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TCU opponents are 0-for-October getting into the end zone - zero touchdowns, one field goal and all three teams held to 191 total yards or less.
''Let's see, the last three weeks, they're giving up one point a game,'' said Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, whose team plays at fourth-ranked TCU on Saturday night.
While good defenses have been common for the Horned Frogs under Gary Patterson, their defensive coordinator before becoming head coach 10 years ago, what they have done so far this month is downright dominant.
Before BYU managed a 27-yard field goal in the third quarter last Saturday, there were shutouts against Colorado State and Wyoming. TCU (7-0) is the only FBS team this season to hold consecutive opponents scoreless.
And this is after sack leader Jerry Hughes and leading tackler Daryl Washington were taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft last April. The Frogs also lost a pair of four-year starting cornerbacks after leading the nation in total defense for the second straight season.
Despite losing Hughes (the first-round pick by Indianapolis) and Washington, who is starting for the Arizona Cardinals, Patterson was confident that he had a lot of guys who had played ''awfully well'' alongside those standout players in TCU's unique 4-2-5 defensive set.
''They are starting to believe in each other,'' Patterson said. ''You lost a couple of good players and early we could run around, but we were giving up easier plays. ... We had to hunt together. That's what we started doing.''
In Patterson's system, the extra safety provides more speed and versatility to react to what offenses are doing. Among the defense's mottos are alignment and assignment, meaning every player has to line up in the right spot and take care of his responsibility.
There is also an emphasis on depth, so a lot of players shuffle in and out of games. Plus, with such lopsided scores - the Frogs have outscored their last three opponents 103-3 - second- and third-teamers often get extra time on the field.
''Guys have really bought into the system. They trust coach Patterson to put them in the right situation,'' said Andy Dalton, TCU's four-year starting quarterback. ''They're going out and executing, flying around and playing outstanding defense.
''They're up there with the best defenses we've had around here.''
TCU has eight shutouts over the last eight seasons, plus four more when Patterson was still defensive coordinator from 1998-2000. Since the final two games of the 2005 season, the Frogs have held 16 other teams who did score to only a touchdown or less.
SMU's 361 yards and 24 points are the most against TCU this season. No other team has more than 263 yards, and the last three averaged only 166.
''It's big time,'' Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild said.
The only other FBS team over the past 15 seasons to hold three consecutive opponents in the same season to fewer points was North Texas, which allowed only two points in a three-game span in 2002, according to STATS LLC.
Oregon is the only other FBS team this season with two shutouts. The last with three consecutive shutouts was Boston College in 1992.
''From the beginning, from the first game, we knew we had a different team,'' TCU linebacker Tank Carder said. ''Coach Patterson always talks about every team is different in the way they prepare and I feel like we're starting to come together as a team now.
''It seems like everybody is starting to play together and hunt together.''
TCU leads the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 9.3 points a game. After all, it's hard to score when teams can barely move the ball.
The Horned Frogs are second in total defense (218 yards per game) and passing yards (128), and are best in the country allowing only 12 first downs a game while opponents convert 23 percent of their third-down chances.
''It's such a game of matchups and you're always looking for somebody, somewhere and some situation that you feel like you can attack. It's frustrating when you look at TCU,'' said Fairchild, the third-year Colorado State coach. ''Everybody on the field's a good player.''
Fairchild said the scheme hasn't really changed since they were also facing each other in the 1990s, when Fairchild was the Rams' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Patterson was defensive coordinator at New Mexico and TCU.
''He's tweaked it some. They have very talented players, they always play hard, they always play well,'' Fairchild said. ''You can tell when you watch TCU, they know what they're doing, they know how to coach it. They have the answers for things that you do because they've been doing the same scheme for a while. It's very difficult to go against.''
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Associated Press Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report.
