Big-scoring Texas Tech takes 3-game losing skid to TCU
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech can certainly pile up the points and the yards. That doesn't always translate to wins.
The Red Raiders are coming off a game in which Mahomes completed 52 of 88 passes and matched an FBS record with 734 yards passing, while breaking a record with 819 total yards. And they lost 66-59 .
Texas Tech (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) takes a three-game losing skid into Saturday's game at TCU (4-3, 2-2), which has won the last two games in the series with some big numbers of its own.
That home game last week against 16th-ranked Oklahoma was Texas Tech's fourth loss since the start of last season when scoring more than 50 points. The first was 55-52 in the Big 12 opener last year against TCU, which scored on a fourth-down pass in the final minute.
"I usually get past losses," Mahomes said, referring to the last game against the Horned Frogs. "But with that one ... you fought to the very end, and they got a tipped pass touchdown and it changed the whole dynamic of the season."
Tech lost five of seven games after its 3-0 start last year.
When the Red Raiders last visited Fort Worth two years ago, TCU set school and Big 12 scoring records in an 82-27 victory . In their first meeting as Big 12 foes in 2012, Texas Tech won 56-53 in triple overtime.
First-year Horned Frogs quarterback Kenny Hill is second in the Big 12 with 357.1 total yards a game -- 150 yards behind Mahomes' national-leading 507.1 yards per game.
But Hill has only 394 total yards combined the last two games. The 34-10 setback at West Virginia last week was TCU's most-lopsided loss in five Big 12 seasons.
"I don't think just the quarterback, I think we need to play with more swagger," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. "He's got to have more people to throw to. Young players hit the grind. ... Kenny, he's got a little bit of confidence back. Sometimes on throws it's not always the quarterback's fault. But he's the one that gets blamed."
Some other things to know when the Horned Frogs and Red Raiders play:
RETURN OF TURP
Six weeks after injuring his left knee, TCU receiver and returner KaVontae Turpin is expected to be back for the Horned Frogs on Saturday. He got hurt Sept. 17 against Iowa State. He had gone into that game as the national leader with 236 all-purpose yards per game, and was TCU's leading receiver after seven catches in each of the first two games.
STILL HEALING
Mahomes still doesn't feel like he has the same zip on the ball as he did before spraining a joint in his throwing shoulder against Kansas on Sept. 29, exactly a month ago Saturday. But he's improving. "It's actually feeling the best it's felt so far since I've had the injury," said Mahomes, who got hurt when tackled against the Jayhawks. "I'm going to keep rehabbing and keep getting out there and practicing and it will get better every day."
KNOWING KENNY
Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury was previously the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, where he was involved in the recruitment of Hill. "He's a guy who I thought was going to be a star, and he's heading that way," Kingsbury said. "You watch him play, he's still learning their system, still getting comfortable, but the sky is the limit on his potential."
BOTH SIDES OF BLOWOUTS
TCU co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie has been in some scoring history in the series. He was with the Horned Frogs for that 82-point game in 2014. The most points allowed by TCU under Patterson came 10 years before that, when Cumbie was the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders in a 70-35 win.
MORE THAN BIG 12
This is only the fifth game as Big 12 rivals for Texas Tech and TCU -- they are 2-2 in those games, 1-1 at each team's stadium. They were previously in the Southwest Conference together, and the Red Raiders lead the overall series 30-25-3.
