TCU vs Texas: Horned Frogs' defense too much for Longhorns | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

In a battle of the two best defenses in the Big 12 Saturday, TCU proved again it had the edge on Texas.

The Horned Frogs held the Longhorns to a season-low 263 yards, including 185 in the first half, and never let up en route to a 24-7 thrashing of Texas.

It was an even more dominant display than the statistics show. Most of those first-half yards came on four big plays. Three passes of over 30 yards and an 18-yard run by quarterback Shane Buechele accounted for 125 yards.

The Horns missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt early in the second quarter that would have tightened the score to 10-3. Instead, the Frogs drove 70 yards on five plays to take a 17-0 lead on Kyle Hicks’ 14-yard scoring run.

Opponents have missed six field-goal attempts against TCU.

The Frogs held the Horns to 9 yards rushing and were particularly stingy in the second half. They sacked Buchele seven times for a combined loss of 50 yards. Ben Banogu had three of the 12 tackles for a loss, including two sacks.

“We were able to play the run really well,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “They have a good defense, too. After the first quarter and a half they got after us. That’s a tough ballgame right there.”

The teams combined for 18 punts (nine each) and 15 penalties.

“I thought it was big that our offense didn’t turn the ball over and we did what we needed to do,” Patterson said. That included keeping the ball on the ground for 177 tough yards on 46 carries.

The Frogs’ defense, which ranks atop the Big 12, has held their last three opponents to 37 total yards rushing combined.

“They’ve played well all year,” Patterson said. “The depth of rotating eight guys up front has really helped us. A couple of the sacks happened tonight with 2s in. I told them last Sunday in order to win we’re going to have to be the best defense on the field. I think we were.”