PASADENA, Calif. -- Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s pass was low and short. So low and short that receiver Kyle Phillips was an involuntary bystander, making no effort at the uncatchable pass.

The ball hit the trimmed Rose Bowl grass in front of Phillips’ feet, then skidded into the air. Perhaps it was out of frustration. Or anger. Or maybe it was just a projectile shooting in Aashari Crosswell’s direction and, hey, kicking things is fun.

The play was whistled dead. But before the pass settled, Crosswell kicked it. He didn’t grab it and punt it into the stands, but he kicked it. Flags came in. Croswell was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. UCLA moved up 15 yards and scored a touchdown two plays later.

“Who does that?” ASU coach Herm Edwards said in a befuddled tone.

It was a bizarre sequence in an even more bizarre contest Saturday night in Pasadena.

Last week, the Sun Devils, riding high after an HBO special and a come-from-behind win over Washington State, were outmatched and overpowered against Utah. But it was cold. It was raining. Utah was a bigger, more experienced team. Heck, the Utes were ranked higher, projected to beat the Devils by two touchdowns.

It was a bad dream. ASU was outside of its comfort zone -- and it showed. The 24th-ranked Sun Devils (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) were exposed to the harsh reality of its youth but, at the time, it didn’t feel insurmountable.

Saturday’s 42-32 loss to UCLA, though, that was a full-blown nightmare. It was a more poignant affirmation that the Sun Devils still have major holes, that they’re a whole lot closer to missing a bowl game than they are of going to the Rose Bowl Game.

Since Edwards took the job in Tempe almost two years ago, the Sun Devils have been in a number of close contests -- probably too many. But, in some sense, they were fine with that -- it’s part of the ideology of ASU’s head coach.

Edwards wants to effectively run the ball. He wants to produce long, methodical drives that give ASU an edge when it comes to the time of possession. It utilizes ASU’s strength pounding the ball with Eno Benjamin while not asking too much of a young quarterback and a young defense. In large part, the Sun Devils have had success employing it.

UCLA coach Chip Kelly and Edwards are friends. Edwards said the two often talk at coaches’ meetings and, given that they were both tasked with rebuilding a program the same year in the same conference, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to believe the pair pays attention to what the other does.

And in Edwards and Kelly’s second Pac-12 face off, the latter used the former’s philosophies and go-to game plan to pull off a dominating upset.

UCLA ran the ball 57 times for 217 yards. It had five drives of eight plays or more and two 16-play sequences. The Bruins’ offense was on the field for more than 38 minutes, finishing exactly a minute-and-a-half short of possessing the ball twice as much as ASU.

Kelly did his best Edwards’ impression and, in doing so, exposed ASU’s most pressing question marks.

Its defense couldn’t get off the field on third downs -- allowing a 50 percent conversion rate and 27 total first downs -- and its offense hasn’t seemed to develop any sort of rhythm in the last two weeks. In the first half, which purposely excludes garbage time, ASU had just seven first downs and its only red zone trip was because of a defensive turnover.

“We have to coach them better to execute because the stuff we were doing -- we were there to make plays, they have to make plays,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said.

And then there were the penalties. Last week in Salt Lake City, Edwards felt the need to apologize to Utah coach Kyle Whittingham for the Devils’ 12 flags that gave the Utes over 100 free yards. It was that bad.

Saturday was a bit tamer in the number of penalties (9-72), but not in their egregious nature. There was Crosswell’s kick. 15 yards. Then the refs flagged Eno Benjamin for the way he threw the ball after a run. 15 yards. Then linebacker Khaylan Kearse-Thomas was flagged for roughing the passer. 12 yards (It was half the distance to the goal).

Debate the calls all you want but they paint the bigger picture of a young, immature football team. Now, there were distractions -- namely what seems like half of ASU’s team returning home to L.A. -- but Saturday’s performance felt different than a team trying to impress family and friends.

“For me, it was more than just the score. It was our emotions. We didn’t handle it very good,” Edwards said. “We’re going to find out a lot about the young guys in the locker room and about the seniors, too. Who wants to lead, who wants to step up?”

Against Utah, ASU was dominated physically. In some ways, there’s not much you can do against that. But against UCLA, the Sun Devils precisely and adroitly picked apart. They were beaten at their own game by a less-talented team.

That’s tougher to recover from.

Saturday may have shown us what ASU has been all along. Take three Jayden-Daniels-led-game-winning drives away and ASU would only have two wins. OK, that’s too far. But perhaps Daniels’ heroics, in some ways, covered up ASU’s deficiencies because, in a way, why fix anything when you’re winning?

“It’s really just how we overcome it,” Daniels said. “Are we going to accept the challenge or are we going to fold?”

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