The Frogs’ defense has been showing new life after their win against Army on Saturday, said head coach Gary Patterson at the Coaches’ Luncheon Tuesday.Patterson and senior offensive tackle Herb Taylor discussed Saturday’s game as well as the upcoming Mountain West Conference match-up against the Wyoming Cowboys.

“The teams that run the ball the best are the teams that score the best in the red zone,” Patterson said. “I think that gave a sense of urgency in our line.”

The sense of urgency played out to the entire defense as the Frogs moved with speed that had been unseen in the past two games, Patterson said.

“I haven’t seen that kind of flying around by our defense since the Baylor and Texas Tech games,” Patterson said.

Along with TCU’s defensive showcase, the offense moved the ball on an 80-yard scoring drive Saturday.

“It put a lot of confidence in the offense that we could move the ball steadily,” Taylor said.

Saturday’s game against the Cowboys is Homecoming, but Patterson said that does not make a difference to his players.

“It doesn’t affect us,” Patterson said. “Homecoming is more for the student body than it is for the football team.” Taylor spoke about the defensive strategy of Wyoming and what TCU’s offensive line will do to combat the Cowboy linebackers.

“As an offensive line, we’ll have to keep our eyes open,” Taylor said. “Against Boise State, they must have blitzed 40 out of 50 plays.”

In addition to keeping the Cowboys defense at bay, the Frogs will try to control the running game Saturday, Taylor said.

“Hopefully against Wyoming, we’ll find a missing piece and put together a really strong running game,” Taylor said.

Wyoming presents a chance for TCU to earn their first conference win of the season.

“If we lose and win the next five games, we would still only be 9-3,” Patterson said. “Would that get us to a bowl game, I don’t know. But our ultimate goal is to win conference.”

Saturday’s game will mark the first time the Frogs have played back-to-back Saturdays since the UC Davis and Texas Tech games Sept. 9 and Sept. 16, respectively.

This consecutive weekend scheduling could play to TCU’s advantage, Patterson said.

“The years we have won, the season has been right straight through,” Patterson said. “Last season, our worst defensive game was after we played Utah on a Thursday night and didn’t play BYU until after the next Saturday.”

Schedules with lots of bye-weeks have caused problems with the Horned Frogs’ rhythm during past seasons.

“In 2001, we started the season on Aug. 25 and didn’t finish until Dec. 7,” Patterson said of the season the Frogs went 6-5. “We had six off-weeks that season.