FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas didn’t have a complicated game plan when it visited TCU. Hand the ball off to No. 5 and let him do his thing.
Bijan Robinson answered by putting together a career day, leading the Longhorns to a 32-27 victory over TCU on Saturday at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Robinson finished with a career-high 216 yards on a career-high 35 carries with two touchdowns. He converted a pivotal third-and-6 with less than three minutes to go, and then had another first-down run on the next play, to seal the Longhorns’ victory.
“We did a poor job of playing the cutback on the final drive,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “We practiced the play. You’ve got to practice well to play it. We understood he was going to cutback. You’ve got to get ready to go.
“But he’s a good running back. We’re not the first or the last people that he’s going to run for some yardage on,” he said. “The bottom line is our kids had a chance. We had a chance to win.”
As good as Robinson is, TCU boasts its own top running back in college football with sophomore Zach Evans.
Evans finished with 113 yards rushing on 15 carries with one touchdown. That marked the fifth time in the last seven games that Evans topped the 100-yard mark.
But, in a game hyped about the running backs, why did Evans receive 20 fewer carries than Robinson? And why did TCU quarterback Max Duggan finish with a team-high 16 carries?
“We just couldn’t run the football as much as we wanted to,” Patterson said. “Zach got tired. We put other guys in. It was simple.”
TCU feels good about its running back corps and rotates players when one gets tired. “We’ve got other guys who can play,” Patterson said.
Robinson helped Texas take control of the game late. He picked up a first down with a 9-yard run on a third-and-9 play early in the fourth quarter. Texas scored on the next play, a 32-yard pass from Casey Thompson to Jordan Whittington on a crossing route that gave Texas a 32-20 lead.
The only time TCU seemed to stop Robinson came on a fourth-and-goal from the TCU 1 with 9:32 left to play. Frogs defensive tackle Terrell Cooper and linebacker Jamoi Hodge were credited with the stop.
That play kept the Frogs in the game. They responded with a 99-yard touchdown drive, which was capped with a 2-yard run by Kendre Miller. Evans carried the ball on the first three plays of the series, gaining 12 yards, before Miller closed it out.
But TCU’s defense couldn’t make another stand. Robinson picked up a first down on a third-and-6 with less than three minutes left and then picked up another first down with a 13-yard gain on the next play. The Longhorns were able to run out the clock after that.
TCU defensive end Dylan Horton acknowledged that every failed third-down attempt is “demoralizing” for a defense, but said, “In that situation, you’ve got to keep doing your job and get the offense on the field.”
TCU and Patterson dropped to 7-3 against Texas since joining the Big 12. But this Longhorns program is under a new regime with coach Steve Sarkisian and it has a workhorse running back in Robinson, who didn’t play in the TCU game last year.
TCU got off to a promising start.
JD Spielman returned the opening kickoff 87 yards, setting up a 12-yard touchdown run by Evans a couple plays later for an early 7-0 lead.
But TCU was dealt a blow midway through the first quarter when safety T.J. Carter was ejected for targeting. The Frogs were already light on safeties going into the game with Deshawn McCuin and Bud Clark sidelined with injuries.
That forced TCU to go with true freshman Da’Veawn Armstead at free safety, and later it moved junior cornerback Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson to safety for a more experienced voice in the backfield.
Patterson felt Tomlinson played “great” given the circumstances.
“Never in his lifetime has he ever played free in this system at the college level,” Patterson said, “and he didn’t hesitate. He said, ‘Sure.’”
Still, that proved to be a game-changing call early on.
Texas capitalized with a fresh set of downs. Instead of punting from their own end zone, the Longhorns had a first-and-10 from their own 22 and marched down the field for a touchdown.
Robinson capped a 99-yard scoring drive with a 27-yard run to give Texas its first lead of the day at 10-7.
The Longhorns didn’t capitalize on other chances to break it open. The Frogs turned it over three times, including two by senior wide receiver Derius Davis, which translated into only three field goals.
Frogs quarterback Max Duggan entered the game 2-0 against the Longhorns, but he had his worst game yardage-wise against them. He finished 20 of 28 passing for 182 yards with one touchdown. He turned it over on a strip-sack early in the second half.
“With how deep their safeties play, you don’t really get a lot of shots with them,” Duggan said. “You’ve got to throw a lot of underneath stuff and that’s what happened. We tried to get it to our guys underneath and let them make plays. And obviously, there’s a lot of things I missed and I could’ve done better.”
TCU (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) hits the road for the first time next Saturday when it travels to Texas Tech. Texas (4-1, 2-0 Big 12), meanwhile, faces Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown in Dallas.
