BERKELEY, Calif. - One thing that everyone can commend Arizona State football on in 2023 is the team’s ability to stay disciplined and not commit penalties. Through four games, ASU had committed just 19 total penalties for 186 yards.

In their 24-21 loss to Cal, ASU continued the trend of discipline, committing just five penalties for 35 total yards. The problem? They all came at the worst possible time.

I believe we had four penalties for 35 yards or something like that,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “I think we had a 35-yard penalty. So we’re still keeping the penalties down, but they were crucial penalties.”

Through 57 minutes, the ASU defense had been playing a very good game from a discipline standpoint. Despite dealing with injuries before the game and multiple injuries sustained during the game, the defense had not committed a single penalty, and it looked like they were about to give the ball back to an offense that had scored a touchdown on four plays their previous drive.

On fourth-and-seven, Cal sophomore quarterback Sam Jackson V dropped back and fumbled the snap. However, Jackson was able to scramble away from pressure and chuck a downfield prayer toward junior wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter. All the ASU defense had to do was continue to play the clean game they had the previous 57 minutes and forty seconds.

However, senior Ed Woods–who had a good game up to that point with multiple pass breakups–made contact with Hunter just a split second too early. It was a clear penalty, giving Cal a fresh set of downs in the ASU red zone. Although the defense eventually got a stop on fourth-and-one from the one-yard line, Woods’ penalty cost ASU all three of its timeouts.

With just under three minutes on the clock and starting from their own one-yard line, ASU was unable to drive down the field and kick a game-tying field goal, losing their fourth consecutive game.

“You get pass interference with a quarterback scrambling and throws a chuck ball with four minutes left to go in the game,” Dillingham commented. It wasn’t a matter of the sloppiness of penalties. It was a matter of the timely penalties that were critical on pretty much the most important plays of the football game. We had two critical penalties.”

Woods’ late pass interference was not the only timely penalty that had a major impact on the game. Set up by a 66-yard completion to junior running back Cam Skattebo, ASU had marched down to the Golden Bear one-yard line. On 4th-and-1, Dillingham went to one of his favorite play calls, a direct snap to Skattebo, aka the ‘WildSkat.’

Skattebo caught the snap in shotgun, but instead of taking it in himself, he pitched to junior wide receiver Elijah Badger, who found a huge hole and punched it into the endzone. Cal called a timeout prior to the point after attempt, and Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was livid on the sideline. Eventually, the referees convened and called ineligible substitution on ASU. The Sun Devils had 12 men on the field on one of the most important plays of the game. Graduate kicker Dario Longehtto kicked the field goal, but four points were erased off the board.

“That was upsetting,” Dillingham said. “We got to be able to see that as a staff. That’s my fault. I don’t know if that was our first penalty like that all year, and it happens in a critical moment. That costs us four points. That’s a tie game. Critical, Critical moment, and 100% my fault.”

Although those two penalties were two of the most costly errors of the game, ASU had other mistakes that Cal always seemed to take advantage of.

Dillingham has continually shown that he is going to be one of the most aggressive coaches in college football. On ASU’s first touchdown drive of the game, ASU went for a 4th-and-2 from their own 45-yard line, converting it on a two-yard rush from Skattebo. Two quarters later, ASU was in nearly the same situation. Lining up on their own 31-yard line, Dillingham dialed up the direct snap to Skattebo, but Cal was all over it, turning ASU over on downs.

The ASU defense quickly recovered, forcing a quick 3rd-and-20 situation. Then, Jackson found his redshirt freshman tight end Jack Endries across the middle for a massive gain of 20 yards and a first down. Endries was wide open across the middle, and multiple ASU defenders failed to bring him down. Total coverage bust, especially given the situation.

On the next play, Jackson made his best throw of the day, hitting Hunter right on his back shoulder where senior defensive back Demetries Ford didn’t have a chance to make a play.

These timely errors by ASU were the difference in a game that they probably could have handily won. The Sun Devils out-gained the Golden Bears 430-326. Junior quarterback Trenton Bourguet had arguably the best performance by an ASU quarterback this season, completing 26 of his 41 attempts while throwing for 344 yards and scoring a rushing touchdown.

I thought we had a great offensive game plan going into this week with Coach (Dillingham) and [offensive coordinator Beau] Baldwin drawing up some great plays,” Bourguet said. “Obviously, we were able to get down to the red zone, but just couldn’t, couldn’t capitalize the way we wanted to, and in this league in the Pac 12, with such high scoring offenses, you really got to capitalize.”

There has been clear improvement by this ASU team over the last two weeks, but mistakes continue to kill them in the biggest moments. The schedule only gets tougher from this point on for the Sun Devils, but if they can limit some of these mistakes, they might cause a problem for one of the premier teams in the Pac-12 searching for one of those coveted College Football Playoff bids.

“We’re getting closer. It’s not good enough, but we’re getting better,” Dillingham remarked. “Every week, we just got to get better, and it doesn’t matter who’s out. It doesn’t matter who’s going. It doesn’t matter what’s happening. Respond. You can either go back on Monday and quit or go back and compete. Right now, we’re getting better, and let’s just keep going back to work and keep getting better.”

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