TCU’s Missed Kick Came After a Stall and Before a Long BYU Answer

TCU reached the BYU 29 midway through the fourth quarter, close enough to turn a useful drive into a tying score. Its next three snaps yielded just 1 yard: Jeremy Payne lost a yard, gained a yard and Jaden Craig completed a pass to Ed Small for 1 yard.

Nate McCashland then missed from 46 yards, and No. 9 BYU left Amon G. Carter Stadium with a 17-10 victory Saturday night. For TCU at home in Fort Worth, the kick was costly. It was not the whole bill.

The three plays before it and BYU’s possession afterward belong in the same assessment. TCU had a chance to make a difficult kick more comfortable, failed to do so, and then allowed the Cougars to turn that miss into the touchdown that broke open a 10-7 game.

TCU’s possession began at its own 45 after a BYU punt. An offside penalty moved the ball to midfield, and Payne followed with runs of 8 and 13 yards, taking the Frogs to the BYU 29. That was a promising start. Then Payne was stopped for minus-1, picked up 1 and gave way to Craig’s short completion to Small, which reached the BYU 28.

The 46-yard attempt was a defensible decision. The preceding sequence had simply left less margin than TCU’s first two plays had created. A first down, or even a few additional yards, would have altered the attempt’s difficulty.

McCashland later made a 44-yarder. That does not excuse the earlier miss, but it does put a limit on blaming a single attempt for a game with several squandered possessions.

The miss itself did not decide the game. What BYU did with the next possession came much closer.

The Cougars started at their own 28 and drove 72 yards in 10 plays over 5:55. Preston Rex caught passes for 8 and 4 yards, ran for 3, and helped keep the possession moving through its ordinary middle.

Bear Bachmeier then supplied the stress points with his legs: a 9-yard run, a 10-yard gain on third-and-5 and, after Journee Tonga’s 14-yard carry moved BYU to the TCU 19, a 21-yard touchdown run at 2:06.

That drive was a useful answer to TCU’s defensive work. The Frogs held BYU to 216 total yards and just 62 through the air. Bachmeier completed only 11 of 24 passes for those 62 yards, yet he ran 15 times for 66 yards and two touchdowns.

TCU largely made him earn the game on the ground, and he did. That is a credit to the quarterback and a problem TCU never fully solved.

There was substantial evidence that TCU remained capable of winning. The Frogs outgained BYU 259-216. Payne ran 14 times for 77 yards, including the 25-yard burst that helped produce a second-quarter opportunity before BYU’s Faletau Satuala intercepted Craig and returned it 59 yards to the TCU 16.

Kari Ashley caught six passes for 108 yards and scored TCU’s only touchdown on a 13-yard reception with 27 seconds left in the first half.

But production arrived in pieces. TCU converted 4 of 13 third downs; BYU converted 8 of 16. Ashley’s receiving total was excellent, Payne’s running was useful and Craig completed 18 of 25 passes for 187 yards, yet the Frogs generated only one touchdown. The offense could make enough plays to stay close without stringing together enough of them to control the decisive possessions.

TCU did get one more opportunity after BYU’s touchdown. Craig led an eight-play, 51-yard drive in 1:26, and McCashland made the 44-yard field goal with 32 seconds left to cut the deficit to 17-10. His miss was his only failure in two attempts. That late make matters because it removes any tidy claim that the kicker alone cost TCU the night.

After the field goal, BYU recovered the onside kick at the TCU 47. Bachmeier took two kneels, and the game ended without TCU seeing the ball again. The Frogs’ next chance ended with the onside recovery. The miss belonged in the accounting. So did the stall at the BYU 29 and the 72-yard answer that followed.

Sources

TCU: game report and box score

TCU: game report and box score

ESPN: game statistics and play-by-play