(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
TEMPE — The boos came raining down at halftime, and deservedly so.
Arizona State Football’s performance – specifically during the first half – in Saturday’s 34-21 loss to Washington State was not just one of those days.
Previous outings this season could have been considered that. In the season opener against Southern Utah, the Sun Devils’ 13 penalties were a cause for concern, but their impact was limited thanks to the Thunderbirds’ FCS-level stature. It was also Week 1, a common breeding ground for errors, and was ASU’s first sense of normality in almost two years.
But the discipline concerns boiled over later into the season than expected, including Week 3 against BYU – a loss that could almost single-handedly be blamed on ASU’s 16 penalties. Four turnovers didn’t help, but they also didn’t keep the Sun Devils out of the game.
A month later, ASU racked up a tally of 13 penalties at Utah in a 35-21 loss, where it also blew a 14-point lead and watched its offense suffocate itself.
The bottom line was clear: Out of a bye week following the upset in Salt Lake City, ASU needed to appear disciplined and sharp on Saturday. It couldn’t keep losing because of its own wrongdoing. The Sun Devils had to at least give themselves a chance.
Or so one thought.
“[When you have] five turnovers, you can’t expect to win many games,” offensive coordinator Zak Hill said. “It came down to execution.”
ASU started the contest against the Cougars in a way almost unimaginable. Two of its first three plays were fumbles – the first by sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum after a big gain on a screen pass from junior quarterback Jayden Daniels, and the second by senior wide receiver Bryan Thompson after the Sun Devils got a 4th down stop on the Cougars following Trayanum’s fumble.
“We talked about it all week [that] Washington State is tops in the country in forcing fumbles and getting after the football,” Daniels said. “It’s very frustrating because that’s something we harped on all week. The coaching staff said that while watching film. You see that they’re ball hungry.”
After the Cougars capitalized with a touchdown to go up 7-0, things somehow got worse for ASU. A promising drive ended in an interception thrown by Daniels, who put the ball well behind his target. Once again, Washington State made the Sun Devils pay, and put them in a 14-0 hole.
“You get into a game like that – [where] we opened up with two or three turnovers right away, and then dropped balls…” ASU head coach Herm Edwards said. “I thought Washington State capitalized on that and then did a good job. They got the score up to where we’re playing catchup at halftime.”
When it wasn’t turnovers that buried ASU, it was everything else that has blipped up this year rearing its ugly head. While the Sun Devils only had seven penalties on the day (tied for their third lowest mark of the season), two in particular stood out, and arguably put the game out of reach.
ASU got a rare gift from Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura with 11:44 left in the second quarter, when the sophomore’s shovel pass went errant and ended up in the hands of senior linebacker Merlin Robertson. But as ASU attempted a field goal to earn its first points of the day, redshirt senior defensive end Tyler Johnson – lined up to help block for redshirt junior kicker Cristian Zendejas – was flagged for a false start.
When Zendejas attempted the kick for the second time – this one five yards longer – he missed.
“We’ve been beating ourselves, and when you give a great team like that the opportunity, they’re going to use it and they did,” redshirt junior defensive end Michael Matus said.
The real gut-punch to ASU’s hopes came on Washington State’s ensuing drive. de Laura, who dotted up an ASU secondary that was without redshirt senior safety Evan Fields all day, marched the Cougars down the field before encountering a 3rd and 8 at the ASU eight-yard line. de Laura missed a pass intended for redshirt senior receiver Calvin Jackson Jr., but the incompletion was the result of a hold by ASU redshirt senior cornerback Chase Lucas.
Two plays later, Washington State scored a rushing touchdown after being birthed a new set of downs. The play by senior running back Deon McIntosh put the Cougars up 21-0 – a deficit hard to overcome no matter how much time is left on the clock.
“We were playing catch-up football, and that’s always hard to do,” Edwards said. “We couldn’t control the tempo of how [we] want to play the game or run the football in a sense to keep their offense off the field.”
The fashion of the loss is particularly embarrassing for ASU given that it was off last week and had the time to correct its same old errors.
“Everybody was in shock,” Daniels said of the Sun Devils’ performance. “You could feel it in the stadium.”
Additionally, the Sun Devils only compounded their issues in Saturday’s loss. While the penalties and lack of preparation commonly seen this season are one thing, an offense that put together arguably the worst performance the school has seen in over 10 years (The last time the Sun Devils had five turnovers in a game was against Oregon in 2010) is the last predicament ASU needs on its hand.
“The players, we have to look at ourselves, really,” Daniels said regarding the nagging issues. “It’s about what type of season we want to have.”
His coaches seem to agree.
“It just comes down to the execution,” Hill said. “We’ve got to do a great job in practice of setting even higher standards. The guys have got to focus up and be able to get after it. The leaders need to step up too and be able to communicate those standards.
“Are we going to be okay with this or are we going to do something about it?”
