Resiliency pays hefty dividends in road win for ASU

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The Arizona State football team grinded out a 24-21 upset win Friday night against No. 15 California for its second win against a top-20 team on the road in three weeks.

The Sun Devils defeated then No. 18 Michigan State on the road in East Lansing on Sept. 14 before coming home last Saturday to an upset loss to Colorado. Friday was a different story as the team flipped the page and came away with yet another crucial win away from Tempe.

ASU head coach Herm Edwards praised his coaching staff for the win and said that ironically his players’ youth helped his team to be composed in a hostile environment against a ranked team.

“(The players) don’t know the difference, whether it’s a ranked team or not,” Edwards explained. “Coaches need a lot of credit. After that loss at home, to come on the road and play this team is a handful. They did a great job of getting our guys ready to play.”

The ground attack was the story for ASU on Friday night with running back Eno Benjamin and quarterback Jayden Daniels wearing down the Cal defense which limited the signal-caller to just 174 yards through the air and no touchdowns.

While it was not the best night for Benjamin average wise at 3.4 yards, he posted 105 yards on 29 carries and scored three touchdowns including the game-winner with 4:41 to play. Daniels collected a career-high 93 yards on 12 carries, surpassing his previous career-high of 48 yards he had in the aforementioned upset win against Michigan State.

“They have a lot of great effort and they’re hustling to the ball,” Daniels said of the Cal defense. “They were trying to limit the big plays and they did that for most of the game but we capitalized on our opportunities. We just converted and kept moving the chains.”

Another significant factor in the win for ASU was play of its defense. This group came up big for the Sun Devils Friday night after being called “soft” by defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales following the loss to Colorado a game where the unit yielded 475 total yards of offense and 34 points.

On Friday, the Sun Devils held the Golden Bears to just 245 yards of total offense including a mere 140 yards passing- 205 yards less than they allowed Colorado, quarterback Steven Montez to have last week. Aiding this statistic was Cal losing its starting quarterback Chase Garbers to an upper-body injury late in the first half. Garbers at the time was 9-12 with 117 yards and a touchdown. His replacement, former UCLA quarterback Devon Modster completed just 5-14 for 23 yards with an interception late in the first half thrown to Sun Devil safety Aashari Crosswell in the end zone to negate a potential scoring chance for the Golden Bears. Edwards said the loss of Garbers was momentous for ASU’s victory.

“I told (Cal head coach Justin) Wilcox I hope his quarterback (Garbers) is going to be OK,” Edwards said. “I saw the young man get hit right in front of me and fell on his shoulder. That had a lot to do with the outcome of this game.”

ASU improved with its rush defense as well on Friday, surrendering 105 yards on the ground to the two-headed rushing attack of Christopher Brown Jr. and Marcell Dancy. Against Colorado, the team gave up 138 yards.

Maybe the most important factor though for the ASU defense was its pass rushing, a team element Edwards lamented after the Colorado game. The Sun Devils took that feedback to heart and registered three sacks for 21 yards of loss on Friday. Last week against Colorado, the team did not sack Montez even once and only had five sacks total on the season.

The contest versus Cal started out on a much better note for ASU than against Colorado, when the Buffaloes jumped out to a 14-0 lead before ASU could seemingly blink. After starting with a three and out, the Sun Devils quickly got the ball back as Benjamin ran it in from 11-yards out after a 38-yard Daniels to Ricky Pearsall connection set up ASU well into Cal territory.

Cal would quickly strike back putting together a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive which included a 45-yard Garbers to Trevon Clark connection that set up a 16-yard Clark touchdown reception to tie the game up with 5:35 to play in the first quarter.

ASU would take its next possession into the second quarter setting up Cristian Zendejas for a 37-yard field goal attempt, which he would miss wide-right. The game reached a stalemate, as neither team would score for the remainder of the first half. ASU had an opportunity at a 50-yard Zendejas field goal midway through the second quarter but the Sun Devil placekicker came up short. Cal had an opportunity late in the half to score but Crosswell’s interception of Modster in the end zone essentially ended the first half as he took a knee in the end zone for a touchback.

“We were in coverage two and I read the quarterback’s eyes and saw he was going to the fade and went up and made the play,” Croswell stated. “I didn’t think about bringing it out. It was about being smart.”

Cal who deferred the coin toss made the most of receiving the second half kickoff received the ball out of the gate to start the second half. The Golden Bears would be resolved not to throw the ball the entire drive as they put together a 12 play, 63-yard drive culminating with a Chris Brown one-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-7 on their favor.

Yet, ASU would strike right back as Eno Benjamin would punch it in from three yards out to tie the game at 14 with about six minutes left in the third quarter.

After a few fruitless drives for both teams, Daniels was walloped by Cal linebacker Cameron Goode causing a fumble which was recovered by the Golden Bears in field goal range. While that drive netted zero yards it did culminate with a Cal 47-yard field goal by Greg Thomas to put the Bears up 17-14 with about 11 minutes to play in the game.

ASU answered again with a drawn-out 6:09, 15-play drive featuring numerous short passes and short runs. Eno Benjamin would cap off the drive with his third touchdown of the evening to put ASU on top 21-17 with just 4:34 to go. Zendejas would regain his confidence tacking on a career-long 43-yard field goal to give ASU the 24-17 lead with just under three minutes to go in the game. Cal once again couldn’t convert a first down sealing the Sun Devils’ upset win.

“Everyone elevated their game tonight,” Edwards remarked. “Last week was a bit of a shocker. This is a resilient bunch. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, they continue to find ways to keep themselves in the football game. If you do that, you have a chance. Football is about opportunities. We missed some today, but when we needed to make them, the offense went down and took the lead and the defense shut them out.”

“I was sitting on the sideline thinking there was no way we were going to allow this to happen,” Benjamin said. “They didn’t have their starting QB on the field and we had to take advantage of that.”

The Cal game was the 12th time in the Herm Edwards era that ASU has been involved in a one-score or less game. The win tonight improves the win-loss record in those games to 7-5, with four of those seven wins being against top-20 teams.

The Sun Devils (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) will have a bye week to prepare themselves for Mike Leach and the Washington State Cougars’ Air Raid attack visiting Tempe on Oct. 12. Edwards said it will be an opportune time for his team to get healthy.

“We’re a little bit wounded, our team is a bit beat up,” Edwards noted. “This bye week couldn’t come at a better time. We need to rest.”

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