Through their first seven matchups in program history against Colorado, Arizona State was perfect.
They hadn’t dropped a game, but the closest matchup came in 2014, a 38-24 win that saw the Buffaloes come back late following a foot injury to then-starting quarterback Taylor Kelly.
On Saturday evening in Boulder, the Sun Devils saw a new-look, much-improved program, falling in a 40-16 drubbing that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
With the two programs entering Saturday night tied with Utah atop the Pac-12 South standings, the long-term conference implications could be massive.
Not only did the Sun Devils drop a much-needed game in the standings with the toughest part of their schedule upcoming, they left Boulder a mangled bunch. Defensive back Armand Perry left the game with his right foot in a boot, and freshman standout receiver N’Keal Harry went down on a jump ball and walked off with a noticeable limp.
Then there’s redshirt sophomore quarterback Manny Wilkins, who returned and played the majority of the contest just two weeks removed from a high-ankle sprain. Wilkins was battered and beaten all night long, as the Colorado defense took shot after shot to sack him five times and hurry six of his throws. Wilkins completed just 13 of his 35 passes for 149, finding Kody Kohl for a first-quarter touchdown but also throwing an interception and putting several other throws in jeopardy. Wilkins wasn’t fully healthy to play, according to head coach Todd Graham, but was better than the emergency options in true freshman Dillon Sterling-Cole and converted quarterbacks, Jack Smith and Coltin Gerhart.
“No, obviously [Manny wasn’t 100 percent], but it gave us the best chance to have a chance to be competitive,” Graham said. “He felt he could go and protect himself, but obviously he was not 100 percent. He might have been 90 [percent], 85 or something like that. I don’t know. That hurt us, obviously.
“Our other options haven’t even repped at quarterback. They’ve repped on the scout team, and [Manny] practiced. He practiced on Wednesday and Thursday.”
Wilkins asserted he felt 100 percent after the game, attributing the several knocks to “poor quarterback play.”
It was far from a banner night for the offensive line, who were repeatedly abused as the Buffaloes defense held Arizona State to 50 yards rushing. The offense mustered just 199 yards of total offense, the lowest total in the Todd Graham era at the program (the previous low was 250 yards vs. USC in 2012). They failed to establish any sort of rhythm, going three-and-out eight separate times and four possessions of negative yardage.
Colorado had its own quarterback coming off an injury in Sefo Liufau, but instead instantly flew into an up-tempo rhythm that ASU simply didn’t have the bodies or tackling discipline to be able to stop. The Buffaloes offense worked quickly from its opening possession, going 81 yards on 10 plays in less than three minutes before scoring on a 16-yard score from Kyle Evans.
The upstart Buffs would continue to roll from there, totaling 580 yards of offense as Liufau worked an efficient 23-for-31 for 265 yards. Starting tailback Phillip Lindsay carried the ball 26 times for a career-best 219 yards and three touchdowns, repeatedly finding creases in a run defense that entered play ranked first statistically in the conference.
“They ran the ball on us unlike anyone else has run the ball on us during my time at Arizona State,” Graham said. “They energy [was great], and I think as a team we just came out real flat energy-wise…They ran for 300 yards on us, and we ran for 50. That’s pretty much the story.
“It was their tempo. Our energy level was very low. There weren’t any plays they had that weren’t on film, and it was tackling. A lot of it was yards after contact. Their tempo was fast, and our guys struggled getting lined up.”
Marcus Ball, making his second career start at bandit safety after earning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors last week, finished tied for the team lead with 10 tackles in the loss.
“Obviously, we did a poor job stopping the run,” Ball said. “First and foremost, you’ve got to stop the run to win ballgames. We pride ourselves at Arizona State on [takeaways], but obviously, we didn’t get that done.”
The lone silver lining for the Sun Devils, as has often been the case, was the performance of the special teams unit. Twice, Matt Haack punts were muffed and recovered by the Sun Devils and led to field goals. Senior kicker Zane Gonzalez, who last week became the all-time NCAA field goal leader, passed Dustin Hopkins to become the NCAA all-time leader in scoring for kickers with a career-long 59-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
Suddenly with a hill to climb in the South and tiebreaker losses to Colorado and USC under their belt, the Sun Devils must go through the next stretch of the schedule – home vs. Washington State, at Oregon and home against Utah – knowing that another slip-up could effectively knock them out of the division race.
