Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.
The Horned Frogs from Texas Christian University were both Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium as they came away with a 39-38 double-overtime win over No. 23 West Virginia.
"Sometimes you've just got to be lucky," veteran TCU head coach Gary Patterson said following the one-point victory. "There are times when you've got to take the game. I asked my guys (offensive coaches) if they had a play that would work.
"They said they had two good plays, so we decided not to kick."
The decision turned out to be a good one when junior Josh Boyce made a sliding catch of a Trevone Boykin pass on the game-winning two-point conversion.
"It's nice to finally get one of those on our side," continued the coach. "We got beat by Texas Tech two weeks ago on a play like that."
The victory keeps TCU in the race for at least the number two spot in the Big 12 while West Virginia's dream of a league championship, and possible national title, in its first season in the conference will now be relegated to playing the role of the spoiler as it works towards becoming bowl eligible with four games remaining.
Making this setback even harder to stomach, however, was the way in which the Mountaineers suffered their third loss of the season after opening with five straight wins and climbing to No. 5 in the national polls.
Second-year head coach Dana Holgorsen has said all along that the problem with WVU's defense isn't the scheme. After watching the unit perform for the past three ball games, I would have to agree.
So if it isn't the scheme, it must be the players in the scheme.
Time and time again Saturday, the unit had a chance to pin the visitors deep in their own territory or force them into a three-and-out and time and time again, the secondary allowed big play after big play to keep the TCU offense on the field and Geno Smith and WVU's offense on the sideline.
TCU's Boykin, only a freshman, continued to bounce back following plays by the Mountaineers' defense to find his receivers or scramble for a first down or big play.
The most damaging was a 94-yard touchdown to Boyce on a play where he scrambled away from danger inside the TCU 5 and then found the six-foot Boyce wide open behind the Mountaineer secondary for the game-tying touchdown with 39 seconds showing on the clock.
Then following a 25-yard Smith to Stedman Bailey touchdown pass to open the second extra period, the defensive backfield got caught over-reacting to the Horned Frogs' reverse with the end result being a 25-yard pass from Brandon Carter, his only attempt of the game, to Corey Fuller to set up the game-winning two-point try.
Championship quality teams don't make those kind of mistakes time and time again. And thanks to losses to Texas Tech, Kansas State and, now TCU, this will not be a championship team at WVU.
What Holgorsen and his staff must do now is get their players to buy into playing the role of spoiler with the hopes that WVU can pull out at least one win in its final four contests.
If they are unable to accomplish that goal, then this team, and its fans, will be watching the bowl season from the comforts of their couches - if they have not been burned.
