Stats That Matter | Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. TCU Horned Frogs

THE DEFENSES

STATISTIC
Passes Broken Up	26	27
QB Hurries	6	11
Fumbles Forced	2	4
Interceptions	5	14
Sacks	9.0	16.0
Tackles for Loss	33.0	34.0
3rd Down Conversion %	37.08%	24.36%
Rushing Yards Allowed	99.33 (12, 2)	95.50 (9, 1)
Rushing Avg. Yards/Attempt	3.04	3.20
Passing Yards Allowed	143.67 (4, 1)	205.33 (30, 3)
Passing Avg Yards/Attempt	4.8	6.9

TCU has a very good defense. They are comparable and better in a couple of different areas. Those interception numbers are staggering, but to be accurate. The tremendous Garrett Gilbert threw 5 picks at SMU and Baylor's Nick Florence threw 4 last week. Still, don't discount that the pass defense forces quarterbacks to make bad decisions and those are real turnovers that helped TCU win those two games. Especially when you factor that Texas Tech really doesn't force any turnovers and is still able to have a pretty good defense. Either way, TCU has the advantage on the turnovers.

TCU and Texas Tech are pretty much equals in most other respects, although TCU does have the upper hand in sacks, led by true freshman Trevante Fields. This guy has just come out of nowhere to be a real playmaker on the edge. The guy that most folks though would be great, Stansly Maponga, only has 1 sack, but I'd also guess he's getting a little more attention.

The one advantage area for Texas Tech is the passing yards per game. I still think this is a bit skewed because Texas Tech has really only played two passing teams thus far, Oklahoma and West Virginia. WVU had over 300 yards, just didn't get the ball in the endzone. Surprisingly, Kansas passed for over 300 yards against TCU, but was able to hold Baylor to only 326 yards. Baylor was completing a ton of long passes, but had a tough time completing anything short or intermediate. I have no doubt that Patterson will try to replicate what he did to Texas Tech in 2006, but we'll get into that later.

And those third down conversions are just spectacular. As good as Texas Tech has been on 3rd downs on defense, TCU has been better. Granted, as the competition has been tougher, that percentage has been getting worse and worse, but even on their worst day, against Baylor last week, they allowed 4 of 8 on third down for 50% and against Iowa St. allowed only 4 of 13 for 30.77%.

TCU is actually Texas Tech's equal and it will be really interesting to see what Texas Tech's offense can do against a very good TCU defense. They have been traditionally good for years, but the last very good defense that Texas Tech faced was Oklahoma and they whipped up on the Red Raiders.

THE OFFENSES

STATISTIC
Red Zone TD %	71.88% (23/28)	56.67% (17/30)
3rd Down Conversion %	56.79%	44.71%
Passing Yards	369.00 (4, 3)	258.17 (41, 7)
Yards/Passing Attempt	8.3	8.7
Rushing Yards	168.33 (59, 8)	171.17 (57, 6)
Rushing Yards Per Attempt	4.93	4.01
Touchdowns | Turnovers	31 | 11	25 | 14
Turnover Margin	-4.00	1.00
Yards/Play	6.83	5.94
Sacks Allowed / Pass Attempt	33.38	19.77

There has to be some allowance for the difference in the offense between Trevon Boykin and Casey Pachall. Honestly, I was able to watch a bit of TCU vs. Baylor, but not a lot, so my knowledge of how things are different or better under Boykin is going to be very limited. So we'll talk globally and this will be one of my questions for the Frogs O' War folks. Overall, TCU has pretty good offensive numbers. The deliberate TCU offense has pretty record, especially with Boykin as a redshirt freshman at the helm. Since Boykin has taken over, TCU has very much relied on their running game and churned out 185 yards on 43 carries against Iowa St. and 248 yards on 57 carries against Baylor. I am sure they are feeling good about what Boykin can do if he doesn't have to carry the load.

And I should also add that Boykin's value was incredibly significant as he helped the team convert 14 of 19 third downs against Baylor. Prior to Baylor, TCU was only converting 29% of their third downs and that was problematic. TCU's performance on third downs vaulted them up 15 percentage points. That's pretty significant.

Overall, it is a very balanced offense and I think that's problematic for Texas Tech. I think this will be a similar test to Iowa St., but I'd guess that TCU is more talented from a physical standpoint on offense. Despite their losses in the offseason, this is still a really formidable group. And maybe as big a reason as any, Boykin threw 3 interception against Iowa St. I think it is doubtful that he does that at home this week, but I'd also add that TCU has put the ball on the carpet quite a bit this year, losing 4 fumbles against Kansas, 2 against SMU and 2 against Iowa St. TCU lost that Iowa St. game just based off of turnovers alone, 5 for the game overall.

All helmet images via The Helmet Project and thanks to College Football Statistics for these stats.