(Photo: Grace Monos/ WCSN)
TEMPE — Any way you look at it, Arizona State football’s back-and-forth win at Baylor a week ago was nothing short of a wild ride. Despite amassing three defensive turnovers and appearing as the far better team when looking at the stat sheet, the Sun Devils never truly pulled away.
In particular, the inability to take advantage of red zone opportunities, including scoring 13 points on five chances throughout the second half, forced ASU into a down-to-the-wire affair to open up Big 12 play.
Little did anyone know, the struggles inside the 20-yard-line in Waco weren’t just a one-off. They were a sign that the rollercoaster on offense for the Sun Devils had only just begun.
For the second straight game, Arizona State (4-1, 2-0 Big 12) dominated in most areas of play yet only managed to win by a score of 27-24 on a last-second field goal due in large part to inconsistent offensive execution in the red zone against Texas Christian (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) on Saturday night.
“It’s like we’re dancing in circles around the potential,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “We’re winning games and not playing our best football. That’s the thing I feel best about, is we haven’t quite clicked full cylinder and we’re winning versus really good football teams.”
It took until less than four minutes remained in the second quarter for ASU to make its way deep into TCU territory, but the team took full advantage on an eight-yard touchdown run right up the middle by redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt to cut the original 17-point deficit to three.
However, the start of the second half meant everyone in attendance at Mountain America Stadium was about to endure the descent.
The Sun Devils turned an interception from, redshirt sophomore defensive back and Washington State transfer, Adrian “Boogie” Wilson on the Horned Frogs’ opening drive into a 92-yard march all the way down to the opposing 4-yard line. From there, ASU attempted two rushes and a passing play out of shotgun for a net total of 0 yards en route to kicking a game-tying 26-yard field goal.
After TCU responded by scoring a touchdown in just three minutes, ASU went on another long, methodical trek that led to setting up shop at the 2-yard line. Inches away from pay dirt yet again, redshirt junior running back Raleek Brown lost a yard on an outside rush before Leavitt threw three straight incompletions to result in another agonizing stall out.
“We’ve got to come up with some better points,” Leavitt said. “Like I said, I’ve got to play backline more, understand window throws more in the red zone. But once it pops, it’s going to be pretty fun cause we should have probably put up over 45 points again.”
With 5:42 left to play and the ball back in the hands of the Sun Devils, there was no longer any room for error. The ASU defense did its part in forcing back-to-back punts to keep the score at 24-17. If the offense failed to take advantage, a brutal loss at a home and a barrage of hard questions awaited on the horizon.
A defensive pass interference call to turn a fourth-and-11 into a fresh set of downs on top of a penalty for roughing the passer put the ball around the 3-yard line. Like a broken record, ASU began tripping over itself in an encore performance of a Brown rush for minimal gain before two consecutive incompletions. In a do-or-die fourth-and-four situation, Leavitt found star redshirt junior receiver Jordyn Tyson in the back of the endzone to finally stop the ride in its tracks.
“A play we’ve been running since I first got here, ‘Bang’,” Leavitt said. “We really haven’t hit it once in a game yet. We’ve been talking about it for a long time. It’s a really good low red zone, high red zone concept.”
Even better, a strip-sack minutes later meant the Sun Devils had possession at the 15-yard line and the game in the palm of their hands. Still, the ASU offense couldn’t make things easy.
Taking out a penalty for a horse collar tackle that gave the team six extra yards, ASU gained eight yards on four plays. Dillingham initially made the gutsy decision to attempt a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-one in a tie game with 1:14 remaining, but the subsequent touchdown being negated on a false start led to redshirt senior kicker Jesus Gomez closing out the final trip to red zone with a 23-yard field goal that eventually proved to be a game-winner.
When a team fits three defensive takeaways, 492 yards of offense, and nearly 36 minutes of possession into one contest, that usually results in a comfortable margin of victory. 13 points scored on four separate drives in prime territory in the second half alone nearly single-handedly made ASU sweat it out until the end. While it’s true that the fashion in which a win is secured doesn’t take away from the total sitting in the win column, the Sun Devils’ offense still has plenty of self-inflicted wounds to heal from over the upcoming bye week.
“If you would have told me we’d be 2-0 to start the league, to start this year, I would have been so fired up,” Dillingham said. “I know the expectations and all, the external, but just looking at who we’re going to play, I would have been one of the happiest people on earth. Saying ‘Oh my gosh, we escaped 4-1 these first five games”.
“And to be 2-0 in the league at this point, it’s a testament to our players, and we’re still not even playing up to our potential.”
