FORT WORTH, Texas — TCU defeated SMU 34 to 17 in the battle for the Iron Skillet today at Amon G. Carter Stadium. This matchup every year is very intense because of the deep rivalry between these two teams, and let us not forget that a lot of fans and players are still salty after Sonny Dykes left SMU for TCU just a season ago.
TCU’s secondary is what everyone was fixating on in today’s matchup. SMU quarterback Preston Stone was averaging over 200 yards passing coming into this game, leaving all eyes on the TCU defense to get a pass rush on him to limit the big plays for huge gains. TCU put pressure on him, throwing two interceptions, which is a record high for Stone this season. TCU’s defense has not struggled to stop the run game this season, and shockingly, the Mustangs tried to push the run game early, which led to little success.
Regarding offense, TCU started out very slow and could not punch it in while in the red zone, leading to field goals. As the game progressed and they neared the end of the third, a spark was lit, and TCU started to pull away. Chandler Morris played lights out, going 23 for 32 for 261 yards with 3 touchdowns. With all of the success also came some questionable play-calling. A late interception by Josh Newton put TCU in the red zone, but they could not convert, leading to a field goal attempt. They faked the field goal, which then ended up in a turnover on downs. This is just a tough call because why not take the easy points considering the mustang offense can be deadly and there is still time left in the fourth quarter?
Quarterback Chandler Morris said in a press conference after the game that his improvement from Game 1 has just come down to reps. He said he hasn’t had a lot of college reps in his career, which has shown in prior games.
“I knew it was going to be a process. I just couldn’t get frustrated with it. My goal is to get better each week. I am using practice as an opportunity to take more snaps and get better,” said Morris.
TCU will be back at it next Saturday when they take on West Virginia at Amon G. Carter Stadium at 7:00 p.m.
