ASU Football: Sun Devils’ win over Southern Utah comes with clear needs for improvement

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

While a win against Southern Utah might be what appeared in the box score on Thursday night, Arizona State Football head coach Herm Edwards told his team that they played a familiar opponent instead.

“The Sun Devils actually played the Sun Devils tonight,” Edwards said. “It was bad football. It was sloppy football. It was embarrassing football to be quite honest.”

On a night when ASU – a 45.5-point favorite according to FanDuel Sportsbook – scored 41 points, it accounted for more penalty yards (135) than its starting quarterback did passing.

ASU’s level of play in the first half was reminiscent of an old Ford, with herky-jerky drives and a lack of rhythm on both ends. With fans now back at Sun Devil Stadium, the Sun Devils surely heard their crowd reminding them of this.

The special teams unit was key in ASU frequently hurting themselves –whether it be two botched extra points or a roughing the punter penalty that gave the Thunderbirds the ball back. SUU even caught the Sun Devils off guard with a short kickoff that it was able to recover.

As he was leaving the media room, Edwards was heard saying off-hand, “Special teams was special, right?”

Other ill-advised plays included senior defensive end and 2020 sack leader Tyler Johnson being ejected for targeting SUU’s quarterback Justin Miller, a pass interference that took away a successful two-point conversion and multiple holding penalties that wiped out runs.

“I might not even go home,” Edwards said. “I might just watch the tape tonight, just get it out of my system because it was bad. It just kept coming. Didn’t stop.”

It did, eventually, stop. In the second half, ASU only committed two penalties.

While playing an inferior opponent helped, ASU was able to overcome its self-inflicted wounds because of an efficient and dominant running game. It racked up over 220 yards rushing and all six touchdowns with only one Sun Devil – redshirt freshman running back Daniyel Ngata, whose first touch came midway through the third quarter – carrying the ball 10-plus times.

As a result, junior quarterback Jayden Daniels (10-12, 132 yards) was not asked to do much in his season debut, possibly to the dismay of critics of last year’s passing game. While he was able to air the ball out on a few occasions, Daniels nearly threw an interception on an errant pass and Edwards called the passing game “not quite sharp yet.”

Heading into Week 1, Edwards said he was looking forward to seeing how the bevy of young receivers would start to mesh with Daniels, but he will likely have to wait. Not one of Daniel’s targets caught over three balls or topped 60 yards. Perhaps the one wideout who flashed the most potential on Thursday was junior Ricky Pearsall, but rather for his gadget-like ability to catch, run and throw the football.

When the defense was not committing sloppy penalties, it played fairly solid at all three position groups. The Thunderbirds more than doubled the Sun Devils in time of possession in the first half, but defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce credited his unit’s poise in SUU’s red zone situations. Two of ASU’s four forced turnovers followed SUU drives of more than four minutes.

The Sun Devils picked up right where they left off in the turnover game, as they had forced the most turnovers (27) in the nation in their last 10 games heading into Thursday.

In regards to the spasmodic play on both ends, Pierce sided with Edwards that in addition to some “bonehead plays,” many of the players were too emotional. Both coaches sensed the issue and tried teaching it as their theme leading into the game.

“First time playing in [Sun Devil] Stadium in 600-something days with a lot of fans,” Pierce said. “I think freshmen… some young guys playing out there for the first time. Older guys with a lot to prove.

“It is a lot on the line for all of us.”

ASU is seemingly fortunate that these mistakes came in its first game against an FCS team rather than a Pac-12 Conference foe midway through the year. Daniels recognizes that these issues can be managed in practice.

“The little things matter,” Daniels said. “That just goes back to locking in at practice. Just come and focus because at the end of the day it shows up in the game. Yeah, we were a better team than Southern Utah, but at the end of the day if we played Washington or USC, those could kill us in the future.”

With the Sun Devils’ self-confidence brewing by the end of Fall Camp last month, they likely know the standard they have to reach to step up next week. Edwards sees the potential, and believes it could just take one small tweak.

“When we stop playing the Sun Devils, because they’re really not on our schedule, we might have a chance to be a pretty good football team,” he said.