(Photo: Jakob Brooks/WCSN)
TEMPE — Twenty-eight days after a dominant, record-breaking 70-7 season-opener victory over Morgan State, Arizona State took the field in front of its home crowd once again. In that near-month-long period away, the Sun Devils have been through enough chaos to last a season.
A trip to College Station, Texas, to face then-No. 10 Texas A&M ended in heartbreak with a fourth-quarter implosion. Then, an international trip to London saw ASU pick up a key conference victory over Kansas, despite a substandard performance.
Following two weeks on the road, head coach Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils would look to return to their sleep schedules and normal routines with a week off before facing Baylor. Except ASU got anything but normalcy, with weather limiting action on the Kajikawa Practice Fields during the bye.
Practices returned to their normal days in the week leading up to the Baylor matchup, but were rescheduled from the morning to evening. Despite the change, Dillingham said Wednesday’s practice was good preparation for the Saturday game.
Back in front of the home faithful, last month’s chaos boiled over into a performance that couldn’t be further from the season-opener, as ASU (2-2, 1-1 Big 12) lost 55-19 to Baylor (4-1, 2-0).
“I’ve got to do a better job getting this team ready to play,” Dillingham said. “We haven’t played to our maximum ability, and that begins and ends with me. I’m not doing a very good job right now.
“We did have a good day [Wednesday], and that’s what I’ve got to figure out. Usually, I have a pretty good beat on ‘we’re practicing well, we’ve got a good plan.’ I have a good feeling for what’s going to happen. I did not expect what happened out there today in any way, shape or form.”
Against Morgan State, ASU came out fast, leading 28-7 at the end of the first quarter. Saturday night, Baylor led 14-3 at the end of the first quarter, the largest home first-quarter deficit for the Sun Devils since they trailed 21-0 against Oregon in 2023.
While the difference in the level of the two opponents is gargantuan, the difference in performances between the two home games is even larger. In the first quarter, Baylor outgained ASU 182-97. Baylor averaged more than twice the yards per play, with 10.1 to the Sun Devils’ 4.6.
“I’m the number one most frustrated person there is,” Dillingham said. “Clear number one. I don’t think there is somebody even close to the level of frustration.”
The worst part for ASU is the missed chances throughout the game, especially in the opening quarter. On the second drive of the game, the Sun Devils were forced to settle for three points after three straight incompletions from Baylor’s 29-yard-line.
“We’ve got to score in the low red zone,” Dillingham said. “We missed some opportunities where we’ve got to score. It wasn’t up to a standard that was good enough.”
On ASU’s next drive, the offense marched downfield before fourth-year wide receiver Omarion Miller fumbled in Baylor territory.
Despite the poor first quarter and eventual lopsided score, ASU wasn’t out of this game early. The Sun Devils found momentum before halftime by limiting Baylor to three points on their final three drives of the half.
Meanwhile, ASU’s offense put up 10 points on two of its three second-quarter drives, setting itself up for a dogfight in the second half.
“We came into halftime with a plan to go win the game,” third-year linebacker Owen Long said. “We felt good about where we were. We had some stops to end the first half.”
Yet, the momentum on both sides of the ball to end the first half came to a screeching halt in the third quarter.
On Baylor’s opening drive of the second half, they gained 77 yards on nine plays before scoring. Then third-year quarterback Cutter Boley threw an untimely interception, and soon after, Baylor had another touchdown.
“I was sloppy with the ball,” Boley said. “I made a few poor decisions that really put us behind the eight ball. Things like that can’t happen to beat good teams.”
Third-year quarterback DJ Lagway thrived for Baylor, finishing the night with 306 passing yards and five total touchdowns – four passing and one rushing. Two of Lagway’s passing touchdowns came in the third quarter, helping Baylor seal the game.
“We couldn’t create a pass rush,” Dillingham said. “They were getting the ball down the field, because when you can’t create a pass rush, you’re not going to be good on third-down defense.
“You gotta give them credit. They threw some really nice back shoulders too. DJ threw some really nice footballs on third downs to convert. Then they made some plays in one-on-one situations. But it all starts with the pass rush. We’ve got to create a better pass rush.”
The Sun Devils finished Saturday night with two sacks, both coming during their second quarter spurt of momentum.
Now, ASU turns its attention to how it can find a way through what Dillingham calls its first bout with real adversity this season.
“This was like getting hit in the face, knocked out,” Dillingham said. “Then you try to get up, and you’re knocked down again. You try to get up and get knocked down again.
“The blessing and the curse of it is, we’ve lost games poorly before and we bounced back from those games. The last two times we’ve had losses like this, we’ve responded in a really positive way.”
Dillingham also called this the first time he feels he’s not overachieving in his tenure with his alma mater.
Finding a way through this adversity will be necessary for ASU to return to overachieving, as it faces difficult road trips against No. 12 Texas Tech and No. 10 BYU later this month.
“I’m still getting a feel for this team,” Dillingham said. “Every team has different energy; some teams are very passionate and emotional. Some teams, that’s not really their deal. I’m getting a better feel for what this team is.”
Dillingham growing to understand this team will be as important as this team finding its potential en route to the aforementioned difficult matchups ahead.
“I’m not pulling out more than this team has,” Dillingham said. “I am letting our football team down. I am not maximizing the team that we have. We’re falling short of the ability that we have; we’re not hitting it, and I’ve got to figure it out.
