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FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- LaDainian Tomlinson did everything but strike the pose. Needing a big game to influence Heisman Trophy voters, Tomlinson rushed for 243 yards -- his fourth career 200-yard game -- and a pair of touchdowns as 21st-ranked Texas Christian rolled to its seventh straight victory, 41-14 over Northwestern. TCU's winning streak is its longest since also capturing seven straight in 1959. The Horned Frogs (2-0) are also riding a six-game home-winning streak and beat Northwestern (2-1) in the first visit by a Big Ten team to Fort Worth since Purdue's 42-35 triumph in 1969. Tomlinson carried 39 times and even had two scores and 109 yards erased because of penalties. But he lived up to his own hype, and made Northwestern eat its words. In the days leading up to the game, several of the Northwestern players talked about how its defense, which features perhaps the best linebacking corps in the Big Ten Conference, would shut down TCU's star. The Horned Frogs play in the weak Western Athletic Conference and this game, against a Big Ten team on national cable television, would go a long way towards legitimizing the numbers of the 1999 Division I-A rushing leader. Tomlinson said only that he would do his talking on the field, and he backed up that comment. His 23-yard run down the sideline on an option left gave the Horned Frogs (2-0) a commanding 24-7 lead with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter and he dove over the pile for another score late in the fourth after TCU had recovered a fumble on the Northwestern 1-yard line. It is the fourth-best rushing day of Tomlinson's career. He went over the 300-yard barrier twice last year, including an NCAA record 406-yard performance against Texas-El Paso on November 20. Tomlinson carried four times for 45 yards on the game's opening drive, which culminated in Chris Kaylakie's 26-yard field goal. Kaylakie also connected from 24 yards to begin the Horned Frogs' 17-point explosion in the final 5:04. While Tomlinson was eating up yardage on the ground, Casey Printers did the damage on the scoreboard. With TCU down 7-3 early in the second quarter, Printers hit a wide open Tim Maiden down the right sideline for a 53-yard score to give the Horned Frogs the lead for good at 10-7. Five minutes later, Printers dumped the ball off to the left side for Cedric James, who raced up the sideline and dove in the corner of the end zone to complete a 16-yard scoring play. Printers completed 8-of-12 passes for 101 yards with an interception. Tomlinson's 23-yard score with 5:35 to play in the third capped a 10-play, 85-yard march and gave the Horned Frogs complete control. Much of Northwestern's struggles were due to turnovers. Working out of the no-huddle offense, Zak Kustok completed just 12-of-20 passes for 132 yards and was picked off three times, with two of the interceptions leading to 10 points. The Wildcats were also forced to punt on six consecutive pssessions bridging the second and third quarters, a string that was broken when Kustok hit a streaking Teddy Johnson down the middle or the field for a 73-yard TD that brough Northwestern within 24-14 with just over 11 minutes left. After TCU was forced to punt, defensive tackle Stuart Ashley's interception set the stage for Kaylakie's second field goal as the Horned Frogs pulled away.
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