(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Following a tone-setting 41-14 win over Southern Utah in Week 1, No. 23 ranked Arizona State Football had its sights set on the UNLV Rebels on Saturday night in Tempe.
While the Sun Devils found themselves heavily favored for the second straight week, those expectations didn’t come without a few roadblocks.
Before kickoff, sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum did not take the field for warmups and wasn’t dressed after being absent from practice this week with an apparent ankle injury.
Without Trayanum, and with redshirt freshman Daniyel Ngata out for a quarter with a hand injury, junior quarterback Jayden Daniels was forced to take matters into his own hands.
While he struggled to get things going through the air at the start, he found massive success on the ground, rushing for 125 yards and leading the way for ASU in a 37-10 win over the Rebels.
“I didn’t anticipate he was gonna run for that many yards,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards said. “It’s good but not so good. I don’t want him running that much, that’s too much to be quite honest, but he helped us win this game with his legs.”
Daniels immediately made an impact on the Sun Devils’ opening drive, getting all the way into the red zone before an interception by UNLV sophomore cornerback Nohl Williams quickly ended the push.
He continued to find holes on the ground, rushing for 69 yards on just four attempts in the first quarter alone.
“It’s never the game plan for me to rush,” Daniels said. “It’s [for ASU to] run the ball, play-action pass and get everyone going. As long as we can stay on the field, I can help the team win and I’m gonna do whatever it takes.”
Daniels nabbed his first passing touchdown of the season as well on a three-yard strike to redshirt freshman wideout Johnny Wilson early in the second quarter to give ASU a 7-0 lead.
Off the Daniels interception, UNLV freshman quarterback Doug Brumfield led the Rebels into the red-zone on a lengthy 16-play drive that resulted in a field goal. He capped off the Rebels’ second drive with a four-yard scramble, front flipping into the end zone to give UNLV a 10-7 lead midway through the second quarter.
After accumulating 145 yards between their first two drives, the Sun Devils’ defense made a statement stop on the Rebels’ third drive, forcing a three-and-out right before the end of the half. From that point forward, the Sun Devils’ defense didn’t allow the Rebels to cross the fifty-yard line for the rest of the game.
After struggling to contain UNLV on its first two drives, the Sun Devils found their way into the backfield with ease, totaling five sacks and seven tackles for a loss.
Daniels and Brumfield combined for 136 passing yards in the first half with nearly 113 yards on the ground. ASU headed into halftime with a 14-10 lead but looked inconsistent throughout.
Following Ngata’s temporary exit in the third, Daniels and redshirt senior running back Rachaad White started to find their footing. Once the fourth began, the Sun Devils started to fire on all cylinders, and after White scored in the third, he did so again in the fourth, paired with another Daniels passing touchdown to redshirt freshman wide receiver LV Bunkley-Shelton.
White and Ngata carried the ball combined 28 times for 154 yards and three scores, helping aid Daniels in the second half.
“It started up front with the big guys, the offensive line does a great job of dominating the line of scrimmage,” White said. “Everybody blocking downfield and doing their job helped tonight.”
Defensively, senior linebacker Darien Butler led the way once again, getting to the quarterback twice for sacks while totaling eight tackles.
UNLV struggled mightily in the second half, gaining only 20 total yards before the end of the night.
“We did what we were supposed to do the whole game,” graduate defensive back Chase Lucas said. “We told each other at half, ‘If we’re gonna play man-to-man we need to do a spy on the quarterback,’ and it ended up working to our advantage. We got the pressure we needed and got Jayden [Daniels] the ball back.”
ASU is now 2-0, and have set the tone defensively for a tough opponent in BYU next week in Provo. But the Sun Devils still are finding their legs on offense.
Edwards anticipates that Trayanum will be back next week, and after Ngata came back for the conclusion of Saturday night’s contest, the backfield appears to be back at full strength.
Even still, Edwards feels that Daniels and the passing attack needs to improve moving forward.
“We still gotta get our passing game in sync, we got a little lazy-eyed,” Edwards said. “I think this Jayden’s [Daniels] sixth game with the receivers, so we have to figure that out. Jayden missed a couple throws and we dropped some.
“It’ll come together. There’s a lot of football left.”
