FORT WORTH - It was a week-long joke leading up to the SMU-TCU game that Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson was the lone coach to give SMU a Top 25 vote in the Coaches Poll. Dykes speculated that was the case, and Patterson didn't refute it.

By the time the Mustangs had scored 78 seconds into the game, that playful joke started to look almost like a prescient prediction. SMU played like a team that's hoping to take over a Top 25 spot for the first time since the 1980s - defeating its D-FW rival, 41-38.

"It's hard to put stuff in context, maybe during the season," head coach Sonny Dykes said after the game. "You don't really allow yourself to do it. ... But, you know, it's gratifying to beat a good football team. When you play against a really good team, and you find a way to win, you do it on the road, it's gratifying."

It wasn't just the opening punch - the 4-yard TD run from Shane Buechele. It was a consistent offensive attack that led the Mustangs to the first Iron Skillet rivalry win for SMU since 2011, and just the second since 2005.

Against a TCU team that held opponents to an average of 209 yards per game this season, SMU had 137 yards after just two drives, and had 406 total yards when it was all said and done.

"It feels really good, they're a tough team," said QB Shane Buechele, who had two dreadful games against TCU as the quarterback at Texas. "And my freshman year. My sophomore year, they were really good on defense too. They're still good on defense. ... But it was important for us to go get the win."

On the first series of the game, SMU had a double reverse play that included a pitch back to Buechele, who then threw a 46-yard strike to Kylen Granson. That set up first-and-goal, and the eventual run from Buechele.

Only minutes later, after recovering the first of three first-half TCU fumbles, Xavier Jones scored a one-yard TD. Remaining aggressive, the Mustangs then went for the two-point conversion.

"We got outplayed," said TCU head coach Gary Patterson. "We got outcoached. I told them on Sunday what was going to happen. You got to get ready to play."

It was a monumental win. Since the last SMU win in this rivalry, TCU had outscored them 315-121, including a rain-soaked 42-12 win at SMU a year ago. But this year has made quite a bit of difference.

Saturday, SMU was wearing its "Dallas" jerseys. They came in 3-0 for the first time in 35 years and left 4-0 for the first time in 36 years. This year's team was a full year into the Sonny Dykes' system, who by the week looks more and more like a coach that quickly installed full culture shift.

By early in the fourth quarter, many of the TCU fans had dispersed, and the small but noticeable contingent of SMU students stood packed in to the right of the Mustangs' bench.

They were the same fans that the SMU players ran toward to celebrate with just seconds after the final buzzer sounded.

Southern Methodist Mustangs fans celebrate a 41-38 win over TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday, September 21, 2019 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

"I think every single week, we get a little more confident," Dykes said. "Rely on each other a little more, have more belief in each other. It's gratifying to see that. Because it's kind of a young group, and a group that came into the year with some question marks about them. I think for the last couple weeks those guys have really played well."

Buechele was 23-of-34 for 288 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and an interception.

SMU weathered all the momentum shifts and punches thrown their way. After a Buechele interception in the first half, a TCU player literally threw an SMU player's helmet across the field. No official saw. On the next play, Darius Anderson ran for 72 yards.

The Mustangs scored on the next possession.

After TCU cut it to a one-possession game in the third quarter, the Horned Frogs got the ball back and were driving. Deep inside SMU territory, a seemingly-gassed Mustangs defense somehow pulled off a stop on a 4th-and-1 Wildcat play.

The Mustangs got another stop on fourth down to get the win. With TCU having cut the deficit to three points for the first time all day, it got the ball back after a flubbed snap past Buechele's head. Inside Mustangs territory, the defense came up with four huge stops. That was what the win required.

"There is no silver lining," said QB Max Duggan, who was on the field for the final series. "As soon as you become 'silver lining,' then you become average."

And perhaps the most miraculous aspect of the entire win was that it required the Mustangs to kick successfully. A season-long 38-yard field goal for Luke Hogan extended a lead in the first half. And then Russell Roberts' kick ended up being the difference. He iced the game in the fourth quarter with a 27-yarder that put the Mustangs up 10 with 6:37 left.

"Hopefully we're past that," Dykes said of the kicking issues that have cost SMU five extra points and two short field goals this season.

This was the kind of game where kicking issues might have become detrimental. This was the most difficult game, on paper, on SMU's schedule.

This was a game required SMU to be aggressive, and to respond to adversity. It required SMU to do things that, even through a 3-0 start, it hadn't done before. And the result was something unique. An SMU win against a team that it just doesn't beat.

In the final moments, after SMU had to give the ball to TCU after the flubbed snap, the Mustangs, as they'd done all day, found a little extra.

And maybe, that Top 25 ranking won't be a joke next week.

"The last play, all you can think about is, we did it," said linebacker Delano Robinson. "We proved a lot of people wrong. We worked for this. We earned this. It's something that we deserve."