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Inexplicable Sun Devils set penalty record, fall to No. 23 BYU, 27-17

Only one play could sum up the collective seesaw of emotions of Saturday night quite like what occurred in the waning moments of the third quarter. After trailing by two touchdowns at the half, Arizona State opened the second half with two defensive three-and-outs and two offensive scoring drives, cutting a 21-7 halftime deficit to 21-17.


Redshirt junior defensive lineman Michael Matus had latched onto the leg of BYU quarterback Jaren Hall with the Cougars driving into the ASU red zone. But an inexplicable decision from Hall to loft a pass toward the Sun Devil sideline resulted in the ball finding the hands of senior linebacker Merlin Robertson.


“We thought the game was going to get swung on that interception,” head coach Herm Edwards said postgame.


To most, it looked like that would be the case. Robertson took off streaking down the sideline but was caught from behind by Tyler Allgeier before he could reach the end zone and give Arizona State its first lead of the night. The BYU tailback leaped over the back of Robertson and, with a great punch at the football, turned a turnover into a long reset of possession for the Cougars. The dramatic shifts in momentum were frequent in the 19th-ranked Sun Devils contest with No. 23 BYU, but the double turnover was emblematic of the entire night – and season – for ASU.


One of the most experienced teams in the Pac-12 – and the nation – with 20 returning starters went on the road and set all kinds of records Saturday en route to a 27-17 loss, the first of the 2021 season. Two weeks prior, ASU opened the season with a disconcerting 13-penalty performance – which at the time set a record for the most penalties for ASU under head coach Herm Edwards. Somehow, the Sun Devils one-upped themselves against BYU. Presented with a hostile environment and the first significant hurdle of the season, the Sun Devils stumbled, putting together a 16-penalty performance.


“The discipline of our team is not very good, and it starts with me,” Edwards said following the loss to the Cougars. Through three games, the Sun Devils have committed 36 penalties for 319 yards. Their opponents have tallied just 14 altogether. “I’ve got to fix it. That’s my responsibility.”


The tone for the evening was set from the opening kick. Arizona State’s first road trip to an environment featuring fans since Nov. 16, 2019, wasn’t a game of ups and downs. It was a game of downs and ups. The downs began in pregame warmups when it became clear the Sun Devils would be without their bruising running back DeaMonte Trayanum and kick return specialist D.J. Taylor.


From there, the downs continued when junior wide receiver Geordon Porter began his attempt to return the opening kickoff from the back of the end zone. As Porter lost his footing and slipped to the ground around ASU’s 12-yard line, the Sun Devil receiver fumbled the ball, setting up the Cougars for a 3-play touchdown drive and a 7-0 lead just 37 seconds into the contest.


“We’ve got a lot to work on, but it’s all about us right now,” said Edwards. Porter’s fumble was the first of four Sun Devil turnovers on the night, continuing a two-week span in which the Sun Devils have lost the turnover battle. “Hopefully the players will look at the tape and look at themselves, and every guy will say, ‘I can’t continue to do this. I can’t continue to function this way if we’re going to be a good football team.’


“We have the makings of being a good football team, but when you do this, it’s not good football at all. It’s hard to watch.”


Arizona State answered back quickly, with junior quarterback Jayden Daniels leading the Sun Devils down the field with his arm. Faced with the tall task of a third-and-14, Daniels found redshirt sophomore wide receiver Andre Johnson for a 58-yard gain on a beautifully thrown deep ball down the seam. One play later, redshirt senior running back Rachaad White scored from one yard out to tie the game at 7 apiece and answer BYU’s early punch.


Early in the second quarter, with Arizona State driving into the BYU red zone, the Sun Devils dialed up a screen pass to tight end Curtis Hodges in the middle of the field. Misdirection to both sidelines by ASU receivers was aimed at opening the middle of the field for Hodges, but the Cougars sniffed out the screen and hit Hodges, as the ball arrived, popping the ball up for an interception.


“The couple of drives we had down there, we just shot ourselves in the foot,” said Daniels, who completed 21 of his 29 passes for 265 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions in the loss. “It starts with me. I’ve got to play better always, no matter what.”


A second quarter full of defensive breakdowns saw the Sun Devil secondary allow gains of 31, 20, 34, 34, 11, 15, and 11 yards through the air. The highlight for BYU was a double flea-flicker that fooled redshirt sophomore defensive back Jordan Clark enough for Gunner Romney to catch a wide open 34-yard touchdown which gave BYU a 14-7 advantage.


Following the double turnover play late in the third quarter, defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce’s unit once again got the ball back to the Sun Devil offense. But a drive that started on ASU’s 5-yard line was plagued by a baffling mirage of false start penalties. Worst of all for offensive coordinator Zak Hill’s group, the drive that took six plays and went nine yards took 4:57 off the fourth-quarter game clock.


“The crowd noise got to us a little bit,” Hill said following the first game in a hostile environment as coordinator for the Sun Devils. “(The offensive line) weren’t able to hear Jayden’s clap, so we had to transition into a different form of a snap of the football. They got to us and battled us a little bit, and it just compounded. We have to be able to handle that adversity and be used to a crowd like this.”


Daniels, who threw two interceptions in a game for the first time in his career, took responsibility for some of the shortcomings of the Sun Devil offense.


“It was a big factor,” Daniels said of the noise the BYU crowd provided. “We haven’t played in a hostile environment like this, honestly since Michigan State. Their crowd played a big factor in this game. You see it killed a lot of drives. We can’t have penalties like this and expect to win games, big games like this.”


Needing a stop after Arizona State’s backed up, clock-winding drive in the fourth quarter, Pierce’s defense was unable to stop the Cougars. With Hall out of the game with a shoulder injury late, Baylor Romney came in and completed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Rex to seal the second straight win over a ranked opponent in consecutive weeks for BYU.


Although BYU’s win gives the Cougars bragging rights against half of the Pac-12 South, Arizona State’s loss Saturday doesn’t change anything in relation to the Sun Devils’ divisional hopes. In fact, the division remained a mess Saturday, going 1-5. Edwards knows the takeaway of the ugly loss isn’t necessarily that it erases any chance to win the Pac-12 South or make a Rose Bowl appearance. Instead, the 10-point defeat showed the Sun Devils just how unprepared they are to accomplish that task.


“We have to get better within ourselves,” Edwards said. “We have to fix our problems… If we can do that, this is a different game. But it’s not, and we did it to ourselves, and I’ve got to get it fixed.”

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