Oklahoma State 49, TCU 29: What We Learned

OSU TDNo. 8 TCU fell from the ranks of the unbeatens with a 49-29 loss to No. 14 Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Stillwater. What did we learn from this game? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.The TCU secondary got exposed. Oklahoma State came into its game with an over-the-top mentality. The Cowboys averaged 9 yards per pass attempt (16^th in the nation) and had 20 passing plays of 30 yards or more (8^th most nationally). Plain and simple: the Cowboys like to take shots down the field early and often. And on this day in Stillwater, even though they had to know it was coming, TCU had no answer for Oklahoma State’s deep passing game. It’s not just that quarterback Mason Rudolph threw for 375 yards but rather how he racked those up. A 48-yard touchdown strike to James Washington. A 50-yard touchdown strike to Washington. An 82-yard touchdown pass to Marcell Ateman. A 74-yard touchdown pass to Washington. Some of them were blown coverages, others were simply getting beat. But from opening kick to final gun, TCU’s secondary was not up for the challenge it knew was coming. Losing Josh Doctson changed the entire look of the TCU offense. TCU has battled a slew of injuries on defense all season, but it only took one injury on the other side of the ball to throw a wrench in the Frogs’ offensive machine. In the second quarter, star wide receiver Josh Doctson took a hit that appeared on replay to do something pretty gruesome to his wrist. He didn’t return, spending the rest of the game either in the locker room or on the sideline with a towel over both his head and his wrist. And the impact to the Frogs’ offense was immediately noticeable, as QB Trevone Boykin struggled to find open receivers with the Oklahoma State secondary no longer having to worry about by far the Frogs’ biggest threat. Doctson entered the game responsible for 34 percent of the Frogs’ receptions, 40 percent of their receiving yards and 46 percent of their receiving touchdowns. We don’t know the prognosis, but if Doctson is out for any significant period of time, that changes the outlook for the Frogs’ offense significantly. TCU’s College Football Playoff hopes are probably toast. When the first CFP committee rankings came out last week, there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth because of how the Big 12’s contenders were placed — Baylor at No. 6, TCU at No. 8, Oklahoma State at No. 14 and Oklahoma at No. 15. The message from the committee seemed clear: the Big 12 isn’t getting any benefit of the doubt, and for one of the teams to make the top four, they’d probably need to win out. And if that’s true — if the College Football Playoff won’t take a Big 12 team unless they run the table — then Saturday afternoon spelled the end of TCU’s national title hopes. There are more big games on the horizon, of course, including a trip to Norman to take on Oklahoma and that still-scintillating matchup with Baylor in Fort Worth the day after Thanksgiving. And maybe the right kind of wins — the kind with style points and big ratings — can get the Frogs back in the hunt. And who knows: maybe the committee will end up taking a one-loss Big 12 team after all. But for now, with an emphatic loss in Stillwater on their ledger, the Frogs join an ever-growing College Football Playoff wait list.