It’s no secret that Arizona State junior quarterback Jayden Daniels has fleet feet. The dual-threat player is one of the most talented rushers in the country regardless of position, as he’s used his legs for 16 gains of 10 or more yards entering the contest against Stanford, the most amongst Pac-12 players.

Daniels hadn’t shown his swiftness in a while, though, as the quarterback had been held to a season-long 24-yard rush against UCLA. On Saturday night versus Stanford, it didn’t take long for Daniels to remind the masses that he busted through the line for massive gains too. 1st-and-10 from the ASU 49 yard-line. Daniels pump-faked, then elected to rush through the B gap. He shuffled past Stanford senior linebacker Ricky Miezan and broke into space. By the time he reached the endzone, he had covered 51 yards for the second-longest rush of his career, setting the tone for the No. 22 Sun Devils’ explosive 28-10 victory over the Cardinal.

“It felt good to come out with a fast start,” Daniels said. “The coaching staff preaches coming out strong and starting fast, so it put us in a good position… We capitalized on what we had seen from Stanford.”

Stanford answered quickly, marching down the field in three minutes to knot the game at seven points apiece as sophomore Cardinal quarterback Tanner McKee found his favorite receiver, junior Elijah Higgins, on Stanford’s beloved fade route for a touchdown.

This would be the only touchdown the Cardinal scored on the night, but the passing production would not be so easily stopped. McKee, a true game-managing quarterback, standing tall above the line of scrimmage at 6-foot-6, chipped away at the tough ASU defense, hitting his targets all night long. McKee’s was 27-for-45 for 356 yards and the sole touchdown to Higgins. The Stanford shot-caller was responsible for Higgins and his tight end, sophomore Benjamin Yurosek, eclipsing career-high marks for receiving yards. Higgins caught seven balls for 110 yards, while Yurosek pushed even further with five catches for 118.

The name of the game was Stanford’s size versus Arizona State’s speed. ASU’s tallest cornerbacks receiving action were freshman Tommi Hill and senior Timarcus Davis, both standing at 6-feet flat. Higgins, Yurosek, and sophomore wideout John Humphreys stand 6-foot-3, 6-foot-5, and 6-foot-5 again, respectively. Across McKee’s 45 throws, the Cardinal slashed at the ASU defense across the middle and in the corners with contested balls on fade routes.

“We practiced (stopping the fade) all week,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards, a former NFL defensive back, said postgame. “You have to put facemask to facemask because, in the era of today’s football, the back shoulder fade comes into play, and if you turn the opposite way away from the receiver, you can’t get back to the ball. You have to have enough ability to turn your head to the receiver and also play the ball. We worked on that all week…. I put my coaching hat on, and they listened.”

For every opportunity Stanford took through the air, Arizona State looked to match on the ground. The Sun Devils, third in the Pac-12 in rushing yards per game entering the contest, sliced and diced the Cardinal defense, the worst unit at preventing the rush in the conference.

The ground assault began with Daniels’ scorching rush for 51 yards. Redshirt senior running back Rachaad White shortly followed up on the next offensive drive with a 29-yard gain before a quick five-yard dash into the endzone for six on the subsequent play. Offensive coordinator then called the name of redshirt freshman Eljhah Badger, who scored his first touchdown on an end-around rush against Colorado. Hill dialed up another end-around for Badger in the second quarter, this time a 22-yard house call. Two career rushing touches for Badger, two career touchdowns.

“Badger, all of a sudden, looked at me (calling for a play to go to him), and I said, ‘I don’t know, don’t tell me,’” Edwards recalled. “We gave him the ball twice, and he’s scored two touchdowns.”

Sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum would log 50 yards on nine attempts from scrimmage in his second game back from injury. Redshirt freshman Daniyel Ngata acquired 21 yards on five touches. All in all, Arizona State rushed for 255 yards on 44 carries, the second-highest mark this season behind the 290 rushing yards against UNLV.

“I thought we did some good things in the game as far as running the football,” Edwards expressed. “That was kind of our emphasis, trying to run the ball a little bit more and make some first downs because when you play Stanford, they’re a very methodical football team. They take a lot of time off the clock the possess the ball for long periods of time. The defense generally doesn’t give up a log of big plays in the passing game.”

On defense, despite ceding a large number of yards to McKee and his receivers, ASU’s defensive line and secondary were able to get back to their disruptive ways, wreaking havoc with sacks and chances at turnovers.

On Stanford’s second drive of the third quarter, McKee aired out a ball in the flat intended for Humphreys. Graduate student cornerback Jack Jones, who had the best game of his season, intercepted the ball, his second of the year, before pitching it to graduate student safety DeAndre Pierce as he was brought to the ground. The heads-up play from both parties resulted in a 27-yard “pick and ladder” to the endzone for a touchdown.

“Pitching the ball is something the DBs have been talking about, probably since fall camp,” Jones recalled. “We just never had an opportunity to do it. When I got that opportunity, I saw Dre behind me and went with it. I knew it was me and the receiver out there on an island, and I turned around, Dre was there, and luckily he caught the ball.”

On the line of scrimmage, the Arizona State defensive line turned a corner after suffering numerous injuries and struggling to get to the quarterback over the past few weeks. The unit sacked McKee five times, good enough for a loss of 36 yards. The standout amongst the group was graduate student defensive end Tyler Johnson, who logged five tackles, 3.5 TFLs, and a pair of sacks. His TFLs moved his career mark to 26.5 total.

“At the end, Tyler was really happy,” defensive coordinator Antonio Piece said. “We started calling more pressures, and he had two sacks in on the quarterback, which we wouldn’t call for him earlier in the game. But I think it’s about the team. Everybody was able to eat.”

To boot to Jones’ interception, sophomore cornerback Jordan Clark and redshirt sophomore Keon Markham logged their first career interceptions. McKee entered Saturday’s contest with 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions, one of three quarterbacks to achieve that feat. He left Tempe with 12 touchdowns but three picks thrown.

Back in the trenches, Arizona State’s dominance may not have negated the passing game as much as it would have liked, but its impact on the Stanford running game was extremely evident. The Stanford running backs were stifled, and McKee’s losses on sacks and TFLs pushed the Cardinal back to just nine rushing yards across 60 minutes of football.

“I think it was a compliment to us that they didn’t want to run the football,” Pierce explained. “They didn’t want to run the ball, and then when they decided that they couldn’t, that’s a compliment to us. And we just have to keep playing that way. Our mindset is to stop the run and dominate it.”

Arizona State’s second half wasn’t as pretty as the first, as Stanford adjustments prevented the offense from finding the endzone for the fourth time. Nevertheless, the Sun Devils won, solidifying their grip on the Pac-12 South as they knocked off another formidable conference opponent in strong, telling fashion.

“As a program, we are 5-1, and we have a lot of football left,” Edwards closed. “Every time you play a Pac-12 football game, it’s hard. It’s hard football to win, doesn’t matter what side you are on, North or South… For the most part, you look at the offense – ran the ball for 200 yards, and generally, when we run the ball for 220-plus, we’ve won a lot of games around here; our record is pretty good. It was fun to watch the runners run, we turned the ball over, but we took it away three times.”

“That’s the kind of football you want to play.”

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