PASADENA, Calif. - A slow start mixed with penalties and lack of third-down success led to the demise of No. 24 Arizona State (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) as the team dropped their second straight game in a 42-32 loss to UCLA (3-5, 3-2).
The Sun Devils fell behind by a score of 28-7 at the halfway point and allowed a total of 217 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns by UCLA.
“For me, it was more than just the score,” head coach Herm Edwards admitted. “It was our emotions. We didn’t handle it very good. At times I felt like we didn’t have any energy early in the football game.”
The lack of success early in the game by the slow start for ASU led to emotions that began to boil over for the Sun Devils.
This was most evident in the 3rd quarter following a 9-play, 71-yard touchdown drive by UCLA to put the score at 35-7 to begin the second half.
ASU responded by getting the ball down to the one-yard line on the ensuing drive but was unable to punch it in on a second and goal attempt.
After being stopped short of the goal line, Eno Benjamin stood up from the bottom of the pile and tossed the ball towards the ref earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
The penalty along with others throughout the game hurt ASU’s scoring chances as Benjamin’s penalty forced the Sun Devils to settle for a field goal and draw the score to 35-10.
“Am I not supposed to give the ball to the referee? I don’t know,” Benjamin admitted. “We false-started, they were doing a lot of shifting, we didn’t see much of that in film. It got us a few times.”
The unsportsmanlike penalty was not the only of the game for the Sun Devils who finished with a total of 9 penalties for 72 yards.
Defensive back Aashari Crosswell was also given a 15-yard penalty after kicking an overthrown pass that warranted the penalty.
“Mixing passion and emotion,” Edwards stated as the team’s main issue. “Aashari kicks a football ─ who does that? But there again, he’s done it in practice. We’ve told him you can’t do that and lone and behold he does it. It’s shocking. Danny (Gonzales) did the right thing and benched him. That’s where he’s going to stay until he figures things out.”
The lack of control over emotions came in large part due to the dominance of UCLA throughout the game, the majority of which came in the first half.
UCLA engineered two 16 play drives in the first half with both ending in touchdowns on drives of 81 and 80 yards.
The Bruins offense ran a total of 45 plays in the first half compared to ASU’s 26 as they were able to keep the Sun Devils offense off the field for a large part of the half.
“We weren’t very focused early in this football game,” Edwards admitted. “You’ve got to give UCLA credit. I don’t want to take anything away from UCLA. They did a marvelous job. They ran the football ─ they did some things defensively where we couldn’t move the ball early in the football game. You’ve got to give them credit.”
The main struggles on both sides of the ball for ASU stemmed from lack of third-down production on the offensive side of the ball and an inability to stop the Bruins offense on third down on defense.
These struggles on third down on both sides of the ball both kept the UCLA offense on the field and the Arizona State offense on the sideline as UCLA had a time of possession of 38:30 of the total 60 minutes.
“We didn’t convert on third downs, it kills drives,” freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels admitted. “As an offense, we were out of character, that wasn’t our offense we’re used to.
“It came down on both sides of the ball, offense, and defense, to third downs and some big things came because of 3rd down. We didn’t convert, defense didn’t get off the field.”
On the defensive end, it was not only third downs, but long third-down conversions and penalties that helped UCLA own the time of possession.
“We’ve got to get off the field on third down ─ third and long especially,” linebacker Darien Butler stated. “We know teams are going to see what they saw against Utah where they converted two 3rd and 14 plays.
“We’ve got to stop the penalties, that’s really what’s hurting us. Especially on defense. You get 15-yard penalties, it always leads to a touchdown. Every time. Never fails.”
Despite falling behind as much as 42-10 at one point in the matchup, ASU responded and began to show life late in the matchup.
This came after Edwards admitted to his team in the locker room that there was no limit to how out of hand the game was getting at the halfway point.
“I got in there at halftime and I flat out told them if you keep playing like this, I don’t know what the score is going to be,” Edwards said. “I said I don’t know what’s going to happen in the second half, but we have to play better. Just win the second half. That’s all I was concerned about. Get your mojo back.”
The Sun Devils answered the call of their coach as they put up a total of 22 points in the 4th quarter of play to draw the final score to within 10 points.
Two of the scores came from the hands of wide receiver Frank Darby who led the team in receiving with six receptions for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Nolan Matthews secured the other touchdown on a pass from Daniels who completed 20 of 29 on the night for 267 yards alongside 13 rushes for 67 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Sun Devils forced a total of three fumbles with Butler, Chase Lucas, and George Lea forcing the fumbles.
“As the game ended, I felt better about our competitiveness,” Edwards admitted. “Defense took away the ball a couple of times, guys were tackling, running to the ball. The offense protected Jayden, he made some throws, receivers caught the ball. If the first half looked like the second half it would’ve been a pretty competitive football game.”
After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time on the season the Sun Devils will be able to have a chance to regroup with their second bye week in the coming week.
The off week will give the team a chance to recover from the last two road games and give them time to determine how they want their final four conference games and season to finish.
“We have a chance to regroup and finish strong these last couple of games this season,” Daniels stated. “It’s how we bounce back from this, the last two games actually. Are we going to accept the challenge or fold?”
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