STILLWATER, Okla. — TCU felt ignored heading into its matchup with high-powered Oklahoma State.
The Horned Frogs can’t be overlooked anymore. Darius Anderson ran for a career-high 160 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 16 TCU upset No. 6 Oklahoma State 44-31 on Saturday to stamp the Horned Frogs as a Big 12 contender.
“People can say what they want to say, but we know what we are, and we try to be the best team every day,” TCU defensive end Ben Banogu said. “But you don’t just get there after one big win, it’s throughout the season. If we can keep the ball rolling and keeping doing what we do, then we’ll find ourselves in that conversation.”
Kenny Hill passed for 228 yards for the Horned Frogs (4-0, 1-0 Big 12), who ran 52 times for 238 yards.
“We want to be relevant; you want to win enough to get noticed,” TCU Coach Gary Patterson said. “It was also an advantage that no one was giving us a chance. We play better that way.”
TCU gave Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph time to throw, but he often couldn’t find enough open receivers and settled for short passes or threw the ball away. He completed 22 of 41 passes for 398 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he threw 2 interceptions.
James Washington caught 6 passes for 153 yards and 1 touchdown and Marcell Ateman caught 6 passes for 100 yards for the Cowboys (3-1, 0-1).
TCU focused on taking away the deep ball. The Horned Frogs got burned once, on an 86-yard touchdown catch by Washington. But most of the rest of their passes were underneath, and many required precise throws by Rudolph.
In other Top 25 games Saturday, Adam Choice had a 6-yard tiebreaking touchdown in the fourth quarter and Travis Etienne had 2 scoring runs in the final 6 minutes as No. 2 Clemson (4-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) wore down Boston College (1-3, 0-2 ACC) 34-7. ... Baker Mayfield threw three touchdowns as No. 3 Oklahoma (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) stretched the nationa’s longest winning streak to 14 games with a 49-41 victory over Baylor (0-4, 0-1). ... Stephen Carr ran for a fourth-quarter touchdown two plays after Southern California’s defense forced one of its six turnovers and the fifth-ranked Trojans (4-0, 2-0 Pac-12) won their 13th consecutive with a 30-20 victory over California (3-1, 0-1). ... Chris Evans ran for two touchdowns in the second half and backup quarterback John O’Korn rallied No. 8 Michigan (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) from a halftime deficit to beat Purdue (2-2, 0-1) 28-10. ... J.T. Barrett threw touchdown passes to five different receivers in the first half, and No. 10 Ohio State (3-1) cruised past UNLV (1-2) 54-21. K.J. Hill (North Little Rock) caught 3 passes for 53 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown in the second quarter. ... Josh Jackson threw for three touchdowns and Steven Peoples scored three to lead No. 13 Virginia Tech (4-0) over Old Dominion (2-2) 38-0. ... Malik Rosier threw for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns, Mark Walton needed only 11 carries to rush for a career-best 204 yards and another score, and No. 14 Miami (2-0) rallied to beat Toledo (3-1) 52-30. ... Luke Falk threw five touchdown passes and No. 18 Washington State (4-0) piled up 560 yards of offense in a 45-7 victory over Nevada (0-4) for the team’s best start in 16 years. ... Lamar Jackson accounted for three touchdowns to set a Louisville record and finished with 333 yards of total offense to lead the Cardinals (3-1) to a 42-3 victory over Kent State (1-3). ... Ra-shad Perry scored three times, including a 53-yard run with 5:39 remaining, as No. 22 San Diego State (4-0, 1-0 Mountain West) held off Air Force (1-2, 0-1) 28-24 in a game that was delayed 88 minutes by lightning.