FORT WORTH, Texas — TCU's 31-3 victory over BYU on Saturday gave the Frogs plenty of ways to show their explosiveness and stingy defense as the nation's No. 4-ranked football team.
But what did BYU take from the loss, which experts predicted would be by approximately the same margin it turned out to be in Amon Carter Stadium?
Offensively, it was a BYU head-hanger downer. Defensively, BYU saw improvement again since Bronco Mendenhall took over the defense after the loss at Utah State two weeks ago.
Andrew Rich, who switched to outside linebacker in some BYU formations, had 10 solo tackles and 13 total tackles to lead the Cougar defense. Freshman Kyle Van Noy got a deep tackle for loss on Frog star Jeremy Kerley and Corby Eason registered a blindside QB sack.
On Saturday against one of the nation's top defenses, BYU's own defense played with one hand tied behind its collective back because of an offense missing in action. For almost a half, it was practically dead even.
"BYU is a good team," said Horned Frogs QB Andy Dalton. "Their record doesn't show how good they are. We knew we had to come out and fight."
TCU, which had averaged 278 ground yards a game, gained 108 yards rushing, 273 passing for 381 total yards offense.
But nursing a 3-0 lead with less than two minutes to play in the first half, the surprise of the day was the Cougar defense, which shut down the Frog option, contained Dalton on all but one 24-yard run, forced three punts, got a stop on fourth down, and allowed only a field goal.
That's when safety Carter Mees left the field after a big hit and TCU scored two touchdowns on just four plays to take a 17-3 halftime lead.
It was all TCU from there.
At that stage of the game, BYU's offense had contributed one first down and 13 yards.
"It's definitely frustrating right now," said BYU senior cornerback Brian Logan. "But you know what? I'm happy. I've never felt this way after a loss. I haven't been on too many losing teams growing up from PeeWee to high school and junior college and for us to have a loss like this and to see why we lost, it's a good feeling because we literally beat ourselves."
Logan credited TCU for the win, but he said the reason the Frogs scored was BYU's breakdowns after playing stout.
"If you go back and look at the film, the reason they scored was because of us," he said. "They have athletes and I'm sure plenty of guys will get drafted but we just beat ourselves and that is the most frustrating part."
Logan said the two Dalton TD passes right before halftime, one set up by a Jake Heaps interception in BYU territory, hurt the most "because it was hard for them to sustain drives and drive it on us."
TCU did struggle on the ground against BYU's defense with 20 yards in the first quarter, and just 17 rushing yards in the second.
But that's why the Frogs started attacking BYU with the pass and ultimately blew the game open.
"The whole game I'd give them credit for two drives that they had and other than that they had three-and-outs, our guys were flying all over making plays," Logan said. "What made it worse is within a minute and 32 seconds they scored twice. It's just hard."
Logan credits Mendenhall's leadership for increased playmaking by the defense. Even in the loss, there was improvement.
"Practice is getting crazier and crazier, but we're thankful for it," Logan said. "Guys aren't complaining. We are busting out butts, and if we don't we're paying for it after practice, 15 minutes early or 15 minutes after. We're keeping quiet, and we know the results."
e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com