TCU walked into Waco needing a jolt, and it got one from a place the Horned Frogs have long known well: the Revivalry. Behind a defense that bent just enough and a third quarter that finally gave the offense some life, TCU beat Baylor 17-6 on Saturday night at McLane Stadium to end a two-game skid and knock the Bears out of their four-game winning streak.
The win pushed TCU to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12, while Baylor fell to 4-2 and 2-1. It also kept Sonny Dykes’ hold on the rivalry strong, moving the Horned Frogs to 4-1 against Baylor under his direction and giving them 10 wins in the last 12 meetings between the teams.
This one looked nothing like the usual Revivalry shootout. The last four matchups had averaged a combined 66.3 points per game, but Saturday turned into a grind.
TCU led 7-6 at halftime, then scored twice in the third quarter to build a 17-6 cushion heading into the fourth. The Frogs never quite landed the knockout punch on offense, which left Baylor hanging around longer than TCU probably wanted.
The Bears still had a chance late, but with 1:08 left, TCU’s defense forced an errant throw by DJ Lagway to close the door.
Jaden Craig was at the center of the turnaround. The senior quarterback came in facing plenty of pressure against a Baylor defense that ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring defense and sat near the top of the Big 12 in several categories. He didn’t play clean football - there was a head-scratching turnover late in the first half, and he was under fire behind an offensive line that allowed four sacks - but he delivered his strongest game of the year when TCU needed it most.
The third quarter opened with a shot. On the second offensive snap after halftime, Craig hit Jordan Dwyer for 67 yards to flip the field in a hurry.
He finished the drive with an 8-yard touchdown to senior tight end Ka’Morreun Pimpton, a perfectly placed jump ball that put TCU in front 14-6 with 14:16 left in the quarter. Craig later guided another scoring march that stretched the lead to 17-6 with 6:01 remaining.
Dwyer and Ed Small were Craig’s go-to targets all night. Dwyer caught six passes for 150 yards, while Small added seven receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown.
On defense, TCU may have found a new name to lean on. Western Kentucky transfer Koron Hayward turned in a monster outing, finishing with five tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble in his biggest workload of the season. The three sacks were the most by a TCU defensive lineman since Dylan Horton had four against Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.
Hayward came into the night with 1.5 sacks and had mostly been used in obvious pass-rushing situations, but the performance against Baylor earned him more snaps. His impact showed up in key moments.
In Baylor’s first drive while trying to tie the game late in the first quarter, Hayward sacked Lagway on second-and-19, forcing the Bears into a 47-yard field goal attempt that missed. Later, on Baylor’s opening series of the second half, Hayward’s third sack pushed the Bears into another long-yardage situation and ended in a punt.
TCU’s pressure plan worked on Lagway all night, and the Baylor quarterback never found a rhythm. His accuracy came and went from snap to snap, and the Horned Frogs kept him uncomfortable by getting repeated heat from the line, with Hayward and Paul Oyewale helping drive that pressure. Late in the third quarter, Lagway scrambled to his right and then threw an interception to TCU senior strong safety Jamel Johnson.
Baylor fans let him hear it in the second half as the Bears were held scoreless. Lagway finished 22 of 52 for 260 yards with an interception, his toughest performance of the season.
TCU also tweaked its offensive line, and the changes were a major part of the story. Dykes said earlier in the week the program had examined everything during its 2-3 start and would make adjustments, and the biggest one came up front.
Oklahoma State transfer Noah McKinney moved from right guard to left guard for the first time in his career, while Witten Van Hoy shifted to right guard. Kilian Registe started at right tackle, Ben Taylor-Whitfield started at left tackle, Jaheim Buchanon handled center and Cooper Powers saw more time at right guard after rotating between left guard and center.
The goal was simple: get the best five linemen on the field and jump-start the offense. The result was mixed.
With Jeremy Payne injured in the first quarter, TCU managed only one rushing yard in the first half, and Craig was sacked three times in the opening quarter. The protection got better after halftime, enough for Craig to direct those two scoring drives, but the Frogs still couldn’t run out the clock cleanly in the fourth quarter because the ground game never got going.
TCU now turns to West Virginia, which visits Amon G. Carter Stadium at 11 a.m. next Saturday, Oct. 24.
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Gavin Sykes supplied the biggest scoring burst with 17 points, giving TCU another reminder that the bench could end up being just as important as the opening five. For a team still settling on roles, that kind of depth is a good problem to have, even if the final answer is still a little fuzzy heading into the regular-season opener against Lindenwood. [Read more 🡒]