A familiar first half struggle dooms ASU in 24-10 loss to Oregon State
Shortly after one of Arizona State’s seven false start penalties had been announced to the crowd at Reser Stadium, Herm Edwards went to his notepad. As the ESPN broadcast showed the fourth-year Sun Devil coach scribbling away with his blue pen, play-by-play man Dave Fleming wondered aloud what Edwards could possibly be doing.
“I don’t know what Herm could be writing down about that sequence,” Fleming said after the Sun Devils were whistled for their sixth and seventh false starts of the night on consecutive snaps. “He’s keeping track of all the penalties,” responded analyst Rod Gilmore.
Arizona State (7-4, 5-3 Pac-12) trailed Oregon State (7-4, 5-3 Pac-12) by two scores at that point – the 24-10 deficit would stand as the game’s final tally – but the visual of Edwards note-taking the ever-present issues of his offensive lineman on the road was the embodiment of this season. Rarely to be seen visibly upset, junior quarterback Jayden Daniels gestured arms down and palms up toward his offensive line. On the next play, a third-and-17 dropback resulted in a sack. Following that, an underwhelming ASU offense quietly ended its night with an incomplete pass as Daniels – facing pressure again – was unable to do anything other than throw the ball toward the feet of junior wide receiver Ricky Pearsall.
The fourth loss of the season and third in conference play for ASU included many of the same season-long issues for a Sun Devil squad so frequently enamored with making life as hard as possible on itself. Since the Sun Devils’ season-opener against Southern Utah, Edwards’ squad has ranked in the bottom 10 of Division 1 for penalties. Regardless of category, Arizona State statistically is a cellar dweller with the rest of college football’s least disciplined teams.
“Anytime you go backwards offensively, and you do it to yourself -- it’s amazing to me because last week, when you looked at Washington, they did the same thing with shifts, and it wasn’t really a factor,” explained Edwards. “All of a sudden, we get here, and it becomes a factor. We practice against it, talk about it, they know it, and for some reason, they still find a way to move. You can’t move.”
Never built to overcome deficits quickly, Arizona State found itself in an early hole. On the second play from scrimmage, Daniels rolled out and was hit as he let go of a pass. The ball wound up as an interception, his ninth of the year.
“Between the run game and the pass game, we couldn’t get either going,” offensive coordinator Zak Hill said. “We just couldn’t get into a rhythm. Obviously, that prevented us from scoring points, and then when we did get an opportunity to score points in the red zone, we didn’t.”
The ASU kicking game did the Sun Devils no favors Saturday when the offense did move the ball. Redshirt junior Cristian Zendejas missed a 32-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter after a nine-play, 66-yard drive swallowed up 4:44 of game clock. Before halftime, graduate student Logan Tyler missed a 49-yard field goal, sending the Sun Devils into the break trailing the Beavers, 17-0.
“We bogged down too many times offensively,” said Edwards after what came to be the lowest scoring night for the ASU offense under Hill. “You’ve got to move the ball. College football allows you to move the ball, and we have to move the ball better than that. You can’t bog down and go two or three possessions and not move the ball.”
The lone Sun Devil to find the end zone on the night was sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum, who scored from one yard out after the ASU offense was gifted possession at the Oregon State 4-yard line following a muffed punt. Trayanum’s goal-line score cut the ASU deficit to 17-10 with 13:56 to play in the fourth quarter.
“There’s no consistency in our offense right now,” said Edwards, “and that’s what you need. You need some consistency. You can’t stall out. You just can’t do that.”
With the deficit cut to one-score, defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce’s group finally wilted. After allowing four yards on the first 12 defensive plays of the second half, the Beavers answered with a rare quick strike drive against the Sun Devils. OSU’s do-it-all short-yardage quarterback Jack Colletto came in on fourth-and-2 to bust loose for a 47-yard touchdown run.
“You get a stop, and it would have been a different ball game,” said Pierce. “You don’t expect they’re going to go for 40 (yards), though. That was unexpected.”
Colletto’s score gave the Beavers the 24-10 advantage that would hold as the game’s final score. The run was just the second play of more than 40 yards Pierce’s defense has allowed all year. Entering the night, that mark was best in all of college football.
“Our gap integrity on a couple of those runs hurt us, too,” said Edwards. “On the one that the quarterback ran we were just not in our gap. That’s the shame of it all. These guys work hard all week, and all it takes is one mistake, and the game changes.”
“It’s tough. It’s hard to swallow when you rep it a thousand times,” said Pierce of ASU’s run defense. The 235-yards allowed on the ground were the most by an ASU opponent all season. “I thought we did well at times, but other times we got knocked off.”
ASU was once again missing key contributors on both sides of the ball. On offense, the Sun Devils lacked wide receivers Johnny Wilson and Andre Johnson. They also entered the contest without tight ends Curtis Hodges and Jalin Conyers – who both were involved in a car accident following Thursday’s practice that resulted in multiple Sun Devils not making the trip to Corvallis. On defense, the Sun Devils played without their leading tackler, senior linebacker Darien Butler. and an already thin defensive line was forced to play multiple series without graduate student nose tackle DJ Davidson.
In total, 11 scholarship Sun Devils – who were not previously ruled out for the season – did not suit up. The Sun Devils were so thin in the secondary that walk-on defensive back Alijah Gammage was forced into action for multiple series at safety.
“We missed some players, but we’ve been missing players all season,” said Edwards following the defeat. With the win, Oregon State capped a perfect home record at Reser Stadium in 2021. “We don’t need that as an excuse.”
No. 23 Utah’s 38-7 victory over No. 3 Oregon already had finished off ASU’s slim hopes of a Pac-12 championship game appearance by the time the first quarter was over in Corvallis Saturday night. Now, Arizona State returns to Tempe for its regular season finale against Arizona. Edwards is 3-0 against the Wildcats during his coaching tenure.
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