(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Rob Likens wanted to take the guess-work out of things. At halftime, the Arizona State (7-5, 4-5 Pac-12) offensive coordinator wanted to get back to the basics after a first half which featured poor pass-blocking, a few botched snaps and some drops by receivers.
Rob Likens wanted to run the football, and with junior running back Eno Benjamin at his disposal, the ASU offense ran the ball 37 times in the second half of Arizona State’s 24-14 win over Arizona Saturday night in Tempe.
“We came in the second half and we just said, ‘we’re going to take all the guess-work out of it and play big-boy football like we’re capable of doing,’” Likens said. “That’s what we wanted to do, and we did that in the second half.”
After heading into the locker room trailing by a point, the Sun Devils offense – which had accounted for just 146 yards of total offense on 32 plays – made it a point-of-emphasis to run the football against a suspect Wildcats defense.
On the first drive of the second half, the Sun Devils punched the Wildcats in the mouth, running 11 plays – all rushes – for a 75-yard, 5:30 drive punctuated by Benjamin’s six-yard rushing touchdown. Benjamin carried the ball for six of his season-high 34 rushing attempts on the opening scoring drive of the second half, setting a tone for the remainder of the night.
“It was important that we got a drive going and we leaned on Eno a little bit,” head coach Herm Edwards said following the Sun Devils’ third-consecutive Territorial Cup win. “We said we were going to run the ball and that was the intention and we stuck with it.
“We converted some third downs, and that was the whole key so that we could get a flow in our offense. I thought they played better in the second half than in the first half.”
The remainder of the second half for the Sun Devils was more of the same, as when all was said and done, Arizona State had rushed 55 times for 234 yards. Over the final 30 minutes, freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels only attempted two passes during a night which saw him complete 12 of 19 for 104 yards passing.
The 93rd installment of the Territorial Cup wasn’t nearly as competitive as the 92nd version, as the Sun Devils salted away a 21-7 fourth-quarter lead with carry after carry from Benjamin, who surpassed 1,000 yards rushing for the season in the win.
“I understand what this game’s about,” said Benjamin, who ran for a season-high 168 yards and two touchdowns in the win. “There’s a lot of young guys, so I was just trying to fuel that passion so that they understand what this rivalry means.”
With Arizona senior quarterback Khalil Tate taking all the snaps for the Wildcats, defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said the game plan regardless of quarterback was to force Arizona to throw. While Tate used his elusiveness to scramble for multiple third-down conversions – the Inglewood, Calif., native ran 11 times for 78 yards – ASU was still able to force three interceptions.
“The main thing was stopping the run,” senior cornerback Kobe Williams said. “We thought they were going to come in and run the ball on us a lot.
“We didn’t know who was at [quarterback], so we just focused on that, and whoever was there we were going to make them throw the ball and beat us throwing.”
After picking off Justin Herbert in last week’s upset win over Oregon, redshirt junior Jack Jones was able to intercept Tate twice. Sophomore linebacker Merlin Robertson snagged the Sun Devils’ third interception of the game, his first of the year.
The Sun Devils’ win over Arizona (4-8, 2-7 Pac-12) moves their regular-season record to 7-5 for the second year in a row. While Arizona State awaits a bowl assignment on Sunday, Dec. 8, Edwards said the program knows how important the remaining month is for momentum.
“I don’t care about what happened in the past,” Edwards said. “We’re trying to build a program.”
