Sonny Dykes breaks down rough first half against Georgia, blames uncharacteristic mistakes

After falling behind Georgia 38-7 in the first half of the national championship, TCU coach Sonny Dykes pointed out mistakes they made early. The Horned Frogs responded to an early lead built by Georgia with a Max Duggan rushing touchdown that left the score 10-7 early on — before Georgia proceeded to run up the score in a big way before halftime.

The Bulldogs rattled off 28 unanswered points to close the half, and were set to receive the ball first in the second half as well.

Sonny Dykes on trailing Georgia at the half

Before the teams reached the locker room for the halftime break, ESPN’s broadcast team caught up with Dykes and asked the coach a simple, yet incredibly tough question following their first-half performance: How would TCU find their way back into the game in the second half?

“We had things go about as bad as they can go in the first half,” admitted Dykes. “Exactly what we talked about, turned the ball over three times, gave up a bunch of big plays… we just gotta get settled in. It seemed like a little bit early maybe our guys were a little bit wide-eyed. We just gotta settle in and play football, we’re making uncharacteristic mistakes and [if] we get some momentum in the second half maybe we get back in this game.”

Dykes, Duggan and the Horned Frogs had their work cut out for them as they rallied for the second half, trailing the defending national champions by 31 at the break. The Bulldogs managed to outgain TCU 371 yards to 121 yards of total offense in the first half, with the rushing game being one of the biggest concerns on both sides of the ball for TCU. The Horned Frogs were held to just 24 yards rushing in the half, compared to 148 by Georgia.