Jaden Craig passed for 294 yards and two touchdowns and Koron Hayward recorded a career-high three sacks to lead TCU to a 17-6 victory over host Baylor on Saturday night in Big 12 play at Waco, Texas.
Ed Small and Ka’Morreun Pimpton had scoring receptions and the TCU defense limited the Bears to 6-of-22 on third-down conversions while accumulating two takeaways and four sacks.
Jordan Dwyer caught six passes for 150 yards while Small had seven receptions for 91 yards as the Horned Frogs (3-3, 1-2 Big 12) snapped a two-game slide. Craig completed 21 of 36 passes and was intercepted once.
D.J. Lagway was 22-of-53 passing for 256 yards and one interception for Baylor (4-2, 2-1), which had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Gavin Freeman caught seven passes for 76 yards and Louis Brown IV had five grabs for 74 yards.
Both teams struggled to run the ball. TCU produced 33 yards on 30 rushes, while Baylor gained 54 yards on 34 attempts.
The Horned Frogs led by one at the break, then opened the second half with a three-play, 75-yard drive.
Craig connected with Dwyer on a 67-yard pass play on the second snap and followed with an 8-yard touchdown throw to Pimpton to give TCU a 14-6 lead.
The Horned Frogs increased their lead to 11 points when Nate McCashland kicked a 25-yard field goal with 6:01 left in the third quarter.
The Bears reached the TCU 35-yard line midway through the fourth quarter but back-to-back incompletions by Lagway turned the ball over to the Horned Frogs with 7:21 remaining.
Later, Baylor faced fourth-and-29 from the TCU 37 and Lagway’s desperation toss was nowhere near any of his receivers with 1:02 left. The Horned Frogs took over and ran out the clock.
TCU struck first when Craig tossed a 25-yard scoring pass to Small with 6:14 left in the first quarter.
Baylor’s Rhett Armstrong was wide right on a 47-yard field-goal attempt late in the opening period before making boots of 39 and 32 yards in the second quarter.
–Field Level Media
