Arizona State football returned to Tempe following last week’s 17-7 at the Rose Bowl, and they were greeted by a No. 6 ranked Oregon Ducks team that had their way with the Sun Devils.
With head coach Kenny Dillingham facing off against former boss and good friend Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the matchup had people eager to see how Dillingham could build off the creative play style he had last week in the win against UCLA. However, senior quarterback Bo Nix had one of his best games as a Duck, tossing six touchdown passes on the game’s first six drives in the first half, and ASU entered the locker room down 42-0 at halftime.
In the loss, Sacramento State transfer running back Cam Skattebo continued his role as ASU’s Swiss army knife, and a few newcomers on the defense had notable plays.
Offensive Report:
Similarly to last week, Dillingham came out of the gate attempting to try and confuse the Oregon defense. On ASU’s first drive of the game, the Sun Devils faced an early third down following Oregon’s first score of the game. On 3rd-and-4, Skattebo lined up in the shotgun and took the snap. Skattebo faked the QB draw, luring in the free rusher, before pitching it over the defender’s head right to junior tight end Jalin Conyers for a 31-yard reception.
It was ASU’s most exciting play of the first half.
That drive ended in a missed field goal, and for the rest of the first half, ASU struggled mightily to move the ball, gaining just 17 yards over its following three drives.
With the traditional offensive approach not working, Dillingham decided to put the ball in the hands of his best players immediately. To begin ASU’s fourth drive, Skattebo and
Conyers split time under center, with each of them running QB Draw. The tactic had some success, and Skattebo then had a chance to throw the ball again, hitting junior wide receiver Elijah Badger for a 14-yard gain.
A few plays later, on 1st-and-10 on the Oregon 22-yard line, Skattebo rolled right and was hit as he let go of the ball, floating the pass up in there and into the hands of the waiting Oregon defender. The interception ended arguably ASU’s best drive of the first half, and Skattebo would not throw a pass the rest of the game.
Skattebo would finish with eight carries for 49 yards on the ground, six passes for 45 yards through the air, and two punts for a combined 74 yards.
The offense eventually began to perform better in the second half, moving the ball 169 yards in the half. In the middle of the fourth quarter, the offense finally broke into the endzone. With Conyers under center, the tight end had an RPO and decided to hand it off to Colorado State transfer wide receiver Melquan Stovall. The graduate student then bounced it to the outside for a 15-yard score and ASU’s only touchdown of the day. Stovall also had two receptions on the day, but they combined for a total of just one yard.
Elsewhere on the offense, Texas transfer wide receiver Troy Omeire had one of his best games of the season. As Dillingham’s favorite target for one-on-one fade routes, Omeire has spent the last few games with some of the highest targets on the team.
Against Oregon, it was no different. Omeire had five catches for 57 yards, both of which are season highs. Omeire’s best play of the game came in the middle of the third quarter when Bourguet hit the junior one on a deep fade route for a 22-yard reception.
“Well, where we’re not responding well is in-game; we’re not responding well when somebody punches us,” Dillingham said. “We can’t regather ourselves yet. I faced the same thing when I was at Florida State. We just couldn’t figure out when it started to rain; it always poured, and that’s part of growth.
“You’ve got to eventually learn and have enough confidence and belief that, ok, you get socked in the face, they convert a 3rd and 15 on the first drive. Relax. You get them to a 3rd and 15, and then you stop the bleeding. Right now, when we get on our heels in game, that’s when we really struggle, and we played a lot of games where teams haven’t really got us on our heels.”
Defensive Report:
As mentioned above, the Oregon offense had its way with ASU in the first half, converting all six of their first-half possessions into touchdowns. In the half alone, the Ducks had 444 yards of total offense, and Nix threw for 381 yards and all six of the touchdowns. It was a rout.
However, there were still some solid performances from the newcomers on the ASU defense.
Oklahoma transfer EDGE Clayton Smith had one of the best performances of the day. Smith had four tackles on the night, all of them solo and two of them as tackles for loss.
On his best play of the day, Nix was attempting to create something on 3rd-and-20 when Smith shed his block and sacked him for ASU’s only sack of the day. With fellow transfer EDGE Prince Dorbah out due to injury, Smith has done a nice job filling in his place.
Although he did miss multiple of them, Austin Peay transfer safety Shamari Simmons was still tied for the team lead in tackles with 7. Exiting this game, Simmons is second on the team in total tackles with 65, just three behind his partner, senior safety Chris Edmonds. With so many talented players on the other side, Dillingham doesn’t blame his players for the missed tackles.
“We’ve been good tacklers all year,” Dillingham noted. “To be honest, that’s been something we’ve done a nice job of. [Oregon] is just hard to tackle. I know you wish there was a good coaching answer, but there’s not.”
Two newcomers who have been a mainstay in this report for the entire year, Michigan State transfer defensive tackle Dashaun Mallory and BYU transfer linebacker Tate Romney, each had a disappointing performance. Romney had just four tackles on the night, and Mallory, coming off arguably his best performance of the year against UCLA, had a few plays where he was in the backfield but came away with just three tackles.
“They got a good lower center of gravity,” Mallory said about the Oregon skill players. “There were a lot of times where you felt like they were going down to the ground with you, then you’ll look up, and they’re still getting yards after the carry. And I mean, the defense just didn’t execute game tackling. We definitely spoke about that all week. We knew that we had to get multiple bodies on the block here at all times. Shoutout to Oregon; they got two great running backs that kept coming in and getting the job done.”
The defense’s performance was disappointing, but the lopsided score allowed some other newcomers to get into the game and make an impact. True freshman defensive back Keith Abney II has been one of ASU’s best performers in practice. In fall camp, Dillingham praised him for his ability to make an impact so early into his time at college. On Saturday, he finally got to make an impact.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Oregon’s backup quarterback Ty Thompson was picked off by Abney for his first career interception. It was the only play he made on the day, but it was impactful as the interception came on the Oregon 31-yard line and later turned into three points.
Special Teams:
Cal transfer placekicker Dario Longhetto began the game with a missed kick on ASU’s first drive of the game but settled in after that. The graduate made his following three kicks on two field goals and an extra point.
New Mexico State Transfer punter Josh Carlson didn’t play, while Skattebo had one punt for 45 yards.
Participation:
Number of games played by ASU’s first-year players:
DB Demetries Ford (11)
DB Shamari Simmons (11)
DT Tristan Monday (10)
DT Dashaun Mallory (11)
DT CJ Fite (10)
DL John Butler (7)
DL Sam Benjamin (9)
LB Tate Romney (11)
LB Tre Brown (9)
RB Cam Skattebo (11)
RB Kyson Brown (11)
WR Melquan Stovall (11)
WR Troy Omeire (7)
K Dario Longhetto (8)
P Josh Carlson (7)
LS Slater Zellers (11)
EDGE Elijah O’Neal (11)
EDGE Clayton Smith (10)
DB Josiah Cox (9)
DB Keith Abney II (7)
OL Cade Briggs (9)
OL Aaron Frost (7)
OL Sean Na’a (8)
OL Leif Fautanu (11)
DB Keontez Bradley (4)
WR Jordan Tyson (2)
WR Kaleb Black (3)
DL Harold Brooks (1)
RB DeCarlos Brooks (4)
QB Jacob Conover (3)
EDGE Prince Dorbah (9)
OL Sione Finau (5)
WR Xavier Guillory (9)
WR Korbin Hendrix (1)
P Ian Hershey (3)
OL Max Iheanchor (5)
OL Sirri Kandiyeli (1)
QB Drew Pyne (2)
QB Jaden Rashada (2)
OL Kyle Scott (2)
OL Bram Walden (6)
LB K’VionThunderbird (1)
OL Makua Pule (1)
OL Keona Peat (1)
Freshmen who have not played this year and will redshirt:
DL Landen Thomas
DL Kyran Bourda
DL Ashley Williams
DB Montana Warren
DB Lenox Lawson
*DB Shaun Russ has left the team
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