Thoughts From The Game

[Mountain Mustang]

Couple of thoughts.
1. Zach Line is a hoss. Awfully tough to bring down, and I wish we would have given him the ball until TCU showed they could stop him. Especially considering Padron's inability to find receivers.

2. Not sure if it was just great coverage or if Padron is just holding on to it too long, but he definitely had a hard time finding open targets tonight. The line gave him fairly adequate time if he could've gotten rid of the ball quicker.

3. Amazing to think what a big impact Szymanski had on the game. Shanked first punt. Saved a TD on another punt (although it eventually led to a TD). Ran for a first down on a partially deflected snap. Got a 15 yard penalty for kicking a ball. When I saw that play, I thought he was just downing the ball i.e. first player to touch it. Crazy to see that ball hit inside the 5 and wind up with TCU's possession starting at the 35.

Overall, we kept it interesting and if we could've covered a kickoff return when we got the lead in the second half, it could've been a different story. We're a good team that's not quite "there" yet but I like where we're at going into the heart of the schedule. GO PONIES!!

[FrogAlum]

Whew,

Got to say mustangs, you all gave us a great game. I tipped my hat off as I walked out of the stadium thankful for a win. I had a great time at the ford, and was not disrespected at all like I was when I went to Austin and Baylor a few years ago. You all have a classy fan base (all i heard was some friendly heckling that can be expected from a rivalry like ours.

I was impressed with the heart Padron played with. He got hit a lot but was always fairly quick to get up, a lot quicker than I would have been if large athletic frogs were hitting me all night. I'm also going to send a shout out to that monster of a running back that stampeded us multiple times. That guy was a hoss and you all should be proud to have him run like that. TCU has a great defense that usually makes tackles an I am going to give your team the credit they deserve for being hard to tacke.

Every drive I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen. Turns out that it was another great game that is becoming a tradition between our two solid teams. Good luck on the rest of the year and win that conference and do the Dallas Fort Worth Area proud because I know we are going to want the best the Mustangs have to offer next year.

Thanks again for being such great hosts and pats on the backs of both of our teams for giving a great showing on an otherwise quiet Friday night.

[Hoop Fan]

yes, padron held the ball too long, but what was up with the routes? all long routes and slow developing plays. receivers streaking 20 yards downfield on everthing. hardly any slants or crossing routes. Its amazing that padron survived.

[JasonB]

I noticed that about the routes as well. I also noticed that DJ and Holman were exhausted int he second half and weren't able to go all out on a lot of their routes.

Padron still locks in on the first two guys in the read sequence and doesn't bust out of that read so he gets into trouble.

[ponypr033]

TCU played great. It was easily the best college football game I will attend as a student. Im a senior this year and am already planning on coming back in two years to watch a backfield of Padron and Line as seniors and Fields as a Junior run train on all you frogs. Give it two years and we'll be the higher ranked team. Run and shoot, it will be run for 200 yards when we want to, and throw for 300.

[NickSMU17]

We wil be better than them next year...

[deepellumfrog]

That is why it's fun to play every year Nick. We get to find out next year. Baylor is lucky they dropped you from the schedule next year. Solid team. Not on par with our boys this year, but I am certainly concerned about this game next year, and am glad it is at home.

[Pony ^]

I had a great time

[Pony_Law]

Here are my 2 cents on the Game:

RB's: PLayed great all night. I don't think there can be any doubt that Line is a player. TCU has a great run defense and he tore it up. Hopefully June will continue to use him especially when Pardon is a bit off. Not only does it give us another attacking option but it should help slow down any pass rush I would have liked to have seen about 5 more carries for Zack.

QB: Obviously he made one terrible play that never should have happened. He also made some good plays. Unfortunately, I think that is what we are going to get all year it just comes from having an inexperienced young QB. I think Padron clearly has the talent and is good enough to win our remaining games he just needs to imrove if we are going to start to beat teams like TCU and Tech. Specificaly he needs to be able to progress through his reads quicker. This will stop him from getting hit so much. I think the beating he took caused lulls in his game (you can see when he is sore his mechanics can break down and he becomes inaccurate). That being said he clearly is tough as nails and I think the guys respect that. Finnally we got to improve on 3rd down this goes for everyone

WRs: Made some great plays but still need to improve. I was disappointed in Beasely had some dropped balls and was partialy responsible for the pick 6. AS a unit they need to do better against zone coverage. Considereing how well they did when TCU was in Man to Man I expect teams will copy the formula of playing zone and hoping Kyle holds the ball for 4.5 sec. I don't think the young guys recognize where the holes are and it is taking them to long to clear (this adds to Padron's problem of already holding the ball to long). Also as with basically every position we will be better with more depth our guys were completely gassed in the 4thQ.

Defensive front 7: Played ok. You are going to give up some plays to TCu's offense but 13 points were not their fault I'll take giving up 28 to TCU all day. Clearly they got tired by the 4th Q but that is to be expected going against a biiger more deep team like TCU. Had some pressure on daulton which was good considereing how much better the TCU Oline is compared to anyone elese we will pay

DBs: Actually played great. Two Interceptions one that should have been a pick 6. More is a stud that I think earned being a draft pick with that performance if he can stay healthy. I thinkthey only had one completetion in his direction and he made some sure tackles. Overall they gave up some plays but not to many considering how little pressure we had. Again I give TCU some credit and think it is a good sign for us.

Special teams: did ok but obviously had some terrible efforts. The kick return really killed our momentum and I think won the game for TCU. Kearly is one of the best in the country so I thought he'd have at least one so what can I say.

Stadium: Wow what an atmosphere. I know it will be a while be fore we can come close to that consistently but It was amazing. Fears that TCU would out show us were clearly wrong. I'd estimate about 13k TCU fans the rest doing a reasonable job wearing red.

TCU: There a good team but I am not sold on them being a top 5. No disrespect to them or to us but they are simply not even close to being the best team in the country. Here are the teams I think are better. Alabama, Ohio State, Boise State, Oregon, Wiscosin, South Carolina, Texas, OU, Auburn, Arkansa. Before I get flamed for this point these are teams I think matach well strength versus weakness and I made these picks before any othe games on Saturday so I reserve the right to change my mind. PLease note TCU fans I think you are better then every team in the Bg East or ACC, Florida, USC, LSU, Iowa, and Penn State. Thats pretty good and I hope SMU gets to that poin someday soon (I'm thinking the year after next). TCU's problem is against the bigger teams they won't were them down like they did againt us and I simply don't trust TCU's QB to beat a strong defense.

Future: I think we will likely win the Skillet next year even going to there place but it will be close, in 2 years when it is back at Ford SMU takes it by 10+

(I wrote this early in the morning so please exuse the numerous spelling and typing errors)

Beat Rice...Pony UP!

[35straight]

A couple of stats that stand out. It was a fun game and the kids played hard, but we have to produce on the field.

3rd down efficiency
TCU 5-11
SMU 2-13
Not forcing punts, and punting too much.

Passing yards 169 with a 4.8 average.

Our offense has to be able to throw the ball or we are dead in the water.

If we can't fix this, we are going to make the rest of the schedule very tuff for us.

[Harry0569]

A couple of stats that stand out. It was a fun game and the kids played hard, but we have to produce on the field.

3rd down efficiency
TCU 5-11
SMU 2-13
Not forcing punts, and punting too much.

Passing yards 169 with a 4.8 average.

Our offense has to be able to throw the ball or we are dead in the water.

If we can't fix this, we are going to make the rest of the schedule very tuff for us.

TCU started the 2nd half 5-5 from 3rd down. We could not get off the field.

[davidpaul123]

Not to mention they finished the game 2-3 on 4th down with 2 of those conversions being on a big TD drive.