STANFORD, Calif. — Josh Hoover threw for 353 yards and the go-ahead touchdown with 3:13 left to lead TCU to a 34-27 victory over Stanford in the season opener for both teams on Friday night.

“We talked a lot about being mentally tough,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “I thought we were. We went at it and the guys never batted an eyelid. When we needed to make stops on defense, we made stops. When we needed to score touchdowns on offense at the end, we scored touchdowns.”

After Stanford (0-1) took the lead midway through the fourth quarter on a missed field goal by the Horned Frogs (1-0), Hoover mounted an efficient 74-yard drive to give TCU the victory.

He completed all six passes for 67 yards, capping it off with a 4-yard TD to Jack Bech that gave the Horned Frogs a 27-24 lead they never relinquished. Hoover also threw a TD pass on the game’s opening drive and scored on a 1-yard sneak in the third quarter.

“Those are the moments I love,” Hoover said of the late-game drive. “In my whole life, I’ve felt like I’m a guy who lives for those situations. I think we learned a lot from the situations we had last year, and we’ve been working on them all season. Tonight, you saw what happened. We went out there and scored when we had to.”

Cam Cook sealed the game with a 7-yard touchdown run with 1:51 left to play.

It all led to a 10th straight home loss for the Cardinals, who are still looking for their first win at Stanford Stadium under second-year coach Troy Taylor after finishing 0-7 last season.

“We just didn’t finish it,” Taylor said. “I thought we did a good job of being resilient. … It just wasn’t enough plays to come away with the win.”

Stanford had taken the lead on Justin Lamson’s 1-yard run with 6:57 to play, but faltered late. The Cardinal allowed the TD drive and then Ashton Daniels threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-16 from their own 19 with 2:14 to play.

Daniels threw for 163 yards and one TD to go along with 89 yards on the ground. His backup, Lamson, who replaced Daniels in some short-yard situations, had a touchdown pass to go along with his TD run.

THE PICKUP

TCU: The Horned Frogs overcame a slew of mistakes to come away with the win. They had 100 yards in penalties, multiple dropped passes, two turnovers and a missed field goal. They’ll need to clean up the mess if they want to improve on last season’s 5-7 record and return to their 2022 form when they went to the national title game.

“We made some crucial, crucial mistakes that normally defeat you,” Dykes said. “So we were lucky to win.”

Stanford: The Cardinal haven’t won at home since beating Arizona State 15-14 on Oct. 22, 2022, under former coach David Shaw. They started fast with a TD on the opening drive, helped by three 15-yard penalties by TCU, and scored another TD on a short drive after a fumble. But they couldn’t mount a consistent offense and were stopped twice on fourth-down attempts in their own territory in the fourth quarter.

NEXT

TCU: Hosts Long Island University on Saturday.

Stanford: Hosts Cal Poly on Saturday.

——

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football. Sign up for AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25