(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
STANFORD, Calif. — Arizona State has had plenty of practice facing top running backs this year. Between Larry Rose, Rashaad Penny and Royce Freeman, the Sun Devils’ first half schedule has been stacked with talented tail backs.
Stanford’s Bryce Love looked better than all of them on Saturday, scoring 3 touchdowns and racing for 301 yards — a school record — to lead the Cardinal (3-2, 2-1 in Pac-12) to a 34-24 win over ASU (2-3, 1-1 in Pac-12).
“I’m definitely not the biggest guy out there, for sure. And it’s easy to overlook,” Love said. “But I take pride in being able to go out there and make those type of plays and being able to pick up the yards.”
It didn’t take long for Love to hit top gear, as he took his second touch of the game for a 61-yard touchdown. The shifty speedster burst through a hole opened up by his offensive line, broke a tackle and sped past the rest of the Sun Devils defense en route to the end zone.
It was the first of three long touchdown runs for Love, who scored from distances of 43 and 59 yards in addition to his 61-yard bomb. All of the scores followed the same script: room to run through the line, a missed Sun Devils tackle and too much speed for ASU’s defense to recover.
“The guy is really hard to tackle,” ASU coach Todd Graham said. “Every play we had someone there unblocked and couldn’t tackle him.”
Love’s production wasn’t exclusive to big plays either. With Stanford protecting a 7-point lead in the fourth quarter, he picked up 63 tough yards to help the Cardinal bleed more than 5 minutes off the clock on an 11-play scoring drive.
“That’s one of the big things I try to work on, is try to be physical between tackles and make sure that every run I have is efficient,” Love said.
Stanford kicked a field goal to extend the lead to ten, and left less than two minutes for ASU’s offense to mount an unsuccessful comeback.
“It’s the 4-yard run that he makes an 11-yard run, it’s the one that could be three yards or hit in the backfield that ends up being nine yards,” Stanford coach David Shaw said of what makes Love so dynamic. “That’s the hidden yardage that great backs give you. Once again, for not being the biggest guy he runs physical. He runs tough. He breaks tackles. He gets through people. If he gets in clear he’s gone.”
ASU’s defense had been better in recent games limiting opposing running backs, most notably holding Oregon’s Freeman under 100 yards in last week’s upset win over the Ducks. But old habits hindered the Sun Devils again in Palo Alto, giving up too many yards on the ground (Stanford had 328 as a team) and too many 3rd down conversion (Stanford converted 5-of-11).
While ASU’s offense had another productive day statistically — the group gained 409 total yards — quarterback Manny Wilkins tossed his first two interceptions of the season, mistakes the unit couldn’t overcome when trying to keep pace with the Love-inspired Stanford attack.
“My goal has been to do nothing but own the football this year, and I did a poor job of that tonight,” Wilkins said. “I have got to give us a better chance to win football games. I take full accountability for that.”
The Sun Devils rush attack had a good game of its own. It accounted for a season-best 214 yards, including 60-yard performances from Richard (who also had two touchdowns), Kalen Ballage and receiver Kyle Williams.
Yet, passing the ball was an unexpected struggle for Wilkins and company. The redshirt junior quarterback threw for a season-low 181 yards in addition to his two picks, all while again dealing with constant pressure behind a beleaguered offensive line.
Graham pointed to surrendered sacks and the two Sun Devil turnovers as setbacks that hurt his otherwise effective offense.
“You have got to score more than 24 points to win in the Pac-12,” he said. “We should have. We just didn’t execute.”
Even a great game from ASU’s offense might not have been enough to overcome the dominant Love. Individually, the junior became just the third player since 2004 to have 1,000 yards rushing by the season’s fifth game, according to ESPN. His feasting of ASU’s defense is at the forefront of those impressive performances.
While Love carried the Cardinal to victory, he also relegated ASU back into an aura of uncertainty. Entering their bye week, the Sun Devils will be headed back to the drawing board, forced to figure out a new way to stop opposing rushers. What they tried to do on Saturday didn’t work.
“They didn’t do anything special,” ASU defensive lineman Tashon Smallwood said. “Not to take anything from him; he is a great back, he runs hard. But we didn’t execute. We came in with a game plan, there some plays we didn’t fit correctly. But he runs hard, and he did his thing.”
Five games in, and Graham and his staff are still facing problems that have plagued the team most of the year. Stanford exploited them on Saturday, and it cost ASU its first conference loss of the season.
