ASU Football: Poor first quarter spoils Yellen’s debut

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

Joey Yellen was up to the task. Notified he would get the first action of his college career on Tuesday barring a miracle with Jayden Daniels’ injured left leg, the true freshman from Mission Viejo, Calif., operated the Sun Devils’ offense at a high level.

“Because we have a freshman quarterback in Jayden, Joey doesn’t get any reps in practice. Zero. None,” offensive coordinator Rob Likens said. “For him to come in and do what he did, that may be one of the best true freshman performances… considering all of the circumstances.”

And yet, Arizona State (5-4, 2-4 Pac-12) almost lost Yellen before things even began. Following incompletions on the first two plays of the opening drive, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound freshman was sacked on third down, injuring his shoulder.

“He bruised his shoulder really bad, couldn’t hardly throw the football and then just toughed it out the rest of the game,” Likens said. “Unbelievable performance. I can’t say enough about it. It’s pretty amazing.”

“We hit home runs with those three quarterbacks. I’m just telling you, they’re so special.”

Yellen completed 28 of 44 passes for 292 yards and four touchdowns. Yellen’s 292 passing yards broke the ASU record for most passing yards in the first game of a career, 284, set by Jayden Daniels earlier this year.

“We were all nervous at first because Joey was not taking that many reps in practice,” said junior wide receiver Frank Darby, who had 86 yards receiving and two touchdowns in the loss. “Joey came out and did an outstanding job in my opinion. Everybody ate, he was feeding everybody.”

Sure, there were mistakes. Yellen failed to hold the safety off once, allowing USC’s Isaia Pola-Mao to intercept a deep-ball in the first half. In the fourth quarter, an underthrown wheel route which went for an interception was negated by a roughing the passer penalty.

“A couple throws I just wanna have back for sure,” Yellen said, “but I felt we had a good plan going into this and we executed it for the most part.”

But the story for the Sun Devils remained the same as it has all year. The Sun Devils have shown all year long – win or lose – an innate inability to play all four quarters, this time costing them in a 31-26 defeat to USC (6-4, 5-2 Pac-12). Against the Trojans, a first quarter meltdown defensively allowed Trojan freshman quarterback and Phoenix native, Kedon Slovis, to complete 15 of 17 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns in the first 15 minutes of play.

“We told them all week long, we can’t give up big play drives,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said.

Trailing 21-7, ASU had USC backed up in its own territory late in the first quarter. Then, Slovis found Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 95-yard touchdown deep down the seam of the ASU defense.

“A 95-yard touchdown in Cover 2 should be impossible,” Gonzales said. “Between [Willie Harts], Aashari [Crosswell] and Evan [Fields], that play has to get knocked on the ground and get them to punt.”

Through nine games of the 2019 Sun Devil season, Arizona State has struggled to consistently play four good quarters of football. Edwards said ASU is not good enough to overcome the amount of mistakes they continue to make.

“Right now, we are not a very good football team,” said Edwards, whose team allowed an Edward-era worst 547 total yards. “We are a team that plays against us and we’ve gotta stop doing that.

“I told them this.‘Once we decide to stop beating ourselves, we’ll win a football game.’”

As Arizona State prepares for a trip to Corvallis next week to take on Oregon State, Likens said he would be “surprised” if Daniels doesn’t return. But whether it’s Daniels or Yellen playing quarterback for the Sun Devils, a complete game of football will be needed for ASU to win another game and become bowl-eligible.

“Two plays are the difference in this game and it’s too bad because Joey played his tail off in that situation,” Gonzales said.

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