For two and a half quarters, No. 15 TCU dominated No. 4 Ohio State.
However, football games are four quarters long and a disastrous 5:14 stretch in the turned the tide on the Frogs and they lost to Ohio State 40-28.
"I told them before the ballgame its the big ones that you can find a way to lose more than find a way to win," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. "We gave them 21 points. We didn't allow a touchdown in the first half defensively. You have to give them credit for getting the points, but you can't give a good team 21 points."
TCU had scratched and clawed and even though it hadn’t played a perfect game, still held a 21-13 lead with 8:11 left in the third quarter.
Ohio State had punted its first two possessions of the second half and TCU had just scored on a 16-yard run by Darius Anderson to go up by eight.
On second down, Shawn Robinson threw a pass to KaVontae Turpin. It was a little behind him, but it was catchable. He was open with space in the middle of the field. He dropped it. Two plays later, TCU punted.
"A couple times I told Shawn he needed to run," Patterson said. "That slant Turpin dropped it, but he could have run it."
What happened next was a series of events that would be nearly impossible to script.
The Buckeyes scored their first offensive touchdown of the night on a 63-yard screen pass. The two-point conversion failed so TCU still led by two points.
That wouldn’t last long as Shawn Robinson attempted a forward shovel pass, but it went directly into the hands of Dre’Mont Jones, who returned it 28 yards for a touchdown to give Ohio State its first lead since it led 10-0 in the first quarter.
"The two turnovers are mistakes that I can’t make that hurt us," Robinson said. "The defensive end made a great read on the shovel pass."
On the ensuing kickoff, TCU attempted its “hidden return man lying in the end zone” trick play, and it appeared to work. Turpin connected with Jalen Reagor, who housed it, but Turpin threw it two yards forward. That illegal forward pass meant TCU had to start its drive at the four-yard line.
Another three-and-out led to another punt. This one was blocked and Ohio State got the ball at the TCU 25-yard line. Two plays later, the Buckeyes were in the end zone again and never trailed.
"That shovel pass was our fault," Patterson said. "And we had another case of the punter looking at the rush and not focusing on the punt."
TCU fought back and scored on a 51-yard touchdown pass from Robinson to Tre’ Hights, but Ohio State was able to counter with its own touchdown and never looked back.
The TCU defense was up to the task for much of the game against Ohio State, but the Buckeyes scored a pair of defensive touchdowns, arguably the difference in the game while TCU couldn’t force a single turnover.
Innis Gaines was flying all over the field and ended up leading TCU in tackles with seven. His mates in the secondary, Ridwaan Issahaku and Niko Small also played well through the first two and a half quarters.
Ohio State gained 248 yards of offense and scored no points on offense from the 13:52 mark of the first quarter to the 6:58 mark of the third quarter.
Darius Anderson had a big moment to give TCU its first lead of the game. He scored on a 93-yard touchdown run with 9:08 left in the second quarter. That was the longest run in TCU history and the longest play from scrimmage that Ohio State has ever allowed.
TCU (2-1) begins Big 12 play at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Austin as it looks for a fifth straight win against Texas (2-1).
