The Arizona State football team’s 2019 repeated first quarter woes hit a low point on Saturday in the team’s 31-26 loss to USC.
The Sun Devils allowed the Trojans to jump out to a 28-7 advantage after the first quarter and allowed USC quarterback Kedon Slovis, originally the backup for the Trojans before J.T. Daniels’ injury, to look less like a one-time backup and more like one of the quarterbacks in the Heisman conversation.
Slovis was 15-17 with 297 yards and four touchdowns in the first. He found wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown five times in the quarter for a whopping 142 yards. The biggest of these catches was a 95-yard reception which resulted in yet another touchdown with three seconds to play to put USC up 28-7 heading into the second. Brown beat a trio of Sun Devils on the play.
While he was not effective on the ground in the first quarter with just eight carries for 18 yards, USC running back Kenan Christon was able to do damage in the receiving game. The freshman tailback torched the Sun Devils for 82 yards on four receptions and two scores including a 58-yard touchdown with 2:44 to go in the quarter.
ASU could not move the ball at all in the first. Freshman quarterback Joey Yellen, starting for the injured Jayden Daniels, had a rocky start. Yellen started 0-3 on the day and was sacked before he completed his first pass.
ASU finally caught a break in the quarter with Brandon Aiyuk’s 97-yard kick return which set Yellen and the offense up on the USC three-yard line. The offense lost yardage before Yellen found receiver Kyle Williams for a touchdown. The throw was Yellen’s first career touchdown toss and Williams’ first touchdown reception of the season.
Despite the positivity of the Williams touchdown, the quarter overall was atrocious for ASU on both sides of the ball. USC outgained the ASU offense by 314 yards. The Trojans ran 26 plays on offense whereas the Sun Devils ran just nine. ASU had one total yard of offense while USC had 315.
The Sun Devil pass defense looked lost the entire quarter and allowed the Trojans to slice and dice through their secondary for big gain after big gain.
ASU picked up its play the rest of the game and won the last three quarters 19-3 but the first quarter proved to be costly in the end.
Tillman safety Evan Fields said he thinks the team struggled in the first quarter Saturday because of “nerves” and said he felt the team needed to get “a feel” for the game.
Struggling in the first quarter is nothing new for the Sun Devils in 2019.
Non-conference struggles
ASU has mostly not been able to jump out on fire to start a game this season. In their week one matchup with Kent State, the Sun Devils had a 10-0 lead in the first but were unable to get into a rhythm in the quarter. The first drive of the game against the Golden Flash resulted in a field goal but ASU started at its own 42-yard line so if not granted the good field position the kick would probably have not occurred and ASU would have been going into the second quarter against a now 3-6 MAC team only up 7-0.
In ASU’s second game of its schedule this year, FCS Sacramento State came to Tempe and it was a slow start again for the Sun Devils. ASU scored no points in the opening quarter and was forced to punt on all of its drives in the period.
While the defense played well again and held the Sacramento State offense to no points in the opening quarter of the Sept. 6 matchup, the Sun Devils not scoring at all in an opening quarter against an FCS school was not what they wanted.
Michigan State was an anomaly of a game as ASU struggled on offense for not just the first quarter but the entire game as they totaled just 216 total yards. However, just 25 of the 216 yards were gained in the first quarter.
It hasn’t stopped in Pac-12 play
The Colorado matchup is when the first quarter struggles really started to bite the Sun Devils.
The Buffaloes jumped out with an opening 10-play, 75-yard drive which resulted in a score. They added another score late in the quarter on an 11-play, 70-yard drive to make the game 14-0 going into the second quarter. ASU only had one full drive in the first quarter of the Sept. 21 game, resulting in a missed 48-yard field goal by Cristian Zendejas. The ASU defense allowed Colorado quarterback Steven Montez to go 7-8 with 101 yards in the quarter and Colorado outgained ASU 145-76 in total yards.
The Sun Devils won the remaining three quarters of the game, 31-20 and went on to gain 453 yards in the game but the slow start came back to bite them.
After seemingly getting on track in the first quarter of the Cal game and actually scoring the first touchdown of the game, ASU was back to its old ways against Washington State in week seven of the season.
Mike Leach’s air raid offense destroyed the Sun Devil defense in the opening quarter as Cougar quarterback Anthony Gordon was 11-17 with 111 yards and a touchdown on way to a 10-0 opening period. The Sun Devils only had 23 total yards in the quarter but ended up outgaining WSU in the game, putting up 523 total yards. ASU took advantage of a weak WSU defense and won the game.
The next week against Utah, the ASU defense held up in the first quarter but the offense was not able to put up any points and gained only 21 yards in the first 15 minutes. The offense never picked it up in the game and its poor play overshadowed a solid defensive effort.
Against UCLA, it was more of the same. ASU allowed UCLA to score the first touchdown of the game before Jayden Daniels’ touchdown run made the game 7-7. The Bruins proceeded to put together a 16-play, 81-yard drive. UCLA outgained ASU 112-68 in total offense and possessed the ball for 10:10 versus the Sun Devils’ 4:50. Daniels ended up passing for more yards than UCLA Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and the ASU offense gained just 10 yards less than the UCLA offense in the entire game. However, the first quarter and really the first half negated any chance of a Sun Devil victory.
ASU coach Herm Edwards was unhappy with his offense in the first quarter this season. He equated his team’s struggles in the first quarter this year to its struggles in the third quarter last season.
“…We don’t score a lot of points in the first quarter,” Edwards stated. “…Last year it was the third quarter. First quarter was good…we scored a lot of points in the first quarter last year. This year we’re struggling…We’ve got to find a way to do a better job.”
Edwards went on to reference the opening drive of the game Saturday, when his team deferred the ball and USC, scored. He said his team has to quit allowing opponents to receive the opening kickoff and then score on the opening drive, something the Sun Devils also did against Colorado.
With ASU facing an improved Oregon State team on the road next week, following the Beavers up with the best team in the Pac-12 in Oregon, and then closing the season with a hungry Arizona team not wanting to lose three straight territorial cups, the Sun Devils will need to reverse the slow start trend in a hurry in order to finish the month of November on a better note than it began.
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