Despite a 24-6 loss in Morgantown, the Horned Frogs have beaten up on the Big 12’s bottom feeders over the last month. This will be their biggest test

2. But they haven’t been dominant at home

Over the last two seasons, Gary Patterson’s group is below .500 on home cooking. TCU finished 3-3 last season in Fort Worth and is just 1-3 so far in 2020 at home. Granted, two of those three 2020 home losses came against Iowa State and OU.

3. TCU gets after the QB

Coinciding with TCU’s uptick in Ws has been a spike in sacks. The Horned Frogs have 16 in the last four games after getting the passer down just five times through Week 4.

OSU’s O-line protected Spencer Sanders pretty well last week, allowing just one sack (albeit against a less than formidable Texas Tech front). But before that Sanders was sacked 11 times in the previous three games. As the game of musical chairs winds down, the Cowboy big men will be tested.

4. TCU’s backfield is loaded with young talent

We know Oklahoma State’s RB3 can handle starting duties if need be, but TCU’s Big 12-leading rushing attack boasts a trio of dynamic freshmen who can all hurt you. In the route of Kansas last weekend, Zach Evans, Darwin Bawlow and Kendre Miller combined for 244 yards on 31 carries.

Zach Evans — 12 carries, 100 yards
Darwin Barlow — eight carries, 83 yards, 1 TD
Kendre Miller — 11 carries, 53 yards

Evans, the true frosh, was TCU’s first ever five-star recruit and the No. 2 high school tailback in the country last year. He will look to take advantage of a defense that gave up chunk play after chunk play and 255 total rushing yards (6.7 yards per attempt) last weekend.

5. TCU was hit harder than most by COVID

TCU’s season opener against SMU was canceled due to a COVID outbreak in its program. The Horned Frogs now replaced the “Iron Skillet” game with a meeting with Louisiana Tech on Dec. 12, but that was not the end of the TCU’s depth issues. Last week when the Frogs played Kansas, they were down to less than 50 scholarship players available.