BYU football: Y. not intimidated by powerful TCU

FORT WORTH — In the past two meetings with TCU, BYU scored a total of 14 points.

And that was with an experienced, high-powered Cougar offense that featured numerous weapons.

Going into today's showdown (2 p.m., Versus) at Amon G. Carter Stadium, BYU — led by true freshman quarterback Jake Heaps — is averaging a feeble 16.7 points per game. The Cougars have scored just 11 touchdowns all season.

The Horned Frogs are, once again, ranked No. 1 in total defense, and No. 2 in scoring defense, allowing a mere 10.3 points per outing. TCU is coming off back-to-back shutouts of Colorado State and Wyoming. The Frogs have surrendered just eight touchdowns all season.

No wonder the Cougars are about 30-point underdogs against No. 4 TCU.

"They're very talented across the board. They're definitely very assignment-sound and very well-coached," Heaps said of the Frogs' defense. "They do some great things. But there's also some things that, you know, it's not like they're superhuman. It's not like they don't make mistakes. They're just like any one of us out here on this team.

"We're not intimidated. We're really excited about this game and we're excited about the opportunity to play them."

At times, TCU has looked superhuman against BYU. The 2008 and 2009 games followed a similar pattern — the Cougars fell behind early. TCU led at halftime, 23-9, in '08. And a year ago in Provo, it jumped to a 21-0 advantage until BYU scored with a little less than two minutes remaining in the first half.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall is hoping his offense can be more effective this time around against the mighty Frog "D."

"They've done a really nice job of getting pressure on our quarterback with only four players," he said. "That's one of the reasons, I think, they've had such success. Then that puts us in long yardage (situations). They play their safeties very aggressively. We've actually run the ball fairly effectively, but we haven't able to get big plays to generate points. So our hope is to do better."

One of the keys against TCU, Heaps said, is to establish the run game as the Cougars did in last week's win over San Diego State, rushing 62 times for 271 yards. Because of its ability to run, BYU's offense held the ball for 45 minutes, compared to only 15 minutes for the Aztecs. Heaps added that BYU needs to find a way to generate "one or two" big plays and avoid turnovers.