FORT WORTH, Texas – TCU's streak of eight-consecutive seasons with a trip to a bowl game is in seriously jeopardy after Saturday's 30-27 overtime loss to West Virginia.
At least the Frogs, who dropped to 3-6 after the heartbreaking loss, aren't big on excuses after losing another winnable game.
"It's another week we didn't finish," cornerback Jason Verrett said.
It's not like TCU didn't have plenty of chances. But after starting the game with its sharpest offensive outing of the year, it was another erratic performance for the Frogs who gifted the game to the Mountaineers with penalties, turnovers and missed chances.
West Virginia (4-5, 2-4) put an end to the game with Josh Lambert's 34-yard field goal. The game-winning drive followed a TCU possession to open overtime that included a 15-yard personal foul which forced the Frogs to attempt a 62-yard field goal.
Jaden Oberkrom, who forced the extra period with a 45-yard yarder with 19 seconds remaining in regulation, was short and left on his attempt and West Virginia made sure the Frogs didn't have another try.
TCU, which is now just 1-5 in Big 12 play, must run the table with games at Iowa St., Kansas St. and at home against Baylor if it's going to keep its bowl hopes alive.
Head coach Gary Patterson knows his team has a lot of work to do if that's going to be the case.
"You've got to give credit to West Virginia for coming back and doing the things they needed to do but to be honest with you we gave one away," Patterson said. "That's about as simple as I can tell you how it is."
The Frogs gave nothing away early as they had 17 points on the board less than 18 minutes into the game and led 17-3 behind a pair of touchdown passes from Casey Pachall.
But the TCU offense then went stagnant and West Virginia was able to get back into the game, cutting the TCU lead to 17-13 at halftime.
TCU had a chance to pull away again in the third quarter but the Frogs had turnovers on three-consecutive possessions, including one at the West Virginia 2 after an interception by TCU's Paul Dawson. West Virginia turned the three turnovers into 17 points and the Frogs were on the wrong end of a 27-17 score with just seven minutes remaining.
Pachall, who threw for 394 yards and three touchdowns, led the Frogs on a pair of late scoring drives to force overtime but all that did was make the sting of a third-straight loss for the Frogs a little tougher to take.
"We all made mistakes today," said Pachall, who was intercepted twice and fumbled once. "It may be possibly that we scored that quickly than we have in a while and so people were happy about it and didn't want to do more to go above and beyond to score more points."
TCU totaled 17 points in its last two games but Pachall's 10-yard scoring pass to Josh Doctson and a 12-yard pass to David Porter allowed the Frogs to match that total with 12:10 remaining in the first half.
But then the Frogs went quiet, and West Virginia started its comeback bid. It also helped that TCU couldn't get out of its own way.
After Dawson's interception, the Frogs had the ball at the WVU 2 but Boykin, who was the quarterback in short-yardage situations, fumbled on the next play and the Mountaineers responded with a long drive that ended with a field goal to make it 17-13.
Pachall was intercepted on the next TCU offensive play and West Virginia answered with a 56-yard drive to take a 20-17 lead. TCU couldn't respond on its next driver either as Pachall fumbled on third down, giving TCU three turnovers in five plays.
The Mountaineers turned that miscue into another score with 7:11 remaining, sending most of the late arriving Amon G. Carter crowd to the exits. The Frogs weren't done though thanks to a late Pachall-led rally, but it wasn't enough.
"Fumble on the two-yard line," Patterson said when asked what stuck out about the loss. "Personal foul in overtime. We set ourselves back a couple of times. Four turnovers. You're not going to win many ballgames doing that. You've got to score points in this league. We didn't start moving the ball until we had to at the end of the ballgame. You've got to be able to do it a long time before that."
