T.C.U., Confronting Georgia, Spirals on National Title Stage

T.C.U., uncharacteristically, was not the resilient team it had been all year. The Horned Frogs had won five games in comeback fashion, often down double digits, but on Monday night seemed to lay down as Georgia ran up the score.

“They didn’t really do anything special,” T.C.U. linebacker Dee Winters said. “We kind of just beat ourselves up. They kind of just executed on our missed alignments and just kept scoring on those. You know, we just kept beating ourselves up, you know, just overthinking.”

Duggan, who finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy, had his worst performance of the season. The struggles were not all his fault. He often faced pressure from Georgia defensive linemen bearing down on him as soon as he received the snap. Still, when there were opportunities to hit open receivers, Duggan routinely missed them.

A prime example came in the third quarter, when Quentin Johnston ran down the middle of the field wide open, but Duggan overthrew him, the ball landing in the hands of Georgia defensive back Mykel Williams.

“I was making bad decisions, and I wasn’t executing well,” Duggan said, later adding, “They had some blitzes, some pressures they got through; I held on to the ball too long, wasn’t getting through reads and was kind of causing trouble for the O-line myself.”

Although the playoff will expand to 12 teams in the 2024 season, the way T.C.U. lost this game will raise more questions and criticism about the seemingly huge gap between the top teams, especially those in the Southeastern Conference, and those in other leagues.

After Kansas State beat T.C.U. in the Big 12 championship game, many clamored for Alabama to supplant the Horned Frogs in the playoff. Alabama then beat Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl by 25 points.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/sports/ncaafootball/tcu-national-championship-game.html