Remember when TCU held a lead in the third quarter against Ohio State? It's been all downhill from there for the Horned Frogs. The Horned Frogs suffered their fifth loss in six games on Saturday, and this one was the worst one yet, as they lost to Kansas for the first time since 1997. Trailing 27-24 with less than two minutes to play, TCU was inside the Jayhawks' 10-yard line, and appeared to be on its way to scoring what could have been a game-winning touchdown. TCU running back Darius Anderson, however, ran the ball into the rear of one of his own offensive linemen and fumbled it, before reaching the goal line, and Kansas recovered the ball, leading to the Jayhawks' first Big 12 win since 2016. Here's the butt fumble in TCU-Kansas. Wow. pic.twitter.com/6YjxewAKbm — Max Olson (@max_olson) October 27, 2018 The Horned Frogs, which were ranked 15th nationally when Ohio State beat them 40-28 on Sept. 15, are now 3-5 with losses also coming against Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma. Saturday's loss came just days after starting quarterback Shawn Robinson was underwent season-ending surgery and star wide receiver/returner KaVontae Turpin was dismissed from the team after an arrest for assault against a woman. Kansas, meanwhile, is also 3-5 and has now beaten two common opponents as Ohio State, having also blown out Rutgers in a 55-14 win earlier this season.<doc-sep>On Saturday in Lawrence, the Kansas Jayhawks won a Big 12 football game. They beat an especially woebegone version of TCU, 27-26, BECAUSE TCU BUTT-FUMBLED THE BALL AWAY TO KANSAS INSIDE THE 10-YARD LINE WITH 71 SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME. Butt fumble des Horned Frogs de TCU. Ballon récupéré par les Jayhawks. Kansas file vers la victoire ! Kansas 27, Texas Christian 24 pic.twitter.com/TdkuE60eSK — TBP College Football (@thebluepennant) October 27, 2018 Here, we’ve put it on a loop for you: The Horned Frogs were trailing by 3 when Darius Anderson ran directly into the butt of one of his offensive linemen, lost the ball, and watched the Jayhawks fall on it. Kansas got a first down after that, enabling it to kill off almost the entire remainder of the clock. The Jayhawks took an intentional self-safety on fourth down with one second left, then punted the ball away. TCU didn’t return a pooch for a touchdown, and it probably wouldn’t have anyway, but not having dismissed returner KaVontae Turpin made it even less likely. KU’s students then stormed the field to celebrate their school’s first win against TCU since 1997. The Jayhawks had lost the last six, all since TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012. TCU fell to 1-4 in conference play, dead last in the league by virtue of Kansas holding a head-to-head tiebreaker. Kansas hadn’t won a Big 12 game in football since Nov. 19, 2016. That was 710 days before this game — or one year, 11 months, and 11 days. That day, Kansas beat Texas. In football. And don’t you ever forget it. How did TCU manage to lose to Kansas? Extremely carefully. Losing to the Jayhawks isn’t something a team usually just stumbles into. Normally, you have to be bad, and you have to play a particularly bad game even by your standards. For instance, Central Michigan lost to Kansas in Week 2, the Jayhawks’ first road win since 2009. The Chippewas are terrible; entering Week 9, they were 120th out of 130 FBS teams in S&P+. But play-by-play data put them in the 10th percentile of all teams that week, lower than they’ve been in any other week, though they’ve approached it a few times. The same thing is true of Rutgers, a perpetual fountain of sadness that had its worst percentile performance (7) when it lost to the Jayhawks in the GAME OF THE CENTURY. The advanced number-crunching isn’t in on TCU’s Saturday disaster yet. The Frogs appear to have gone about things at least a little bit differently than the norm. They averaged about 7 yards per play to about 5 for the Jayhawks. But they did lose the turnover battle 2-0, with the last of those costing them a golden chance to take a late lead. So, this is the lesson: To lose to Kansas, you either need to play an epically horrible game, even by your own standards, or you need to BUTT-FUMBLE THE BALL AWAY TO THEM RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE END ZONE. They will talk about this result in coaching clinics for years.<doc-sep>
Kansas, for whatever reason, has always kind of been a pain in the behind for TCU since it joined the Big 12. Finally, though, those close calls came back to bite the Horned Frogs in the butt. The Jayhawks finally got a win over the Frogs -- their first since 1997 -- on a butt fumble, of all things. It was a back-and-forth game from start to finish and a low-key upset alert in the making all along. But with TCU driving late in the fourth quarter and reaching Kansas' red zone, it looked like it might pull out another close win. However, down 27-24 and facing a first-and-goal at the 9-yard line with just over a minute remaining, running back Darius Anderson piled right into the backside of one of his offensive lineman. The impact caused the ball to jar loose and Kansas recovered. The Jayhawks would go on to win 27-26 after taking a safety to try to run out the clock. It ends a 14-game conference losing streak for Kansas. The fumble is an unfortunate cap on what has been a disastrous week for the TCU program. Following a 52-27 loss to Oklahoma in Week 8, coach Gary Patterson announced that starting quarterback Shawn Robinson was lost for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Then, Patterson kicked star wideout and return man KaVontae Turpin off of the team after it was revealed the senior was arrested twice for assault with bodily injury of a family member. Now, with one month left in the season, TCU finds itself at the absolute bottom of the Big 12 standings. Getting three wins in the next four weeks to become bowl eligible looks like a remarkably tall task. (Additionally, Ohio State can officially no longer call the Frogs a quality win.) Patterson has been the head coach at TCU for nearly two decades. During his tenure the Frogs have enjoyed historically great success, from a Rose Bowl victory to an ascension into the Power Five ranks. Patterson has orchestrated 11 10-win seasons in all. But, like every program, TCU has its down years. Except when TCU falls, I'll be damned if it doesn't seem to fall hard on its ass.