(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Despite the early success for the Arizona State football team, one crucial aspect of its game still seems to be sorting things out through three games in 2018: the offense.
Despite coming into Saturday’s road match-up against San Diego State with a 2-0 record and a No. 23 national ranking, ASU’s offensive output was lacking in arguably the most critical category for offensive and team success: time of possession.
It was more of the same for the Sun Devils in their 28-21 loss against the Aztecs. Out of 12 total drives, only two lasted longer than 2:28. A 4:05 drive that lasted 10 plays but only gained 25 yards resulting in a punt, and a 10-play 80-yard drive that reached the Aztec 11-yard line before being nullified on a failed 4th-down conversion just before halftime.
“It’s on me. I gotta make sure I give us a better opportunity to win the football game,” quarterback Manny Wilkins said post-game.
For head coach Herm Edwards, the most critical portion of any offensive drive starts with positive yardage right off the jump.
“We get behind the chains. When you don’t make positive yards on first down, it gets you in second-and-long, and that’s not good,” Edwards said post-game. “You play a team like this that has a lot of movement up front, they put you in bad situations. We’ve got to make more positive yards on first down, and we haven’t been able to do that.”
Arizona State went into halftime tied at 14, but the first four drives of the second half resulted in four consecutive three-and-outs with all four drives lasting no longer than 1:39.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the Sun Devils ranked 103rd out of 129 FBS teams in average time of possession, at just over 27 minutes per game. They ended Saturday’s contest with just 23:55 TOP.
Against a team with such a prolific rushing attack, the Sun Devils knew that time with the football was going to be at a premium but couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities, especially in the rushing game. They finished the night with 36 yards on 23 total carries.
“We rushed the football absolutely terribly, and you can’t win football games like that,” Wilkins said.
“You knew going into this after this thing kept playing out it was a field position game for the most part,” Edwards said. “You know what [San Diego State is] going to do, they’re going to run the football and not allow you to possess the ball. So you gotta put points on the board when you can.”
The Sun Devils will hit the practice field again this week and try to get their offensive issues corrected before they hit the road again next week to take on the Washington Huskies, winners of two straight after falling to Auburn to open the season.
Bobby Kraus is a football beat writer for Walter Cronkite Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter @bobbykraus22
