(Photo: Haley Spracale/WCSN)
If Arizona State Football head coach Herm Edwards prepped his team in practice for a visit to Provo, Utah, all of it was seemingly thrown out the window immediately against No. 23 ranked BYU on Saturday night.
ASU redshirt junior WR Geordon Porter ran out the opening kickoff from well inside his own end zone and the ball popped loose out of his hands as he was being tackled at the 12-yard line. Two plays later and 30 seconds into the game, BYU punched in a one-yard score with a carry from sophomore running back Tyler Allgeier. The white-out Cougar crowd of over 60,000 was already electrified, and the No. 19 ranked Sun Devils were on their heels from the jump, down 7-0 in a hostile environment.
In ASU’s first road game with fans since Dec. 31, 2019, BYU’s home-field advantage set the tone for what was arguably one of the wildest, and perhaps most disappointing, nights of the Edwards era.
Whether it be miscalculated snaps, false starts or turnovers, the Sun Devils’ feet might have been bleeding dark red by the number of times they kicked themselves on Saturday night. Sixteen penalties in the game was perhaps the main contributor in ASU’s 27-17 fall to BYU.
While the Sun Devils were able to get their sloppiness under control last week against UNLV, they returned to their Week 1 habits – and almost impossibly – reached a new level of them. ASU had more flags thrown against it than ever before in the Edwards era and hadn’t been penalized as heavily in a single game since 2006. Saturday’s flag total was also two shy of the school record set in 1992.
As a result, the Sun Devils now have 36 penalties against them through three games. Junior quarterback Jayden Daniels chalked up much of ASU’s woes on Saturday night to the BYU crowd.
“We haven’t played in a hostile environment like this since Michigan State (September 2019),” Daniels said. “Little stuff [like] not being able to hear the count. We tried to use a silent count. Their crowd played a big factor in this game.”
Offensive coordinator Zak Hill added: “We got to be able to handle that adversity, [and] be used to a bigger crowd like this and obviously learn from it. … We can’t freak out in those situations.”
The struggles with the snap count resulted in eight false start penalties, and ASU’s perhaps most maddening drive consisted of six plays for nine yards that lasted for nearly five minutes. It featured two separate sequences of consecutive false start calls.
Despite the obstacles, Daniels managed to have a much-improved passing night compared to his first two games of 2021. Notwithstanding his two interceptions, the 6-foot-3 junior completed 21 of 29 passes for 265 yards – the most he has thrown for this season – while looking more aggressive with deep-ball and tight-window accuracy.
“BYU was dropping eight, giving me time,” Daniels said. “[They were] spying me and stuff like that, so being able to work those windows, be able to hit those throws and connect with the receivers, they had a good day. But at the end of the day, we’re not satisfied.”
In the second quarter, ASU’s offense could muster only 63 yards compared to BYU’s 191, resulting in the Cougars having control of the game 21-7 at halftime. The Sun Devils’ defense was burned by BYU’s use of misdirection and trick plays, which were converted into two touchdown passes by sophomore quarterback Jaren Hall.
Yet the momentum swung once again in the third quarter courtesy of redshirt freshman running back Daniyel Ngata, who played only one snap in the first half. Ngata delivered a spark with four straight rushes totaling 51 yards on ASU’s opening 2nd half drive, including a 10-yard rushing touchdown to end it. He finished with eight carries for 81 yards to lead ASU’s backfield, which was without sophomore DeaMonte Trayanum for a second straight week due to a leg injury.
The wildest moment of the night came at the end of the third quarter with ASU down 21-17. Hall escaped a sack but threw an errant interception, which was caught by senior linebacker Merlin Robertson. Robertson was on his way to a pick-six before Allgeier came out of nowhere and made an athletic play to jump over Robertson and punch the ball loose. The Cougars recovered, and not only put ASU out of immediate scoring range, but flipped the gain of the turnover.
Edwards said that he heard the rumors swirling online that Robertson stepped out of bounds before fumbling, but shook it off as “one play” that “doesn’t do us any good now.” The referees did not review the play despite the claims.
ASU’s penalty-riddled drive of five minutes in the fourth quarter was its last chance to catch the Cougars, who followed that with a grueling, 12-play touchdown drive of over five minutes to seal the win.
In addition to Ngata, senior running back Rachaad White carried the load with 71 yards rushing and a touchdown to go along with 65 yards receiving to lead all pass-catchers. After three games, no ASU wide receiver has caught more than 60 yards worth of passes.
While Daniels spoke on the factor of the crowd, Edwards chose not to label that as the main excuse but rather the continued careless level of play.
“Penalties come back to haunt us,” Edwards said. “This has kind of been a recurring deal with us. I just think these guys got to realize that if you’re going to play football like that, it’s going to be very difficult to win. … I’ve never been involved with a team that’s penalized this many times, and obviously turning the ball over.”
ASU will now head back to Tempe and begin Pac-12 Conference play against Colorado, who was blown out 30-0 against Minnesota on Saturday.
A successful season could still be on the horizon for ASU despite Saturday’s perhaps embarrassing showing. Edwards hopes his squad can learn from facing a tough road opponent and clean up the lack of discipline. It will likely be a necessity now more than ever with conference play in the fold.
“Hopefully this is a lesson hard-learned,” Edwards said. “They’ll look at this and go, “We can’t keep doing this. We just cannot keep self-destructing like this.’”
