Mistakes, injuries, losses continue to pile up for TCU
TCU coach Gary Patterson stood in the interview area at Kansas’s Memorial Stadium last Saturday evening after his team lost 27-26 to the Jayhawks and told the assembled media that he warned it that “this” was coming.
“This” is a three-game losing streak and five losses in six games for a Horned Frogs team that was minutes away from beating No. 4 Ohio State in September.
“This” is a defeat in stunning fashion (on a butt fumble) to Kansas, allowing the Jayhawks to earn just their second Big 12 win in the past three seasons and snap a 38-game losing streak dating back to 2009.
“This” is a nightmare stretch of mistakes and injuries that have the Horned Frogs scratching their collective head and wondering how things went so wrong.
“Listen, we have been here before,” Patterson said. “I said before the season we were young. I knew what the motto was. We have had injuries. I am not making excuses. You can write what you want. We are 3-5, might be 3-9 before it is done.”
Kansas’ defense hopped on a Darius Anderson fumble at its own six-yard line with 58 seconds left to secure the win and guarantee TCU’s winless October. The Horned Frogs (3-5, 1-4 in Big 12 play) have a chance to get back on the winning track when they host Kansas State on Saturday.
Patterson refuses to use injuries, or off-field issues, or even bad luck as excuses for how the season has unfolded to date. But those are impossible to ignore too.
“You’ve got to be careful about throwing coaches or kids under the bus when you’ve lost pieces to your chessboard,” Patterson said. “For us, what I like is our kids still played hard. Obviously we didn’t do a couple smart things in the ballgame (at Kansas) last week, but you keep moving forward, you keep developing your kids and get ready to play.
“For us, you’ve got to keep your eyes up, keep climbing. We talk about it all the time. Going into this week, that’s no different.”
