Purple perfection

By David May / KillerFrogs.com Staff Writer

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

The fourth-ranked TCU Horned Frogs capped an unblemished 2009 regular season with a 51-10 undressing of the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday afternoon at Amon Carter Stadium.

Winning their second Mountain West Conference crown since joining the league in 2005, TCU (12-0, 9-0) now waits for next Sunday to see which BCS bowl selects the Frogs – still with an outside chance of playing in the BCS title game. TCU is 12-0 for the first time in school history, and now looks to record a season-record 13^th win.

"We've been working for 12 years to get to this point," said Patterson of TCU's perfect regular season and MWC title. "We did what we had to do today. We still feel we can play with anybody. We feel like we have a special team."

Many believed the Frogs, ranked fourth in the BCS polls and hoping No. 5 Cincinnati doesn’t pass them, needed to win big to impress the human voters one last time. TCU broke the 50-point barrier for the third time in four games and for the fourth time this season. The Frogs this year outscored their opponents 488-149, an average of 41-12 over the 12 games. TCU set a season scoring mark, shattering last year’s record of 437.

The win also gave the team’s 13 graduating seniors 42 wins, the most for any class in TCU history.

"They came in unheralded,” Patterson said of the seniors. “I don't know if any of them were over three-stars on any of the rating systems. We will have a couple that could possibly be first round draft choices, and they will have their degrees and won themselves a championship. It's why Jerry Hughes came back. For him to do that says quite a bit about everybody. I'll remember this group for a long time."

Senior offensive tackle Marcus Cannon said this is a special season but noted it’s far from over.

"It's an awesome feeling, especially doing it at home in front of our biggest fans,” Cannon said. “It just gives us a chance to play one more game, and we're going to work hard and see where we end up. We're going to try the best we can to finish this season perfect."

First-year New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley paid his respects to TCU afterward.

"We are a long way from that team that you saw win the conference championship today,” he said. “You have to tip your hat to Gary and his program. You have to give credit to TCU because they came ready to play and showed why they are conference champions.”

Played before an announced crowd of 41,738, the Frogs saw Antoine Hicks and Bart Johnson each score on touchdown passes from Andy Dalton, while Daryl Washington and Rafael Priest returned interceptions for scores as TCU picked off four passes on the day.

Still, it wasn’t a perfect game that capped the perfect season as TCU – 44-point favorites entering the contest – struggled offensively through most of the second and third quarters against the lowly Lobos (1-11, 1-8). It didn’t begin well, as TCU started its first possession at its own 43 and moved to UNM’s 25, where Ross Evans missed a 42-yard field goal.

TCU’s defense would score the game’s first points on a safety after a high snap to Lobos’ quarterback Donovan Porterie went 29 yards backwards, where it was kicked out of bounds by a UNM player to take the safety but prevent a touchdown.

Up 2-0, TCU’s Ryan Christian returned the ensuing kickoff 43 yards to UNM’s 28. But TCU’s possession would last all of one play. Quarterback Andy Dalton hit Curtis Clay along TCU’s sideline, but as he was fighting for progress among a horde of Lobos he was stripped of the ball at the Lobos’ 23.

A six-play drive ended in a UNM punt, partially blocked by Greg Burks, but TCU was unable to do much and turned it back over to New Mexico, which was limited to a three-and-out series.

After a 35-yard punt, the Frogs took over on UNM’s 46. A six-play drive ended with Dalton keeping on a zone read, running through the heart of the Lobos’ defense for the game’s first touchdown to put the Frogs up 9-0.

That seemed to spark the Frogs, as they then struck for three more touchdowns in a span of just 2:27.

After the Lobos again could do nothing on offense, TCU took over on its 42. In a drive that carried into the second quarter, the Frogs mixed in runs and passes to move to UNM’s 17, where Dalton hit Johnson for his first TD of the day, putting TCU up 16-0 to culminate a 10-play drive.

Again, the Lobos went three-and-out, and TCU took the ball at its own 20. A 5-yard Matthew Tucker run and a personal foul on UNM’s Kendal Briscoe moved the ball to TCU’s 40. On second down at TCU’s 38, Dalton fired a laser at Hicks running a post pattern down the right side of the field. Hicks beat two UNM defenders for a 62-yard score to put TCU up 23-0.

New Mexico’s Kasey Carrier fumbled the kickoff, and TCU’s offense was back in business at UNM’s 20. It was another one-play TCU possession, only the end was result was much better as Dalton hooked up again with Hicks on a TD toss to put TCU up 30-0 after Evan’s PAT.

The Lobos would not roll over for the Frogs. New Mexico responded with a 13-play, 79-yard drive ending with a 5-yard Desmond Dennis run for a touchdown that ate 5:15 off the clock, ending any thoughts of a TCU shutout to make it 30-7.

TCU returned kickoff favors when return man Jeremy Kerley coughed up the ball, giving New Mexico new life at TCU’s 16. But New Mexico could only gain two yards, and settled for a 31-yard James Aho field goal to make it 30-10, which is how the teams went into intermission after two TCU possessions ended in Anson Kelton punts.

The Frogs’ lackluster play over the final 10 minutes of the second quarter silenced just about everyone in Amon Carter Stadium but Patterson, who could be seen stalking the sidelines looking to bark at whoever got in his way.

As he walked off the field, he would tell the radio-listening audience, “We are not playing like champions.”

Fans were treated to a scoreless third quarter as TCU, going into a stiff south wind, still could not get its offense untracked and was forced to punt three times. The Frog’s defense kept the clamps on UNM’s offense as well, forcing UNM into two punts.

But TCU found the spark it needed late in the third when Jason Teague picked off a deep Porterie pass attempt to give TCU the ball at its own 17. Again, TCU used a mix of passes and runs to move the ball, Tucker had runs of four and nine yards, Dalton ran for 11 and nine yards, and had completions of nine yards to Jimmy Young and 14 yards to Joseph Turner. Dalton would hit Johnson for a 24-yard TD strike to cap the nine-play drive to put TCU up 37-10 early in the fourth.

Then the game really unraveled for the Lobos, as Washington would snare a Porterie pass out of the air and run it 20 yards into the end zone. That was followed on the next UNM possession by Priest’s pick, who returned it 47 yards to produce the game’s final score.

"That is something that I'll remember for the rest of my life,” Priest said. “My last home game and I have an opportunity to take a pick for a touchdown. It was a great feeling."

Washington, one of the team’s 13 seniors, was also proud of what the team and his senior mates have accomplished so far.

"I can't even put it into words,” he said. “It's an unbelievable feeling. I'm just glad we got the win, being perfect for the year and getting that 42nd victory. It just felt good."

TCU dominated statistically, though the offense failed to eclipse the 500-yard mark for the fourth straight game, netting 430 yards overall. TCU rushed for 202 yards, led by Tucker’s 63 yards on 11 carries. Dalton tallied 53 net rushing yards on nine attempts and had the Frogs’ lone ground score.

Dalton connected on 15 of his 24 pass attempts for 228 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. Hicks recorded his first career 100-yard receiving day, totaling 123 yards on five catches with the two scores, while Johnson had 48 receiving yards on four grabs to go with his two scores.

Meanwhile, TCU’s defense held New Mexico to 10 net rushing yards.  The Lobos gained 67 on the ground, but lost 57 yards, including the 29 negative yards on the high snap that resulted in the safety.

Porterie completed 20 of his 43 pass attempts for 162 yards while being intercepted four times and being sacked three times. Tejay Johnson had TCU’s other interception, which came on the final play of the first half.

“We did some things today that we have not done in the past four or five weeks with turnovers and penalties,” UNM’s Locksley said. “When you play a top-five team, you cannot have two interceptions returned for a touchdown and give up a safety and expect to win.”

Washington led the purple defenders with 11 tackles, seven of those solo and one for a loss. Fellow linebacker Tank Carder followed with 10 tackles, while Alex Ibiloye registered nine tackles. Jerry Hughes, Clarence Leatch and Jeremy Coleman were credited with TCU’s three sacks.

"It's a great feeling,” Hughes said afterward. “We had a set of goals that we all wanted to get accomplished. It feels great to do it. We wanted to be conference champions and now we are also 12-0. It's a great feeling. It took a lot of hard work. From summer camps to now, everybody put in the work. We really came together and started working well. We are just enjoying this win. We haven't been conference champions since 2005, so we are just letting it soak in."

"We finally did it,” Patterson said of the perfect season and pending BCS bowl game. “It's pretty cool for the players. I'm very excited for them and all the fans on the field. It's a great locker room downstairs, and it was great to be on the field with all of our people. The size of the crowd today meant a lot to our kids, and we're glad we got a chance to share this with Fort Worth."

"This is 12 years for me,” Patterson added. “It's been a process. We've tried not to do it too fast and tried to do it the right way. We tried to make sure that we did it so that the university was happy with the way we did it, so that we could build it for a long time."

Patterson said the celebration will be short-lived as he plans to get his charges ready for their next game – one of the biggest in school history.

"We have to finish,” he said. “We are about a week away from finals, and it's not all about football. If I could just deal with seniors, I'd be great, but we still have 18-year-old freshmen, and there has to be guidance. We will get back in the weight room and try to put our bodies back together. We need to get stronger and work in our younger guys. We're excited about the possibilities, and it's a fun time right now."

Team Notes
• TCU has now won or shared in 15 conference championships in its history.

• TCU has its first undefeated regular season since the 1938 national championship team went 10-0 before closing its campaign with an 11-0 record after a 15-7 win over Carnegie Tech in the Sugar Bowl. It’s the second undefeated and untied regular season in TCU history.

• TCU extended its winning streak to 14 games, tying a school record set over 70 years ago. The 1937 team won its final three games before the 1938 squad went 11-0 en route to the national championship.

• The Horned Frogs won their 14th consecutive home game and improved to 56-6 in their last 62 home dates dating back to 1999.

• The crowd of 41,738 enabled TCU to set a single-season total attendance and per-game record. This year’s total attendance of 229,121 for six games averaged to 38,187.

• With 430 yards of total offense, TCU now has 5,613 yards on the year to set a single-season school record. The previous mark was 5,581 in 2003.

• TCU improved to 62-1 under head coach Gary Patterson when allowing 17 points or less.

• The Horned Frogs have scored at least 38 points in a school-record seven consecutive games.

• TCU scored in its 215th consecutive game, the third-longest active streak in the nation and 13th all-time.

• TCU now has 13 takeaways in the last four games.

Individual Notes

• Dalton earned his 29th victory as TCU’s starting quarterback, tying him with Sam Baugh (29-7-2, .789, 1934-36) for the most in Horned Frog history. Dalton, a junior, is 29-6 (.829).

• Dalton’s four scoring tosses give him 43 career touchdown passes, moving him past Baugh (40, 1934-36) into second on TCU’s career list. Max Knake is the Horned Frogs’ all-time leader with 49 (1992-95).

• Dalton’s 228 passing yards gave him a new single-season high of 2,484, bettering his previous best of 2,459 as a redshirt freshman in 2007.

• Dalton went over 7,000 career yards passing and is now at 7,185, just 186 shy of passing Knake (7,370, 1992-95) for the top spot in TCU history.

• Hicks has three scoring receptions of at least 62 yards this season. He had back-to-back games with 75-yard touchdown grabs against BYU and UNLV.

• Jerry Hughes recorded a sack to give him 11-½ on the season and 28-½ in his career, moving him past Bo Schobel (28, 2000-03) into second place on TCU’s all-time list.

• Bart Johnson had four receptions for 48 yards, including 17- and 24-yard touchdown receptions for the first multi-score game of his career. He extended his team-best streak to 21 consecutive games with at least one catch.