Sonny Dykes didn’t have much interest in dressing up the problem after TCU’s 17-10 loss to BYU on Saturday night in Fort Worth.
The Horned Frogs are 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2013, and they’ve managed just four touchdowns in three games against power conference opponents this season. That’s the part of the story Dykes kept circling back to after a game in which TCU’s defense did enough to win, but the offense never gave it room to breathe.
“Obviously we’ve got to play better. That’s the biggest thing, is we’ve got to be able to score points.
I think we wasted a really impressive defensive performance tonight. I thought our guys played incredibly hard, obviously they played well enough for us to win the game.
We’ve got to continue to get better offensively,” Dykes told reporters postgame.
He doubled down on that point when discussing the way the night unfolded against a BYU team that made life miserable all evening.
“... BYU is a very good defensive football team.
We knew it was going to be some tough sledding tonight, they have a good team. But we’ve got to find a way to score points if we’re going to win some games, and our guys understand that.
We’ll get better, we will.”
TCU held BYU to 17 points and limited the Cougars to just 62 passing yards, but the Frogs still came up short because the offense couldn’t cash in. Dykes said the overall effort was there across the board.
“I thought we certainly played our best tonight,” Dykes said. “(BYU)’s a good football team, a good offensive team.
I thought we played incredibly hard on offense, defense and special teams across the board. We’ve got to be able to score more points, but defensively, I thought we certainly played well enough to have a chance to win the game.”
BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier didn’t have his sharpest night as a passer, but he still helped carry the Cougars with the run game. BYU finished with more than 150 rushing yards, and Bachmeier accounted for 66 of them while scoring twice on the ground.
“You’ve got to give their quarterback credit,” Dykes said. “He’s a very good football player, he kind of took over the game when they needed him to, and that’s what great players do. He’s a special guy, you know, he made some really big-time plays.”
The Cougars also got plenty from their defense, which picked off a pass, held TCU under 2.5 yards per carry and racked up four sacks. That pressure, Dykes said, was a major factor.
“(BYU is a) good pass rushing team,“ Dykes said. ”...
We were working so hard to stay out of those third downs and long. They’re going to get you.
I mean, they’ve gotten people all year when you get into those situations.
“There’s a couple of times I felt like we could have gotten rid of the ball and we didn’t, so we’ve got to learn from that and get rid of the ball in those situations.”
Dykes, who went 18-8 between 2024-25 and took TCU to the national championship game in 2022, may be approaching the end of his time in Fort Worth. TCU has a bye next week, and if he is still on the sideline for the Oct. 17 game against Baylor, the path to more stability starts with the same issue he identified Saturday night: points.
“We’re just not scoring points right now, we’ve got to figure out how to do it,” Dykes said. “We’ll sit down, take a look at everything we’re doing obviously and find ways to improve, because we’ve got to score more than one touchdown a game.”
In Other News...
BYU Won At TCU But A Bigger Concern Just Took Over
BYU left Fort Worth with a win, but the bigger takeaway from the 17-10 victory at TCU was how hard the Cougars had to work for every yard. The offense never really found its rhythm, finishing with just 216 yards while dealing with injuries to key players, and for long stretches it was the defense that kept BYU in control.
Bear Bachmeiers late touchdown run supplied the margin, but the performance also raised a broader question about how close this team is to the level it expected to reach before the season. A road win in the Big 12 is never easy, yet BYU will likely need a cleaner showing on offense if it wants to keep pace with those preseason expectations. [Read more 🡒]
BYUs Gritty TCU Win Changed The Ceiling Debate
BYUs rain-soaked win at TCU did more than add another road victory to the ledger. It offered a reminder of how much the Cougars can lean on defense and discipline when the conditions get ugly, and it came in Fort Worth, where they had not won since 2006. With several players banged up along the way, BYU still found a way to keep the Horned Frogs from settling in, thanks in part to a defense that made life difficult up front and a game plan that stayed patient even when the offense never looked especially clean.
Bear Bachmeiers passing day was not the sort that changes anyones mind on its own, but BYU did not need fireworks to leave Texas with a result that mattered. The four sacks were a big part of the story, and so was the willingness to stick with a conservative approach in a game where field position and toughness mattered more than style points. For a team that has spent part of the season fighting the ceiling debate, this was the kind of win that forces a more serious conversation about how high the Cougars can climb. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Proved It Can Win Even When Things Get Uncomfortable
TCU gave BYU a much tighter game than the rankings suggested, and for long stretches in Fort Worth it looked like the kind of test that can expose a teams flaws. The Horned Frogs kept it even at halftime and made the Cougars work for every yard, leaning on a defense that held up well against the pass and stayed sturdy against the run.
What stood out, though, was that BYU still found a way to leave with the road win even without a clean, comfortable offensive night. TCUs offense never found the consistency or explosive plays it needed to turn that defensive effort into an upset, and the result sent the Horned Frogs into their bye week with plenty to sort through after a home loss to a top-10 team. [Read more 🡒]