ASU Football: Sun Devil offensive struggles lead to loss vs Stanford

(Photo: Brendan O’Keeffe/WCSN)

4th-and-19 stands in front of redshirt junior quarterback Emory Jones and Arizona State Football. The clock reads 11 seconds, and the offense is out of field goal range. Jones looks for the home run ball. He launches a prayer towards the left sideline, where redshirt sophomore wide receiver Elijhah Badger stands alone, racing to catch up.

Badger contorted his body and extended his right arm as the ball sticks to his glove like a sticky hand. He somersaults out at the Cardinal’s one-yard-line, looking to have just secured a Sun Devil win. However, the replay showed his legacy-making catch was negated due to just half of his foot being out of bounds. The overlap of his cleat and sideline sent ASU’s honeymoon period into a hangover as ASU (2-5, 1-3 Pac-12) lost a heartbreaker to the Stanford Cardinal (3-4, 1-4 Pac-12) 15-14.

Both programs entered Saturday’s match with massive upsets in their last contest, with ASU’s win over then-No. 21 Washington and Stanford’s win at Notre Dame, but the similarities continued. The Pac-12 rivals were looking to end their respective losing streaks, as the Sun Devils hadn’t won at Stanford since 2007, while Stanford was on a 10-game conference losing streak, something needed to give.

For ASU’s offense, its second-half struggles seemed to flow after a first-half surge. While the defense held Stanford to no touchdowns, it wasn’t enough for the Sun Devils to add one to the win column.

The difference in the first half was capitalizing in Stanford territory. ASU’s offense found great success once driving to the opposite side of the field, thanks to the play of Badger.

The first touchdown for the Sun Devils had Badger’s fingerprint all over, as he caught two receptions for 44 yards and a pass interference call. Badger’s play put the offense in a position for graduate running back Xazavian Valladay to run it in for the 15-yard touchdown, his seventh score on the ground this season.

That was only the start for Badger in the first half, as the next drive showed him still being tough to cover for the Cardinal secondary. The Stanford defense played press coverage, opening up the risk for big plays. Badger took advantage with a massive 39-yard touchdown pass from Jones down the sideline and would finish the half as the only Sun Devil with multiple receptions, grabbing five catches for 98 yards and a touchdown to propel the ASU offense.

While the Sun Devils’ offense kept a good pace, Stanford was stagnant when reaching enemy territory during that time. ASU has adopted a “bend, don’t break” defense for the past few weeks, not allowing big plays or scores. Cardinal junior quarterback Tanner McKee got into a nice groove with a clean pocket to rack up 182 yards in the first 30 minutes.

It began to fall apart once the Cardinal offense passed the 50. While the first two drives resulted in field goals, the offense felt the pressure to reach the end zone in ASU territory. Those attempts would be futile because of the stellar play from the Sun Devil secondary.

Stanford, knocking on the door to adding six, was stopped again on third down by redshirt sophomore defensive back Ro Torrence, who ripped the easy first down catch out of the Cardinal junior wide receiver John Humphreys’s hands to force a fourth down. The conversion was unsuccessful, further cementing the Sun Devils’ defensive dominance.

Opportunity in ASU territory emerged again after the defense picked off Jones’ tipped pass at the line of scrimmage. But again, the Sun Devils’ secondary was aggressive in using their speed and power against their matchup, which led to a fantastic diving interception by redshirt junior Jordan Clark, forcing another stop in their own territory to end the half still 14-6.

The third quarter saw Stanford continue its struggles of finishing drives, this time because of its own mental mistakes. The offense entered the game as the least penalized team in the Pac-12 with 3.8 penalties per game but had multiple ill-advised errors that took points off the board. Most notably, midway through the quarter, an offensive holding call took away a 16-yard touchdown pass from McKee to senior wide receiver Elijah Higgins.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Stanford had run 39 plays in ASU territory, resulting in only four field goals. In the first half, it was the secondary, but the defensive line stepped up in the second half, obtaining critical sacks on McKee and deflections at the line of scrimmage to halt those plays in its own territory. It was a deflection by redshirt senior Tautala Pesefea that forced the 36-yard field goal for Stanford to cut the deficit 14-12.

The Sun Devils ranked near the bottom in the conference and nationally in defensive line production and blitz percentage. But, the program doubled its season total of sacks on Saturday with four. It had been the defense’s most glaring issue, but it showed significant improvement due to the superb play from experienced players like Pesefea and graduate defensive lineman Nesta Jade Silvera, who put a lot of pressure in McKee’s pocket.

Despite the defensive success, the Sun Devils’ offense couldn’t reciprocate. The pace ASU played in the first half was non-existent after halftime. The Sun Devils had less than 100 yards of total offense midway through the fourth quarter, and Stanford’s coverage had switched entirely, shutting down ASU’s passing game.

The Cardinal defense allowed their offense to take their first lead since 3-0 in the first quarter. McKee didn’t waste the opportunity, as a Sun Devil punt put him inside his own one-yard line. The deep field position wasn’t enough to stop him from leading a 70-yard drive for a 47-yard field goal, giving them a 15-14 late in the fourth quarter.

ASU began to crack under pressure with game-changing penalties. After being disciplined in the first half, the Sun Devils made careless mistakes. A Torrence holding penalty helped Stanford on its fifth field goal. The Sun Devils had a fourth-and-11 across midfield and looked to go for it, but a delay of game penalty took away the opportunity. The program ended with eight penalties for 75 yards, which proved costly.

The Sun Devils would get one more shot with less than two minutes to go, but the late-game heroics were in vain as the Badger hail mary was half a foot away from forgiving a terrible offensive output in the second half, resulting in a 15-14 loss for the program.

ASU felt like it had reached the mountaintop with its upset win over Washington, but it soon realized how far the fall was, losing a winnable game they desperately needed to stay in bowl game consideration. Now, at 2-5, the hole becomes steeper to claw their way out of, as ASU has to regroup back on the road against Colorado next week.