TCU Football: What Did We Learn from the Stanford Game?

The Horned Frogs start the season 1-0, so now it's time for a breakdown what fans learned from the victory.

Savion Williams scoring the first touchdown of the 2024 season / TCU Football

The TCU Horned Frogs went to Palo Alto and while struggling in the first half, and after a long night, they came back to Fort Worth with a win. Fans stayed up till close to 1:30 local time to watch the ending, so while it was worth staying up, fans might have missed out on important takeaways. After every game, I will be bringing you what fans learned from the game, rather it was a small, or big detail, so let's get started.

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TCU at Stanford - The Positives

Winning one-score games

In 2023, the Frogs were 0-4 in one-score games by either not closing games out or not being able to catch fully back up. In the magical 2022 run, the team was 4-1 in one-score games. Being able to come back in the second half and then maintain the lead shows improvement from last year already, and while it may only be one game, it is already a better record than last season.

New Look TCU Defense

Frog fans saw an unfamiliar sight Friday night: pressure on the opposing quarterback. A lot of the pressure and big stops came from the new STUD position in Avalos' defense, which saw the likes of Devean Deal, Cooper McDonald, and Marcel Brooks become play-makers, either resulting in a sack or QB rush. The question remains if they will be able to keep this up now that teams have film on them, but for now, it is still a welcomed sight.

The Offensive Line

Many fans, myself included, questioned how well this offensive line would perform in Game One, and fans got their answer: Excellent. Now, that is not to say they played flawlessly, but rather, they exceeded expectations. They only allowed one sack in the game as a group and opened up some large running lanes for Cam Cook, who rushed for nearly 100 yards on the night. The exciting part is that this group will only gel more and more every week and should continue to improve.

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TCU at Stanford - The Negatives

Red Zone Offense

For lack of sounding like a broken record, the major complaint on the offensive side of the ball all 2023 was the inability to convert touchdowns in the red zone, with the Frogs finishing in the bottom 15% of college football offenses in red zone percentage. That problem was still present in Week One this season, and if the team fixes this problem, they could be competing for a conference championship in three months.

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There was not much negative to take away, simply because it was only the first week of the season. The Frogs are at home this weekend against LIU, and while we might not learn much from it, it will be an essential game to build on.

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