(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
It’s been the same story for Arizona State football this season, and yet again on Saturday night versus Oregon State, the Devils could not dig themselves out of a hole by poor defensive play early on.
The Sun Devils dropped a nail-biter to the Beavers 35-34 in Corvallis, falling the Devils to 5-5 overall and 2-5 in conference play this season. It will mark the first time they will have a losing record in Pac-12 play since 2016 when that team lost its last six conference games of the season.
“It was a disappointing game that kind of started out like our previous games defensively,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards said. “We clogged ourselves down a couple of times. You always felt like they had a way of moving the ball on us. It was that kind of game and we never felt comfortable defensively at times.”
The theme the past couple of games has been slow starts on defense and it showed again on Saturday. ASU gave up 28 points and 295 total yards of offense in the first half, including giving up an opening drive touchdown that has become the norm of late to begin games for the defense.
“We gotta fix this, defensively,” Edwards said. “We’ve been giving up way too many points in games early. We’re always chasing uphill. This was a fight all the way to the fourth quarter.”
In these last four games, the Devils have been outscored in the first half 98-41. The early deficit created by the defense on Saturday forced the Devils to once again play from behind. The defense did much better in the second half, though, only allowing seven points on 98 yards.
With the Devils down by seven, a 12-yard Brandon Aiyuk’s touchdown on 4th-and-8 with 1:40 left in the game led to a gutsy decision by Edwards to go for two to try and take the lead. Eno Benjamin took the handoff to the left but was met by a swarm of Beavers before hopelessly chucking the ball into the end zone only to be intercepted (an ASU penalty would have nullified a catch anyway). The failed two-point attempt and a pass interference call on Jack Jones on third down of the Beavers’ final series sealed the Devils losing fate.
The two-point try is a decision Edwards and offensive coordinator Rob Likens are not regretting.
“I just felt like we were on the road and I told the team that I’m not playing to lose,” Edwards said. “We fought uphill the whole game and we’re a young football team and they got to learn how to win. I wanted to put pressure on [Oregon State].”
The offense kept it competitive with the return of freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels from a knee injury. He completed 24 of 36 passes for 334 yards and three touchdowns. Daniels would immediately reconnect with his go-to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who ended the night with 10 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown, including a 63-yard punt-return touchdown as well.
Yet, the slow start once again plagued the Devils from taking control of the game and it’s a situation the players know must be fixed soon.
“We have yet as a team to play a complete game,” Daniels said. “We got to play a complete game to win. We have not played one in a minute. We can’t always be playing in the second half because there is not as much time and we might come up short like we did today and in the past couple of games. We can’t play from behind.”
With two tough home bouts between Oregon and Arizona remaining on the schedule, ASU must recover quickly in order to get its first win since Oct. 12 vs Washington State and secure bowl eligibility at the very least.
“We just got to put this one behind us as quickly as we can,” Aiyuk said. “It’s getting a little bit frustrating saying that these last couple of games. We just got to keep our heads.”
ASU will host No. 6 Oregon next Saturday on Nov. 23 in the second-to-last home game of the season in Tempe.
