TCU beats Kansas 27-17, the Jayhawks’ 21st straight road loss
BY RUSTIN DODD - The Kansas City Star
FORT WORTH, Texas — If it’s true that football is a religion in Texas … well, consider TCU’s 27-17 victory over Kansas on Saturday a 60-minute illustration of gridiron blasphemy.
TCU beats Kansas 27-17, the Jayhawks’ 21st straight road loss
The Jayhawks lost their 21st straight game on the road, and their 23rd straight against Big 12 opponents. But even those ugly streaks couldn’t compete with the sloppy brand of football being bandied about in Fort Worth on Saturday.
You might say TCU won — but it was nothing to be proud of.
There was even a stretch, midway through the third quarter, when it would have felt perfectly normal if the P.A. system at Amon G. Carter Stadium just started blaring the theme from “The Benny Hill Show.” There were muffed punts, and fumbles, and bad offense.
And there was also TCU pulling off this pretty incredible feat. After committing three first-half turnovers, the Horned Frogs coughed up the ball twice more in the third quarter — once on a fumble and once on a misplayed punt return by Brandon Carter — and they still managed to turn a 10-10 game into a 24-17 lead.
Part of that achievement, of course, should be credited to the Kansas offense, which only managed to score 17 points despite those five turnovers. The Jayhawks, which entered averaging 331.8 yards per game, managed just 198 yards of total offense. Freshman kicker Matthew Wyman doinked a 51-yard field goal attempt off the cross bar late in the third quarter. And KU was forced to punt three times during the fourth quarter.
The Jayhawks’ defense played the second half without leading tackler Ben Heeney, who was shaken up and spent part of the second half on the stationary bike. Still, the overworked defensive unit provided opportunities all day — especially in the first half.
Junior cornerback JaCorey Shepherd had a pick-six interception and a forced fumble as Kansas played TCU to a 10-10 tie at halftime. Sophomore safety Isaiah Johnson added a first-quarter interception in TCU territory, setting up a Wyman field goal.
Of course, there was also a KU offense that hop-scotched between ineffective and incompetent for most of the day. KU managed just 100 total yards on 30 plays in the opening 30 minutes. And that total included a 50-yard bomb to receiver Andrew Turzilli, who was shaken up on the play and didn’t return.
Turzilli was making his first start of the season, part of another depth-chart shakeup from KU coach Charlie Weis. The changes also included new faces at center (Gavin Howard) and left tackle (Pat Lewandowski). Howard appeared to be fine at snapping the ball to quarterback Jake Heaps, but the offensive line as a whole was a legitimate mess.
Heaps was under heavy duress most of the day and finished just 13 of 26 for 152 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception. And remember: 50 of those yards came on the throw to Turzilli.
After the Jayhawks, 2-3, took an early 3-0 lead, TCU quickly answered on a quick-strike touchdown drive, taking a 7-3 lead on a 10-yard touchdown run from quarterback Trevone Boykin with 6:50 left in the first quarter. The Horned Frogs added to the lead on a field goal early in the second quarter.
But the Kansas defense picked up the Jayhawks’ struggling offense, and when Shepherd stepped in front of a Boykin pass at the TCU 32, taking the interception back for a touchdown, the Jayhawks had new life.
At least for a half.
It took TCU just 13 seconds into the second half to break the 10-10 stalemate. Boykin found receiver David Porter on a short route that turned into a 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Cornerback Dexter McDonald each had an angle to stop Porter, but each whiffed, nearly crashing into each other in the process.
The Horned Frogs threatened to take control after a 2-yard touchdown run by B.J. Catalon with 9:31 left in the third quarter. The scoring drive gave TCU a 24-10 lead, its biggest lead of the game, and the Jayhawks offense still looked incapable of moving the ball.
But the Jayhawks were gifted a terrific scoring opportunity when TCU’s Brandon Carter muffed a punt in Kansas territory midway through the third quarter. Two plays later, Heaps connected with Jimmay Mundine for a 27-yard touchdown.
The Jayhawks were back in it — somehow.
As both teams continued their sloppy assault on football fundamentals, the Jayhawks had multiple opportunities to pull even in the fourth quarter. But the offense remained its staid self. It didn’t help that Kansas played without leading receiver Tony Pierson, or that Turzilli
Now the Jayhawks must move on. And to peer ahead at Kansas’ upcoming October schedule is to see a ghoulish stretch that might as well be accompanied with the sort of creepy music that used to be saved for experimental shock-therapy sessions.
The Jayhawks will play host to Oklahoma and Baylor in consecutive weeks before heading on the road to face a resurgent Texas squad.
They’ll surely hope their next trip to Texas is more enjoyable than this one.
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