STANFORD - During the first quarter and much of the first half of Arizona State’s excruciating 15-14 loss at Stanford on Saturday, Emory Jones used his right arm and his legs to laugh at the critics who suggested that the starting quarterback duties be handed over to backup Trenton Bourguet during the team’s bye week. He and Elijhah Badger looked like one of the conference’s best quarterback/wide receiver duos, torching Stanford’s porous defense up and down the field while a sparse crowd was still getting settled into their seats.

One minute into the second quarter, Jones lofted a gorgeous touchdown pass to Elijhah Badger down the right sideline. The 39-yard score was the highlight play of a career day for Badger. He hauled in six passes for 118 yards and was clearly the best offensive player for ASU on Saturday. ASU fans would have been wise to cherish The ease with which Badger and the offense operate during the game’s first 16 minutes. It would be short lived.

The touchdown strike was the last time the Sun Devils would put points on the board. Over the final 44 minutes of game time, ASU sputtered on drive after drive. Stanford adjusted to Badger’s dominance and forced any other white jersey to beat them. No one did. No one came particularly close. Shaun Aguano, ashen faced and seemingly spent following the emotionally draining afternoon, summed up the loss in simple terms as he sat down to conduct his postgame press conference.

“Tough one guys,” the interim head coach sighed. “Tough one.”

The tough ones are mounting for ASU. On many occasions this season, it’s been the defense taking the brunt of the blame for ugly losses. This one falls squarely on Glenn Thomas’s offense.

“We weren’t efficient enough on offense. Our defense did a great job, (allowing) 15 points should win football games,” Aguano said. “Am I disappointed? Yes, I’m disappointed, but I’ve got a team to make sure I take care of.”

Despite the almost comical futility displayed by the offense in the second half, ASU found itself with the ball and a chance to win the game down just one point with just under a minute and a half remaining. “We didn’t have any timeouts, but we practiced all the time,” Aguano said. Offensive execution had gone missing since Badger’s early second-quarter touchdown. It wasn’t going to magically reappear with the game on the line in the fourth.

ASU did make its way down the field, even if only to more thoroughly twist the knife into the hearts of Sun Devil fans who could still stomach the output to the game’s latter stages. A scramble from Jones got them one first down before a do-or-die fourth down completion to Bryan Thompson breathed life into a morose ASU sideline. His big gain put Arizona State inside the outer region of Carter Brown’s field goal range to set up what would have been a game-winner. On first down following the game extending pitch and catch from Jones to Thompson, the Florida transfer QB was sacked on his blind side and lost the football in the process. Fortunately for ASU, or unfortunately, depending on how you view sports masochism, tackle Isaia Glass fell on the loose ball, affording his team another shot at glory.

Jones spiked the ball on second down to stop a perilously draining clock. He then fired incomplete, looking for Thompson over the middle. On 3rd-and-13, it looked like ASU had one more mini miracle up its sleeve when Jones lofted a deep ball toward the pylon and an open Elijhah Badger. Badger made what was inarguably his best snag of the day. He contorted his body, spinning in the air to make a spectacular over-the-shoulder grab as he tumbled out of bounds at the goal line. The call on the field was a catch and out of bounds at the one-yard line. Replay review was initiated before ASU could snap and spike the ball with fewer than five seconds on the clock, and it was quickly determined that Badger’s right foot was partially settled on the white chalk of the sideline just outside the end zone.

Ballgame.

“I thought I was in; I really thought I scored,” Badger explained. “At first, I didn’t even know they were replaying it; that’s how much I thought I was in. But at the end of the day. Nope.”

Earlier in the fourth quarter, with the prospect of a death-by-field goal loss becoming a very real possibility in the minds of ASU fans driven to an especially cynical place by the program’s recent history in close, winnable games, Arizona State was faced with a 3rd-and-5 at its own 45-yard line.

The play call? A run up the middle to Valladay. He was stuffed behind the line, using every ounce of his 6’0” 200-pound frame to fight back to the line of scrimmage. It was a puzzling play call, to say the least, but one that would at least dictate an intention to go for it on fourth down. Instead, Eddie Czaplicki trotted onto the field for the sixth time to give the ball back to the Cardinal.

“We can second guess it now and say we should have gone for it,” Aguano reflected. “I’m glad we punted because we got the ball back with a chance to win the football game.”

Jones and the offense weren’t good enough on this day to cash in on that chance. The unit operated with an utter void of rhythm and continuity down the stretch. After the electrifying performance that Trenton Bourguet put up in the win over Washington, many wondered if and when Aguano would make the switch to jump-start his hibernating offense. He never did.

“I thought Emory played solid,” Aguano said before addressing whether he considered making a switch under center. “I didn’t because I didn’t think Emory was playing badly. I try to never second guess myself in those decisions.”

Badger, who stocked up five of his six catches and 98 of his 118 yards in the first half, was asked if he noticed that Stanford defended him differently in the second half. He confirmed, saying, “they were doing a lot more bracketing” in coverage. However much emphasis Stanford put on keeping the ball out of Badger’s hands, it remained stout enough to keep it mostly out of anyone’s hands in any consequential real estate. Coming into Saturday’s game, the Cardinal defense was second to last in the Pac-12, allowing 197 rushing yards per game. ASU’s strong tandem of running backs collected their yardage but were held in check when it mattered most. Outside of Xazavian Valladay’s rushing touchdown in the first quarter, the Sun Devils were somehow held out of the red zone for the rest of the afternoon. ASU rushed for 128 yards, hardly an anemic performance. But the yards never came when they were desperately needed.

In a game like this one, in a season like this one, you have to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers. At wide receiver, Arizona State has one of those. They didn’t do a good enough job on offense as the afternoon wore on, but at the top of that list is getting the ball to Elijhah Badger.

“I think the play calling was just a little different in the second half,” Badger said pensively. “I have no clue; I just did my job.”