TCU 23, Minnesota 17: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_18248" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Shane Roper Photo by Shane Roper[/caption] TCU opened its season with a 23-17 win over Minnesota on Thursday night. What did we learn from the game? TexasFootball.com brings you three takeaways from the game.The TCU offense isn’t fully formed yet. With almost every starter back from an offense that ranked fifth in the nation last season, the Horned Frogs were (and are) expected to be an offensive juggernaut. But for large portions of Thursday night’s win over Minnesota, the offense came in fits and starts. Trevone Boykin threw for a touchdown and ran for another, but Minnesota successfully took away pretty much any pass beyond 15 yards or so, effectively turning TCU’s high-flying offense into a methodical set of runs and check-downs. Trevone Boykin ran the ball 18 times; that's about eight more than co-offensive coordinators Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie would probably prefer. Now, TCU can win like that — and obviously did — but it goes to show that the Frogs’ offense still has work to do before it becomes the flamethrower everyone thinks it could be. The early returns from the defensive front six: pretty good. Easily the biggest question mark about the Frogs entering 2015 was on the defensive front six (in the 4-2-5, mind you), specifically at linebacker. Overall? Not a bad evening from true freshman Mike Freeze and Ty Summers, who saw most of the action after Sammy Douglas went down early, and the defensive line had a strong game as well, especially DE Terrell Lathan, who stepped up in the absence of injured star pass-rusher James McFarland. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but for a largely new group of players on a national stage against a pretty solid opponent like Minnesota, it can only be categorized as a pretty good start. Josh Doctson could be in for a monster season. This isn’t necessarily a shock. Doctson led the Frogs in receptions (65), receiving yards (1,018) and touchdowns (11) last season…but yeah, the senior looked unstoppable on Thursday night, hauling in 8 catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. But it wasn’t the numbers — it was the physical domination, clowning his defender on a number of occasions. There are things to work on for TCU; Doctson, however, seems like he’s picking up right where he left off.