Football: TCU vs West Virginia Keys to the Game
The West Virginia Mountaineers come to Fort Worth, Texas tomorrow night in a critical Big 12 conference game for the TCU Horned Frogs. At the midway point in the season with two conference losses, every game left on the schedule is critical to the Horned Frogs having a successful football season in 2021. All of the games from here on out are both winnable and losable, well except the Kansas game. While TCU should like their chances against West Virginia, the Horned Frogs will still have to play smart and remain focused to get the win in their first home night game of the season. So what exactly will the Frogs need to do to get their 4th win of the season? They will need to win the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
The first key to the TCU offensive line having a successful night will be their ability to continue to have success running the ball. Zach Evans and possibly endre Miller are possibly less than 100%, and run defense is the biggest strength of this West Virginia team at the moment. So, TCU's ability to run the ball will be the biggest factor in attaining a win or being saddled with a loss, as everything else is predicated on the run game.
While the TCU defense has been one of the worst in not just the conference but the nation at stopping the run, WVU has one of the best run defenses in the Big 12. They currently sit third in the Big 12 conference just behind Iowa State and Oklahoma State, allowing a paltry 102.8 yards rushing per game, a mere five yards off of Iowa State's conference leading 97.7 rushing yards allowed per game. TCU does not want to find itself in third and long situations often, as West Virginia not only stuffs the run with the best of them but also gets to the quarterback with the best of them.
As Killer Frogs highlighted earlier in the week, defensive tackle Dante Stills and Ted Hendricks Award watchlist defensive end Taijh Alston are two of the most talented players on the entire WVU squad and are tied for fourth in the Big 12 with four sacks each. It is going to be critical for TCU to have success running the ball on early downs as well as jumping out to an early lead. Neither team wants to be playing catch-up in this game, and nobody should be expecting a come-from-behind victory for either team tomorrow night. When TCU does get into passing situations, tackles Obinna Eze and Andrew Coker, as well as center Steve Avila, will need to continue to give quarterback Max Duggan a clean pocket against one of the best pass rushes they will face the rest of the season.
On the other side of the line, as Frogs fans know all too well, stopping the run has been the Horned Frogs kryptonite this season. While WVU running back Leddie Brown found success early on this season, his last three games have been less than stellar performances, averaging a mere 52 yards per game and under 4 yards per carry in those contests. Brown is a talented back who runs behind a physical offensive line which TCU saw first hand in last years loss in Morgantown when Brown went off for 156 yards on 24 carries, averaging 6.5 yards per carry in the 24-6 West Virginia win. This year's TCU run defense is one of the worst in the country, so after Brown faced two solid run defenses in Oklahoma and Baylor the last three weeks, you can bet he is champing at the bit to face TCU.
The bottom line in this year's TCU-WVU game is that whoever wins in the trenches will be the most likely team to secure a crucial Big 12 conference victory this week.
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