Gaines out for the year?

[maximilian]

Total injuries? Sure. But we seem to almost always lose our top guys.

It seems as if we're pretty good at knocking out guys against us in game.

Like Oregon did against us, losing Vernon Adams and (more importantly) their C in the first half. Or Stanford losing their best safety against us. Or Bosa not playing the 2nd half and now ending his college career. Oklahoma State last year lost several OL against us and couldn't recover against our front 4.

No surprise that when TCU was at its healthiest (2014), they challenged for a natty title.

 

[LVH]

Our defense has never been plug and play especially in the secondary

Lots of good athletes have never seen the field because they couldn't grasp the defense

I think Malcolm William's was the most athletic secondary player that we have ever had but he only played special teams because he couldn't nail down the defense

 

[CountryFrog]

I think Malcolm William's was the most athletic secondary player that we have ever had but he only played special teams because he couldn't nail down the defense

You must work for the Patriots

 

[CountryFrog]

How does that year’s laughably bad luck compare to this year’s?

2015 was infinitely worse. Just about all of our struggles could be attributed to the ridiculous number of injuries. I remember even hearing national college football people comment on the insane number of injuries that TCU had to deal with that season.

This year we have plenty of things to blame for our struggles.

 

[Bob]

Fish oil and mexican sandals.

 

[Mean Purple]

2015 was infinitely worse. Just about all of our struggles could be attributed to the ridiculous number of injuries. I remember even hearing national college football people comment on the insane number of injuries that TCU had to deal with that season.

This year we have plenty of things to blame for our struggles.

The amount a freshman played that year was insane.

 

[SuperTFrog]

2015 was infinitely worse. Just about all of our struggles could be attributed to the ridiculous number of injuries. I remember even hearing national college football people comment on the insane number of injuries that TCU had to deal with that season.

This year we have plenty of things to blame for our struggles.

I think we lost 6 starters on defense either before the season or within the first 4 games. And we still won 11 games.

 

[Despite the odds Frog]

When your team is the nail and not the hammer, you will have season ending injuries to your best players because they can't ever take a play off and they are on the field too long.

 

[jake102]

I think we lost 6 starters on defense either before the season or within the first 4 games. And we still won 11 games.

I made a picture in MS Paint that made the rounds on Facebook that season where I crossed off each defensive starter as they got hurt. I believe at one point it was 6 of 11 starters, and at least two of the backups to the starters.

I mean we had a walk-on playing safety

 

[Pharm Frog]

Our defense has never been plug and play especially in the secondary

Lots of good athletes have never seen the field because they couldn't grasp the defense

I think Malcolm William's was the most athletic secondary player that we have ever had but he only played special teams because he couldn't nail down the defense

Correct and this amplifies the impact of injury.

 

[Moose Stuff]

2015 was infinitely worse. Just about all of our struggles could be attributed to the ridiculous number of injuries. I remember even hearing national college football people comment on the insane number of injuries that TCU had to deal with that season.

This year we have plenty of things to blame for our struggles.

Perhaps more injuries but not worse injuries. We lost TB for a game and Doctson late in the year. Other than that the injuries were mostly to replaceable players and almost exclusively on the defense. The offense saved our asses and played as a healthy unit most of the year (certainly for the 9-0 part of it). Ross is totally irreplaceable, Iwuagwu has proven to be irreplaceable, and I feel the same way about Innis. We had no one play close to his abilities while LJ was out either. And while Niko’s talent is not hard to replicate his experience/leadership/grasp of the defense is not at all.

 

[CountryFrog]

Perhaps more injuries but not worse injuries. We lost TB for a game and Doctson late in the year. Other than that the injuries were mostly to replaceable players and almost exclusively on the defense. The offense saved our asses and played as a healthy unit most of the year (certainly for the 9-0 part of it). Ross is totally irreplaceable, Iwuagwu has proven to be irreplaceable, and I feel the same way about Innis. We had no one play close to his abilities while LJ was out either. And while Niko’s talent is not hard to replicate his experience/leadership/grasp of the defense is not at all.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I just think the big difference for me is that almost all of our 2015 struggles (though they didn't result in many losses) were attributable to bad luck with injuries. The loss to OU was pretty much only because of injuries. This year we've created plenty of our own bad luck with turnovers and various other mistakes that have had little to nothing to do with injuries.

I also think you're forgetting some of the offensive injuries in 2015, particularly at receiver. Sure, Doctson didn't get hurt until late, but there were games early in the year where he was the only healthy starter at WR. Listenbee, D Gray, Slanina, Porter all missed time.

 

[AroundWorldFrog]

Some interesting comments from the Blacklock injury thread. The single worst loss we could have suffered on defense.


Agree. Banogu, Collier, and Bethley are an easily above avg trio at the other theee spots. We’ve got Ellis/Broadnax/Cooper to fill in for Ross and solid depth at DE. We’ll be worse without Ross but not as bad as some of you are acting like we will be.

agree and find it interesting that a site that just a short time ago was touting the depth and talent of the d-line as not only among the best in the 12 but possibly the country goes braindead over the loss of one player. yes, he is a big player physically and in the role he can play. this team isn't 1 deep anymore and i think some people are going to be surprised what cooper and ellis bring to the position

People can treat this however they want but I’m gonna stick to the idea that we have legitimate talent at every position on the field, good depth at most of them, and one injury isn’t gonna tank our season.

 

[Planks]

No surprise that when TCU was at its healthiest (2014), they challenged for a natty title.

2014 TCU had to be one of the luckiest football teams of all time from an injury standpoint. While there were some personnel losses before the season (Devonte Fields, Brandon Carter, Ladarius Brown) pretty much our entire two deep made it through the season. BJ Catalon was the only injury loss we had the entire season, and we had good depth behind him (Aaron Green, Kyle Hicks, Trevorris Johnson). Michael Tuau was held out of the Peach Bowl, but Patterson said he could have played if needed had we made the playoffs.

It’s very likely we will never see a TCU team in our lifetimes that is as lucky injury-wise as the 2014 squad. We basically went in to bowl season 100% healthy across the two deep. It just makes it that much more frustrating that we were left out.

 

[CountryFrog]

That's the problem with this year's team I guess. In 2015 we were so good that injuries didn't derail the season. This year we're not good enough to sustain injuries and still win a lot of games.

 

[CountryFrog]

Some interesting comments from the Blacklock injury thread. The single worst loss we could have suffered on defense.


Agree. Banogu, Collier, and Bethley are an easily above avg trio at the other theee spots. We’ve got Ellis/Broadnax/Cooper to fill in for Ross and solid depth at DE. We’ll be worse without Ross but not as bad as some of you are acting like we will be.

agree and find it interesting that a site that just a short time ago was touting the depth and talent of the d-line as not only among the best in the 12 but possibly the country goes braindead over the loss of one player. yes, he is a big player physically and in the role he can play. this team isn't 1 deep anymore and i think some people are going to be surprised what cooper and ellis bring to the position

People can treat this however they want but I’m gonna stick to the idea that we have legitimate talent at every position on the field, good depth at most of them, and one injury isn’t gonna tank our season.

While your point is valid, if we didn't have total implosions on offense in our 3 losses then we're at least 5-1. There's absolutely no way that anyone could've predicted the avalanche of turnovers that we've had offensively. I don't think many people thought we'd be in a position where we'd have to hold people under 20 most weeks to have a chance to win.

And I was one of the people who said that losing Ross was going to be a HUGE deal.

 

[frogs9497]

Lord, we give you Chip Gaines in exchange for Innis.

 

[RollToad]

Lord, we give you Chip Gaines in exchange for Innis.

He’s not interested.

 

[CryptoMiner]

 

[Planks]

I also think you're forgetting some of the offensive injuries in 2015, particularly at receiver. Sure, Doctson didn't get hurt until late, but there were games early in the year where he was the only healthy starter at WR. Listenbee, D Gray, Slanina, Porter all missed time.

Also, Jamelle Naff and Joey Hunt got hurt at year end.

That's the problem with this year's team I guess. In 2015 we were so good that injuries didn't derail the season. This year we're not good enough to sustain injuries and still win a lot of games.

I think some of that may have to do with the nature of offense and defense. Yes 2015 defense was one of the worst of the the Patterson era due to it being a rebuilding year combined with losing 5 starters over the by game three (James McFarland, Sammy Douglas, Mike Freeze, Kenny Illoka, Ranthony Texada).

However, that 2015 offense was amazing. A senior laden Oline (Vaitai, Naff, Hunt, Foltz, Noteboom), Boykin and Doctson in their prime, Aaron Green at RB, and a stud freshman slot receiver in Turpin to top it all off. There were a lot of games where Boykin and Doctson went straight beast mode and carried the team to victory, they were practically unstoppable. SMU, Tech, K State games were won with unbelievable Doctson/Boykin plays. No matter how bad our defense was, those guys were winning games.

Our offense carried the team that year.

The moral of the story is yes defense wins championships, but if you have a great offense and a terrible defense, you can still win a lot of games (2015 squad). But If you have a great defense and a terrible offense, you are going to lose a lot of games (2018 squad). Great offenses are always going to do their thing even if the defense is letting them down. Great defenses on the other can lose motivation and get tired, worn down, and eventually demoralized if their offense can’t do anything.