Texas Longhorns mistakes lead to 37-0 thrashing in first half by TCU Horned Frogs

At some point, the redudancy of it all will begin verging on the absurd.

More special teams miscues, more defensive busts in zone coverage, and a litany of other mistakes combined with poor execution for the Texas Longhorns to give up 37 points in the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs while getting shut out in Fort Worth.

The meltdown happened quickly for the Horns, as senior wide receiver Daje Johnson fumbled on the second offensive play, leading to a quick Horned Frogs touchdown on a busted zone coverage. Then a new special teams mistake followed when long snapper Kyle Ashby hiked the ball over the head of punter Michael Dickson for a safety. Then kicker Nick Rose sent the free kick bouncing out of bounds to set the tone for the day.

Two makeable missed field goals by Rose (the first wide right and the second wide left), a shanked punt by Dickson, and a punt that the up man and returner both allowed to hit and bounce inside the Texas 4-yard line rounded out the special teams mistakes. Nope. Sorry, Ashby also missed an opportunity to recover a muffed punt when the ball hit him in the chest and then trickled down and away from him to allow TCU to maintain possession.

TCU ended up scoring 30 points in the first quarter, the most allowed by Texas since giving up 31 to Houston in 1987. And head coach Gary Patterson looked intent on embarrassing the Longhorns to the greatest extent possible as his team dialed up a throwback pass to star wide receiver Josh Doctson up 23-0. It worked, of course.

The only real bright spot for Texas was sophomore running back D'Onta Foreman, who ran 15 times for 93 tough, physical yards and added a 22-yard catch down the sideline to convert a third down. Unfortunately, an 11-play drive and a 19-play drive that took more than 10 and a half minutes combined off the clock ended with those two missed field goals.

Well, the defense did respond somewhat in the second quarter, holding until allowing a late touchdown pass when senior linebacker Peter Jinkens got stuck in a mismatch on explosive TCU playmaker KaVontae Turpin. Texas had forced punts on the previous two possessions as a run-heavy Longhorns offense controlled the clock for most of the quarter, but ultimately came away with nothing to show for it.

Though the offense and defense both showed some toughness in stopping the bleeding in the second quarter, this looks like a team on the brink.

Time to circle the wagons, Charlie.