(Photo: Rebecca Striffler/WCSN)
Following a bye week and a return to its home crowd, Arizona State Football had multiple advantages in front of it on Saturday afternoon. The Sun Devils would seemingly not have to deal with botched snap counts or a hostile environment, and could dictate the flow of the game in front of their own fans.
But that can go awry when considering the major factor that has haunted ASU this season: themselves. In a meltdown of a performance, the Sun Devils committed five turnovers and reached a new low in their 34-21 loss to Washington State.
“I think our players maybe took this home venue for granted,” head coach Herm Edwards said. “Thinking that, ‘Hey, [when] we play at home everything’s supposed to work out.’ Well, it doesn’t work out when you turn the ball over and you drop balls and you give [up] big plays in the passing game.”
ASU had not committed five or more turnovers since 2010, when it had seven against Oregon.
Junior quarterback Jayden Daniels called the Cougars’ defense “ball-hungry,” which was present throughout the entire first half.
Just over five minutes into the game, ASU had run three plays with two fumbles and was down 7-0 after Washington State sophomore quarterback Jayden de Laura’s one-yard option touchdown run. The fact that the Sun Devils had out-gained the Cougars at that point in the contest just added to the baffling start.
Early in the second quarter, ASU looked to build momentum after senior linebacker Merlin Robertson intercepted de Laura on a flip pass, setting ASU up in good position in the red zone.
Yet, in a series that might have encapsulated the game, things went off the rails once again. On first down, senior wide receiver Bryan Thompson dropped a pass from Daniels. The next pass came on third down and went through the hands of sophomore wideout LV Bunkley-Shelton, forcing the Sun Devils to settle for a field goal.
But the Sun Devils could not even do that, as a false start penalty eliminated the first attempt and redshirt junior kicker Cristian Zendejas missed the 32-yarder on the next try.
By the end of the first half, ASU had four turnovers and was down 28-7. Boos showered Sun Devil Stadium as players headed towards the locker room, while fans were seen fleeing the stadium simultaneously.
“I don’t have no words for [the] turnovers,” Daniels said. “I mean, two of them were on me. But at the end of the day I got to play better. The offense has to play better just as a whole. We put the defense in bad situations. We put up 20-something points, we had seven somewhere in the fourth.
“It’s not good football.”
The offense setting the defense up to save its errors was a hard ask considering the level of play from de Laura. As Edwards noted, three picture-perfect balls by the sophomore – two of which were touchdowns – were key to the Cougars’ success on offense on three different scoring drives.
de Laura finished with 234 yards passing and three total touchdowns, as well as a near-perfect passer rating of 152.8. The run aspect of the Cougars’ “run and shoot” style offense was also effective, as solid showings from senior backs Max Borghi and Deon McIntosh helped add to the 160-plus yards on the ground.
The Sun Devils’ defense, known for not giving up chunk gains, was gashed by 12 plays of at least 10 yards rushing and 15 yards passing.
“This isn’t just Jayden, just the offense,” redshirt junior defensive end Michael Matus said. “This is all of us. … We’ve been just beating ourselves and when you give a great team like that the opportunity, they’re going to seize it. And they did.”
At the end of the first half, ASU scored off of a 12-yard completion to Bunkley-Shelton, making the game still manageable heading into the second half. The defense held Washington State scoreless in the third, giving the Sun Devils a chance for a comeback.
Yet an offensive threat never truly materialized, and the Sun Devils would score two garbage-time touchdowns late in the fourth to make the score presentable in the end.
ASU was missing a vital offensive piece in senior running back Rachaad White on Saturday, who Edwards said “wasn’t 100%.” Sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum led the backfield with 89 yards and a touchdown, but a total of 131 rushing yards broke an 11-game streak dating back to last year of at least 148 yards gained on the ground.
ASU is now in a new situation, with two straight disheartening defeats and having lost whatever grip they had left on the Pac-12 Conference’s Southern Division. The challenge for the Sun Devils now is how they respond and gain some sense of their identity back.
Daniels said they must “look at themselves in the mirror.” For Edwards, he went beyond that, saying there isn’t anything new to add at this point.
“It’s the players,” Edwards said. “There’s going to be no new offense, there’s going to be no new defense, we’re not revolutionizing anything.
“We got to execute. We did not execute. When you don’t execute and you turn the ball over and you allow big plays, it’s very difficult to win.”
