Big 12 Football: Each team’s trap and peak games in 2021

TCU

Trap Game: California

The team that benefited from the next year was the California Golden Bears. Cali returned ten “Super Seniors” and are coming off an awkward season with just four games.

Through the four games, California was among the worst teams in the country in total offense. However, that is such a small sample size. The two faced off a few seasons ago in the 2019 Cheez-It Bowl, where TCU survived an ugly 10-7 win in overtime.

Offensively, TCU’s strength is the run game, behind two fantastic sophomores in Zach Evans and Darwin Barlow. Max Duggan is a fine quarterback, but the receiving core was not the most explosive last season, outside of freshman phenom Quentin Johnson.

Defensively, California has a similar focus as TCU, with elite defensive back play and an All-Pac 12 linebacker in Kuony Deng. Each team will get a game prior to this one, but won’t be a surprise if California brings a feisty contest, a week before TCU’s rivalry games with SMU, Texas and Texas Tech.

Peak Game: at. Iowa State

One of the biggest “what if’s” from last season from the Horned Frogs was their season opening loss to Iowa State, 37-34. It is also more apparent, because Duggan did not play the first half, as it was Matthew Downing leading the Horned Frogs.

Offense was not limited in this game, with big plays from Taye Barber and the beforementioned Johnson.

With the potential of making the Big 12 Championship game, Iowa State has a lot to play for. TCU gets the Cyclones in the final game of the season and could most certainly be a trap game for the Cyclones.

Especially how both teams played one another last season, where each team’s focus was not to be seen.

TCU has a good shot of ending it’s regular season on a high note and should be playing for a solid bowl game in 2021.