At 8:01 left in the fourth quarter, TCU had a chance to make the finish genuinely uncomfortable. The Horned Frogs had reached the BYU 28, and Nate McCashland lined up a 46-yard field goal that would have tied the game at 10-10. He missed.
BYU then used 10 plays, 72 yards and 5:55 to score the touchdown that made the clock nearly irrelevant in a 17-10 victory at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
The Horned Frogs needed those late minutes because their offense had failed to sustain its earlier possessions. Each punt had handed BYU another chance to use the clock; the final long touchdown drive consumed the chance to recover.
The missed kick was costly, but it was not the whole explanation. TCU’s first three second-half possessions produced 7, 8 and 20 yards, all ending with punts. The next possession finally moved into scoring range, but it needed 3:21 to travel 27 yards and ended at the BYU 28.
Jeremy Payne provided 21 yards on two carries. Then a 1-yard completion on third-and-10 left McCashland with the difficult attempt.
BYU received the miss and handled the opportunity with the sort of plain, efficient football that rarely makes a highlight package but ruins an opponent’s evening.
The winning drive began at the BYU 28 with Bear Bachmeier completing an 8-yard pass to Preston Rex. Rex ran for 3 yards to the BYU 39, and Bachmeier then completed a 4-yard pass to Rex at the BYU 43. On second-and-6, Bachmeier kept for 9 yards to the TCU 48, moving the chains and putting the Cougars across midfield.
The possession did not become a parade of easy gains. An incompletion followed, then Journee Tonga ran for 5 yards. That left third-and-5 from the TCU 43, where Bachmeier kept again for 10 yards and another first down.
Tonga added 14 yards to the TCU 19. Even after a 2-yard loss, BYU had preserved its field position and forced TCU to keep defending instead of waiting for a punt.
Bachmeier finished the possession himself, running 21 yards for the touchdown at 2:06. From the missed field goal to the touchdown, TCU’s deficit went from potentially tied to 17-7, and the fourth quarter had shrunk to a problem measured in possessions rather than minutes.
The drive was especially damaging because it contrasted with TCU’s earlier offensive interruptions. TCU had gained 259 yards to BYU’s 216, but their advantage did not translate into longer possessions when the game was still close. BYU converted 8 of 16 third downs; TCU converted 4 of 13.
