Arizona State bounces back from BYU loss with near-complete victory over CU

Following a traumatic loss to the No. 15 BYU Cougars last Saturday, Arizona State had something to prove. It had a standard to uphold, pride to regain after a highly disappointing result ridden with penalties and mistakes. The Sun Devils needed a rebound, needed to prove to themselves that they could still fight.

The Sun Devils did just that on Saturday night to open Pac-12 play against the Colorado Buffaloes, playing a neater and more complete contest as they cruised to a 35-13 victory to open up Pac-12 play.

“We needed to get our confidence back as a football team and keep our poise,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards explained. “The whole thing I talked about all week was, when you play a game like this, after coming off a game like we had (vs. BYU), we needed to play a clean game, but we didn’t want to play a cautious game. I didn’t want them to be cautious, worrying about making mistakes. I just said, ‘play free, free yourself and just play football, and see what it looks like, and I think, for the most part, we were able to do that.”

Arizona State has looked pressured and tight all season, traversing games tentatively and sloppily, making mistakes. With an explosive level of talent and potential on the roster, it was only a matter of time until the Sun Devils let loose.

It took a little bit of effort to get the offense tuned up and rolling, as the starting group exited the field following a first-drive three-and-out, but the defense held solid and provided opportunities for offensive benefits. The terrific rushing trio of junior quarterback Jayden Daniels and his backfield running mates – redshirt senior running back Rachaad White and redshirt freshman running back Daniyel Ngata got the show started on the second drive, trundling down the field methodically. Daniels put the cherry on top with a seven-yard touchdown rush.

White’s turn came on the first drive of the second quarter, after a crucial 26-yard catch from graduate student tight end Curtis Hodges. The redshirt senior rusher grabbed the ball from Daniels at the 11-yard line and fought his way into the endzone to put the Sun Devils up 14-0.

In seven of eight games with Arizona State following his transfer to the program from Mt. San Antonio College, White has scored a touchdown. His speed, running skills, and elusiveness are among the traits that landed him on Bruce Feldman’s 2021 101 college football freaks list.

“His ability to finish (is what sets him apart),” Edwards described. “He has really good vision in tight quarters; he’s a big guy, he has great vision.”

On offense, things got tricky in the third quarter, much to the dismay of the ASU head coach who openly dislikes offensive trickery. Daniels faked the handoff to redshirt junior fullback Case Hatch and White before flipping the rock to redshirt freshman receiver Elijhah Badger. On his first career touch, Badger ran hard to the left, ducked inside a block from the reliable Hatch, and followed fellow blockers – graduate student left tackle Kellen Diesch and redshirt freshman wide receivers Johnny Wilson – Badger found the endzone.

“On the play with Badger, we actually had another guy running it,” Edwards said. “We said ‘Nah, let Badger go,’ and now he’s one-for-one. He ran the ball one time and scored a touchdown; that’s a pretty good average.”

“We wanted to call it earlier, but it just didn’t quite work out,” offensive coordinator Zak Hill said. “You always want to try to call some do certain things, and then you may miss, but we finally got to it. It was fun seeing him get on the perimeter, the guys did a good job with the perimeter blocking, and he got into the endzone.”

In the fourth quarter, the trickery continued, this time with junior wide receiver Ricky Pearsall rolling out into the flat behind the line of scrimmage, receiving the ball from Daniels. The receiver caught the pigskin before letting it fly a second time. Pearsall proved to be pretty productive at throwing the football, finding White for a 30-yard strike, the first time the double-pass play has resulted in six points for ASU after numerous attempts.

“It’s good creativity,” White said. “We try to execute every opportunity you get on offense because we have so many (good players). It was great. We tried it against UCLA last year, and I ended up getting tackled deep down the field. Ricky came to me on the sideline and said, ‘You couldn’t score for me?’ Ever since then, I’ve had it in the back of my mind, and it’s just a great play, just having fun out there.”

On the defensive side of things, it was much of the same, without the flashiness or trickery. Colorado hadn’t scored a single point since the first quarter of its Sept. 11 contest versus Texas A&M. The Buffaloes broke that eight-quarter scoreless drought on an 11-play drive for 64 yards which lasted nearly five minutes.

The Sun Devils, who are near the top in penalties and total penalty yards in college football, added two defensive penalties on that drive alone, assisting the Buffaloes in their march down the field. In a contest that saw no turnovers, the defense yielded just 101 yards – 36 on the ground and 65 through the air.

In the second half, the Buffs upped the ante against the stout Sun Devil defense on the ground, as the secondary neutralized the air attack. The Buffaloes ran the ball down ASU’s throats in the final thirty minutes of play for 118 yards and a touchdown, specifically on the first drive of the second half. The Buffaloes worked through the running back trio of sophomore Jarek Broussard, junior Alex Fontenot, and redshirt freshman Ashaad Clayton on a quick and effective 75-yard drive consisting of eight plays in just under four minutes.

“We won the game, but you don’t want to see those rushing yards (in the third quarter),” defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce stated. “(Rushing attacks) are going to pick up over the next couple weeks with UCLA and Stanford who run the football, so we have to tighten some things up.”

“Third quarter, they came out and ran the ball on us,” Edwards added. “We had a lot of young guys out there trying to give them some reps. We have to do that because we lost some guys on the d-line, and we have some young corners trying to play as well. It was a good game to get the young guys involved in.”

Penalties remain an issue for ASU, as it committed seven penalties accounting for 90 yards on Saturday night, tying its season-low mark with Week Two’s contest against UNLV, in which it also committed seven violations worth 63 yards of setback. Most of the calls came on special teams – an aspect of the team which is by far the youngest.

“We got to continue to clean it up,” Edwards said. “We got better this week with it. We still had seven penalties which are too many. If you can hold them to five penalties or less, you’ve got a chance, but I didn’t want them to play cautious. That was my big deal this week. We had to play smart, physical and fast, and for the most part, we did a nice job.”

Despite Edwards’ dissatisfaction with the penalty margin, the wise football man proved to be grateful for a bounce-back contest after a tough loss on the road and looks to use it to fuel the future as Arizona State heads west to face UCLA next week.

“It was good to bounce back after a draining loss like that where we just kind of putting ourselves in bad positions,” Edwards described. “Hopefully, we learned a lesson… For the most part, I think this was a pretty complete game for us, from start to finish. We knew playing this team was going to be hard. They have a good defense; it was going to be hard to move the ball. We were steady, and we were able to score points, which is always good.”

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