ASU Football: Running game, momentum stall as ASU falls to SDSU

(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)

The Arizona State offense stayed out on what would become a decisive fourth-and-one attempt from before halftime, leading 14-7.

ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins dropped back to throw, but couldn’t find an open receiver or any room to run. He was sacked, and ASU turned the ball and momentum over to San Diego State.

“I would never question a coach’s decision,” Wilkins said. “That’s not my job.”

“Just figured they’re not going to go 90 yards on us,” ASU coach Herm Edwards said of the decision to go for it. “They did go 90 yards on us.”

From then on, it was all San Diego State. The Aztecs took the momentum and drove 89 yards to tie the game at 14 just before halftime.

ASU came out and couldn’t get any sort of rhythm, totaling zero first downs in the quarter. That could be tacked up to the rushing game, which was borderline nonexistent. The Sun Devils attempted 24 rushes, gaining only 36 yards throughout the whole game.

“We rushed the football absolutely terribly,” Wilkins said. “You can’t win football games like that.”

Looking back at ASU’s upset over Michigan State, the team rushed 29 times for just 44 yards. That game, however, Wilkins set a career high with 380 passing yards.

Wilkins had another solid performance this week, tallying 341 passing yards, but the inactivity of ASU in the third quarter offensively may have cost them the game.

On the other side, it seemed like the Aztecs didn’t even need the arm of fill-in quarterback Ryan Agnew. SDSU accumulated a whopping 311 yards on the ground, enough to keep the clock running in their favor for the majority of the second half.

“Going into this game they knew what they wanted to do,” Edwards said. “They wanted to run the football and they did.”

Despite trailing most of the second half, Arizona State fought back hard, nearly completing a miraculous comeback that fell short on a targeting call that changed the course of the final minute.

ASU wide receiver Frank Darby appeared to have caught a deep ball before getting leveled by SDSU safety Trenton Thompson, a play that drew a targeting flag. During the course of the replay review, the officials determined Darby lost control of the ball and the pass was ruled incomplete.

With that, ASU’s comeback attempt fell short and the Sun Devils lost their first road game of the season by a score of 28-21. The opposition won’t be any easier next week, as the Sun Devils take on No. 10 Washington and another dangerous running back in Myles Gaskin.