Max Duggan overcame a shaky start. Quentin Johnston and Zach Evans set career marks in their young careers. And the defense made a pivotal stand to prevent a game-tying two-point conversion.

All of it culminated in TCU rallying from a halftime deficit and hanging on for a 34-32 victory over Cal on Saturday afternoon at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

TCU fans are all too familiar with coach Gary Patterson’s ‘win by one’ phrase. How about, ‘Win by two?’

“We’ll take it,” Patterson said. “It’s hard to be 2-0.”

TCU is off to a 2-0 start for the 13th time under Patterson, who is also now 8-0 against Pac-12 teams in his career.

Duggan finished the game 17 of 31 passing for 234 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Johnston caught two of those TD passes, his first game with multiple scores. And Evans finished with a career-high 183 yards rushing on 22 carries, highlighted by a 51-yard TD run to end the first half.

“There’s a lot to like about us,” Duggan said. “We’re moving the ball offensively. Our defense is stout. We’ve got a lot of talented guys. It’s up to us how far we want to go.”

The defense delivered in a big way, too, when Cal had a chance to tie it with a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter. TCU stopped Cal running back Damien Moore short of the goal line to preserve its lead.

The Frogs’ offense managed to run out the clock on the next series to close it out.

This game looked nothing like the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl between these two schools that set a bowl-record with nine interceptions.

This game had only one interception — a pick-six thrown by Duggan in the first half — but similar drama to the buzzer.

TCU trailed 19-14 at halftime but took its first lead on the opening drive of the second half. The Frogs had a 15-play, 75-yard drive capped with an 18-yard TD pass from Duggan to Johnston.

But Cal regained a 26-21 lead with an 80-yard TD drive early in the fourth quarter. The Bears converted a third-and-13 from the Frogs 27 on a scramble by QB Chase Garbers to keep the drive alive and scored on a 12-yard run up the middle by Moore.

That lead was short-lived. TCU needed just four plays to answer and take a 27-26 lead, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a 45-yard pass from Duggan to Johnston. Johnston made a number of guys miss on his way to the end zone.

“It was all in the spur of the moment,” Johnston said. “I was there to make it. My O-line, they all played a big part in that too.”

Johnston went on to say he prides himself on yards after the catch: “I try to prove I can do more.”

The victory turned a rough start by the Frogs into a footnote. They punted on their first three offensive drives and were trailing 6-0 by the end of the first quarter after Cal connected on a 54-yard pass by Garbers to Trevon Clark.

Things took another turn for the worse early in the second quarter. The Frogs faced a third-and-16 from their own 5 and Duggan threw what turned into a pick-six into the hands of Cal safety Daniel Scott.

That gave the Bears an early 12-0 lead. But the Frogs pulled to within 19-14 by halftime, courtesy of the 51-yard TD run by Evans with 11 seconds left.

TCU enters a bye week before playing host to SMU on Sept. 25.

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