For the second straight game, Arizona State (5-4, 2-4) was unable to dig themselves out of an early hole as they lost 31-26 to USC (6-3, 5-2 PAC-12).

The Sun Devils gave up 28 of the 31 total points in the first quarter of play before cranking off 19 unanswered points to finish the game.

Despite the late effort, the early mistakes were simply too much for the young ASU team to overcome en route to their third straight loss.

“It was a game of dropped balls, missed opportunities for us on offense at times,” head coach Herm Edwards admitted. “Penalties called plays back. All those things, when you do those things, we’re not a good enough football team to overcome those things.”

USC scored a total of four touchdowns in the first quarter with the first two scores coming off drives of 11 plays and 6 plays going 75 and 82 yards respectively.

The final two scores of the quarter came following a touchdown from Arizona State as the Trojans responded with touchdown passes of 58 and 95 yards from freshman Kedon Slovis.

The game was eerily similar to the team’s last game in a loss to UCLA. The Sun Devils fell behind 42-10 in the matchup before clawing back to a final score of 42-32.

A matchup against USC provided a similar look as ASU has struggled to be the team that jumps on top during their three-game losing streak.

“I feel like we were ready for this game,” wide receiver Frank Darby said. “I feel like we pushed every day for it. We came out here it was just one of those UCLA games ─ we didn’t expect them to do that.”

After the first quarter, USC dominated with a total of 315 yards compared to the abysmal one yard gained by ASU.

To make matters even more difficult for Arizona State, they were without true freshman starting quarterback Jayden Daniels due to a knee injury he obtained against UCLA.

The injury led way for fellow true freshman Joey Yellen to make his first colligate start in place of Daniels.

Yellen knew from Tuesday during the week that he would have a pretty good chance to start and felt prepared once he got on the field.

“I got the full week to prepare and I feel like they prepared me well,” Yellen stated.

“I felt like we had a good plan going into this and we executed for the most part.”

Yellen was impressive during his start as he finished the game completing 28 of his 44 pass attempts alongside 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

The true freshman was able to mount a comeback attempt as he marched ASU down the field with under a minute left before a late interception sealed the win for USC.

“To their credit, they fought back into the game and had a chance there at the end,” Edwards admitted. “We fell short. It’s another learning game for them but we’ve got to stop doing this to ourselves. We’re getting behind in games too early and it becomes very difficult to play uphill, and we’ve done that the last two times.”

Falling behind and coming back late in games has become almost a calling card for the Sun Devils as they have had several come from behind victories this year.

These include victories over ranked teams at the time in California and Michigan State and another against an unranked Washington State squad.

Despite having a knack to overcome steep deficits, the team is unable to do so every time they put themselves in such a deep hole. A trend that has been evident during the team’s losing skid.

“I wish I could put my hand on it, but I can’t,” Edwards said of the slow starts. “We talked about it ─ we can’t let it occur again. It just kept occurring then all of the sudden we find our way when it’s money time in the fourth quarter.”

A large amount of frustration that came from not only the game but the last three during the team’s streak of losses has been losing to less talented teams in the eyes of the players.

ASU showed glimpses of being able to compete and an ability to be better than the other team in all three games but were unable to do so in all four quarters of each contest.

“Frustration is we’re losing to team’s that we’re better than,” wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk admitted. “We’re better than the team out there, we’re better than the last two teams we lost to. That’s where most of the frustration is coming from.”

The silver lining of the loss was the performance of Yellen who was able to show command of the offense for the majority of the matchup even with his limited experience at the helm.

Yellen found veteran receivers Darby, Aiyuk, and Kyle Williams on his four touchdown passes with Darby coming down with two and Aiyuk and Williams each snagging one apiece.

Darby hauled in the longest of the four touchdowns as he took a pass 62 yards to the endzone in the second quarter, drawing the score to 28-13.

Throughout the game and during the team’s final drive, Edwards talked to Yellen much like his other true freshman quarterback in Daniels.

With a calming and confident tone that reminded the true freshman to enjoy his time on the field despite the team’s early struggles.

“Every time he came off, I told him ‘just keep smiling man, you’re doing great.’ He was put in a tough spot,” Edwards stated. “That’s a pretty athletic defense that they got over there. He doesn’t have Jayden’s skills as far as running, making a lot of plays with his legs. We moved him out some to get him away from the rush. He threw the ball fairly well for the first time him playing in a game like that. Credit to him.”

Even with the play of Yellen, who set the mark for most touchdown passes by a Sun Devil in their debut, the team still finds themselves in a rut.

With matchups remaining against Oregon, Oregon State, and Arizona the Sun Devils sit outside of contention for the Pac-12 South and are not yet bowl eligible with only three games left in the regular season.

For Edwards, it comes down to a simplistic approach to end the current three-game skid by his team.

An approach that focuses on simply not shooting themselves in the foot and making the team across the ball beat the Sun Devils.

“Right now, we’re not a very good football team,” Edwards admitted. “We’re a team that plays against us. We’ve got to stop doing that. Once we figure that out, we’ll win a game.”

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