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FACTS & STATS: Site: Cowboys Stadium (80,000) -- Arlington, Texas. Television: ESPN. Home Record: BYU 4-1, TCU 3-1. Away Record: BYU 2-1, TCU 2-1. Neutral Record: BYU 0-0, TCU 0-0. Conference Record: BYU 0-0, TCU 3-0. Series Record: Series is tied, 5-5.

GAME NOTES: Former Mountain West Conference foes take over the spotlight for a Friday night event at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington as the BYU Cougars clash with the TCU Horned Frogs.

BYU, which for the time being is operating as an Independent in the world of college football, has bounced back rather well after consecutive defeats at the hands of nationally-ranked Texas and Utah in September by stringing together five straight victories. Last weekend, the Cougars took a break from playing members of the Football Bowl Subdivision and confronted the Idaho State Bengals, a meeting which turned into an ugly 56-3 romp in Provo.

As for the Horned Frogs, also a team in flux when it comes to conference affiliation now that they've chosen not to join the Big East next year and have instead signed on to represent the Big 12 Conference, they too were involved in a one-sided affair as they torched the lowly New Mexico Lobos in a 69-0 final at home. The scoring burst was the most ever for TCU, exceeding the 68 points tallied against Austin College on the same date back in 1932. Now a perfect 3-0 in MWC play and leading in the conference standings, TCU's 69- point margin of victory was the second-highest in MWC history. The Frogs have now notched at least one shutout in each of the last three years, with head coach Gary Patterson having been at the helm for a total of nine such outings over his 11 seasons in Fort Worth.

Last season TCU, which has won a record 20 straight MWC contests, completely controlled the action against the Cougars, claiming a 31-3 victory in order to tie the all-time series at five games apiece. However, working in favor of BYU this time around is the fact that when the team opened Cowboys Stadium back in 2009 they did so with a 14-13 win over third-ranked Oklahoma. The Cougars are 24-20-1 all-time in neutral-site affairs and 5-2 under the direction of head coach Bronco Mendenhall.

BYU scored at least one touchdown in every quarter last week as the team demolished the Bengals. Back in as the starter at quarterback, Riley Nelson converted 11-of-17 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns, two of those scoring strikes going to Cody Hoffman who recorded five catches for 71 yards in the onslaught. With balanced production coming from all areas, BYU generated 290 yards and four TDs on the ground, but no one had more than 66 yards or one score in the running game. Despite the huge effort running the ball last week, the Cougars are still averaging just 158.5 ypg on the ground and have just nine rushing scores, four of those coming against the Bengals. Nelson could be the turning point for the group, seeing as how he has 11 TDs and just three INTs thus far, but he will certainly be tested by a TCU defense that likes to disrupt plays as early as possible.

While the BYU offense was tearing up Idaho State in a severe mismatch, the defense also contributed thanks to a 30-yard interception return for a touchdown by Daniel Sorensen in the third quarter. The run defense for the Cougars also limited the visitors to a total of just 20 net yards on 19 attempts, but of course there came a time when the Bengals simply abandoned the run just so they could desperately try to keep up with the hosts. Since permitting a staggering 284 yards on the ground to Utah State in a narrow three-point win late in September, the Cougars have gathered themselves and clamped down at the line of scrimmage, permitting a combined 149 yards rushing in the last three games. Now, that's not to say that a team like TCU, which is known for a powerful running attack, can't carve up BYU in the trenches, but at least the Cougars can be pleased with their development in recent weeks if nothing else.

The offensive effort by the Horned Frogs last weekend was simply off the charts, the team scoring on all six red-zone chances in the first half and producing a season-high 515 yards of total offense. Granted, TCU has to remember that New Mexico is tied for the longest losing streak in the nation right now and fell to Oregon in the 2010 season opener by a score of 72-0, so really the effort should be taken with a grain of salt right now. Nine different players scored a TD for the Frogs, a single-game school record, while quarterback Casey Pachall tossed scoring strikes to Logan Brock and Skye Dawson. Pachall, who has been finding his way around as the replacement for four-year starter Andy Dalton who is now in the NFL, has 17 TDs against just four INTs to this point in the campaign, so he seems to be developing just fine. With three players having rushed for more than 340 yards through seven games, it is not always easy for defenses to focus on just one back coming out of the backfield, a challenge the Cougars will have to face this week.

The defense for the Horned Frogs was incredible last weekend, the group holding New Mexico to a mere 85 yards of total offense which was the lowest total by a TCU opponent since the team limited San Diego State to the same number of yards in 2008. The 21 yards through the air by the Lobos was easily the lowest total this entire season given up by TCU, the squad now ranked fifth in the conference and 58th nationally with 223.6 ypg allowed. Deryck Gildon gained some attention in the third quarter for the Frogs with a blocked punt, the first since 2009 for the program, and from there Antonio Graves grabbed some headlines of his own as he returned it for a touchdown. It is rather remarkable how well the defense has transformed in recent weeks for the Frogs, especially since the team is doing it without preseason All-America Tanner Brock who has been lost for the season due to injury. Obviously Tank Carder is still around, but he too has fallen short of expectations. Picking up for those two is Stansly Maponga who is first on the team with five sacks and four forced fumbles over the course of seven games.

Both of these teams are coming off games that should have been and were complete blowouts, which makes it somewhat difficult to assess their true abilities heading into this week. Nevertheless, there's a lot of pride on the behalf of the Horned Frogs playing in their backyard, so expect Patterson to have his guys ready for a tough fight.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: TCU 38, BYU 27