One couldn’t draw up a better opening series than the one the Sun Devils displayed Saturday night.

On the first offensive series of the game, ASU and its newly minted starting quarterback Manny Wilkins marched down the field through NAU’s defense with ease.

In just over two minutes the Sun Devils went 44 yards in seven plays and capped it off with the season’s first touchdown, a 13-yard run by Wilkins.

On the Sun Devils’ second drive, Wilkins had his only major mistake of the day, throwing an interception to NAU sophomore cornerback Cole Sterns.

“I’ve got have better ball security,” said Wilkins who finished with 180 passing yards while completing 20 of 27 passes and rushing for 89 yards and the touchdown. “I feel I can’t make those mistakes when (the) momentum is going.”

The pick killed the energy created by the first drive and the ASU offense grinded to a halt en route to only leading the Lumberjacks 10-3 at halftime.

“I take complete accountability for that,” Wilkins said of the slow start the offense had. “Next week we’ll get rolling faster.”

But ASU didn’t need to wait for next week as they found their groove in the second half, outscoring NAU 34-10 over the final two quarters and piling up a total of 456 yards of offense.

Junior running back Demario Richard, who had 78 rushing yards and a touchdown, said getting the offense going was more or less a matter of slowing down, taking a deep breath and not forcing things, especially against an aggressive NAU defensive front.

“We were just trying to be patient with the offense,” he said. “We knew they were going to come out and shoot a lot of gaps so at halftime we made a couple adjustments and started being more patient with the ball.

“Once we started being patient with the ball we started making big plays.”

While the offense eventually found its way, the defense, too, struggled at points but managed to hold the Lumberjacks in check save for one glaring moment of exposure.

NAU managed 425 yards of offense against the Sun Devils and allowed NAU sophomore quarterback Case Cookus to pass for 369 yards. But, the Sun Devils only allowed one touchdown, which came in the fourth quarter when Cookus connected with junior wide receiver Elijah Marks for an 87-yard score.

“I thought we did a good job,” redshirt sophomore safety Armand Perry said. “They got a couple of 50-50 balls but I think we played pretty solid.”

Although NAU possesses a potent passing attack, it likely doesn’t hold a candle to what ASU will see next week when Texas Tech comes to Tempe.

The Red Raiders have one of the best passing attacks in the country and, defensively, the Sun Devils will need to be prepared for TTU junior quarterback Patrick Mahomes who can do damage with his arm (4,653 passing yards in 2015) and his legs (456 rushing yards in 2015).

Seeing plays like Marks’ long touchdown catch will give Texas Tech ideas as to how to attack and dissect the Sun Devils’ secondary, meaning, a little bit of celebration followed by a lot of preparation.

“Teams watch film so if they see us give up something you can expect it next week,” Perry said. “Texas Tech is an air-raid-type team and we’re jut going to celebrate this win tonight and tomorrow just get back to work and start breaking down Texas Tech.”