(Tempe, AZ) The sky’s opened up in force a few hours prior to the game and continued until almost up until game time. The field was in remarkable shape all things considered.
Photo – Bill McCulloch
This was a key opportunity for ASU to make a statement in the conference after the Baylor win in Waco Texas.
TCU came in with one of the nation’s best quarterbacks in Josh Hoover and the throngs of NFL Scouts in the Press Box verified that.
One of the keys for the Sun Devils to be successful is they had to establish a consistent running game to shorted the game and keep Hoover and the Frog offense off the field.
First Quarter
TCU won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half.
The Devils didn’t have much success and were forced to punt. An apparent fumble by Raleek Brown was overturned, but ASU was forced to punt.
The Horned Frogs’ Ethan Craw boomed a 69 yard punt that pinned Arizona State at their own seven yard line. After some brief success, the Sun Devils were again forced to punt.
Texas Christian wasn’t having much success on offense early either, but on their second offensive possession, Hoover began to connect with his receivers as he was given more time to throw.
Trent Battle broke his initial contact and ran it in from thirteen yards out to put TCU on the board 7-0 with 3:11 left in the quarter.
Photo – Sun Devils made Athletics
Second Quarter
The Offensive Coaches for ASU made some blocking adjustments and the running game came alive. Raleek Brown broke off some big runs to get the Devils down to the twenty three yard line of Texas Christian. After Leavitt took a sack on third down and a loss of five yards, Jesus Gomez, last week’s hero missed a 46 yard field goal attempt and the Devils came away empty.
Hoover continued to pick apart the ASU secondary and moved his offense with relative ease. An offensive face mask penalty slowed the drive temporarily, but DJ Rogers hauled in a 39 yard pass to get them inside the ten yard line. Jeremy Payne scored on the next play on a 7 yard run and the Horned Frogs had begun to establish their dominance 14-0 and still 10:22 left til halftime.
ASU went for a fourth and two and Kyson Brown was stopped shy of the line to gain and on a head scratching decision by the coaching staff with the offense not showing they could move the ball consistently. TCU took over on downs.
Arizona State continued to their inability to stop the pass as they got whistled for pass interference in the end zone. Hoover couldn’t get them into the end zone, so they settled for a 27 yard field goal to add to their lead 17-0 at the 6:24 mark.
With a sense of urgency, Leavitt and company had to do something positive and in three plays and a 65 yard drive with Jordan Tyson hauling in a 57 yard pass for a touchdown on a post pattern to get Arizona State on the board 17-7 with 4:51 left til halftime.
The excitement carried over to the Devils’ defense and they forced a three and out with two plays going for lost yardage.
Now that ASU had awoken, the offense found their mojo and as Leavitt popped off a 24 yard spinning run down to the Horned Frogs’ eight yard line. The next play, Leavitt faked the jet sweep and bolted up the middle to score and suddenly the Sun Devis were only down by three 17-14. They scored in 1:47 on a five play 47 yard drive.
Another three and out for TCU and the Devils had a chance to steal some points right before halftime.
Back came Arizona State with sideline patterns to stop the clock and a couple of timeouts, they found themselves at the Frogs twenty eight yard line.
Leavitt fumbled on a third down and TCU recovered to stop the Sun Devils drive with 45 seconds left in the half.
Photo – Sun Devil Athletics
Halftime
The tale of two quarters saw the Horned Frogs dominate the first part of the game going up by two touchdowns 14-0. The Sun Devil secondary was porous and allowed big plays by TCU on third downs to keep drives alive.
In the second quarter, Arizona State once they got on the board with their first touchdown, the entire disposition of the team changed 180° for the better. Their efforts to get back in to game were fueled by big plays by Raleek Brown, Tyson and Leavitt. Gomez’ missed field goal could have made the halftime score even.
Third Quarter
Arizona State attempted an onside kick to start the second half, but TCU recovered.
The Horned Frogs took advantage immediately when Hoover hit Joseph Manjack IV with a 32 yard pass down to the ASU seven yard line.
Boogie Wilson picked off Hoover at the one yard line retuned it to the eight yard line and the Devils dodged a bullet.
After a couple of good runs by Raleek Brown, Leavitt aired it out to Jaren Hamilton for 44 yards down to the TCU sixteen yard line. From there the offense bogged down and faced a fourth down from the four yard line. Gomez redeemed himself with a 26 yard field goal to tie the score 17-17.
Hoover unfazed, started connecting wiht his receivers and got the ball to the ASU one yard line. Hoover snuck the ball over to regain the lead for the Horned Frogs 24-17.
The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, so Arizona State got the ball at their own thirty five yard line to start the drive.
After a penalty and three short yard gains, once again Coach Dillingham rolled the dice and this time it paid off as Leavitt threw the ball as he was being tackled and completed it to Tyson for the first down.
Photo – Sun Devil Athletics
Fourth Quarter
Now it was the Devils turn inside the five yard line, but again they came away empty choosing to for it on fourth down instead of taking a chip shot field goal.
The Sun Devil defense did its job and held TCU without a first down and got the ball back off the punt which traveled only 31 yards to the TCU thirty nine yard line. A couple of short completions got the first down. Things quickly turned as Derek Eusebio was whistled for an offensive pass interference which was a big blow to their momentum. To add to their misery, Gomez missed his second field goal attempt from 43 yards out.
It was TCU’s turn to run some clock. They were successful getting their initial first down, but then Hoover took a two sacks and were forced to punt.
With 5:42 left, ASU had their work cut out for them. On the first play, Rayleel Brown turned on his track speed and sprinted 35 yards down the side line. Brown followed that up with 13 yard run and ASU was at the Horned Frogs’ twenty four yard line. TCU’s Channing Canada committed a pass interference which kept the drive going. That was followed by a rouging the passer penalty that put the ball at the Frogs’ three yard line.
The Sun Devils seemed to have lost their ability to get the tough yards inside the five yard as they had already been turned away twice in the game.
The game came for the Sun Devils down to a fourth and goal from the four when Leavitt found who else but Tyson in the back of the end zone for the tying touchdown, 24-24 with 1:50 left and TCU had all their timeouts left.
The Horned Frogs took the touchback and only needing about 45 yards to get into field goal range. That never came to pass as Hoover was hit by Prince Dorbah and caused him to fumble and ASU got their opportunity to win the game.
With the Sun Devils having their issues inside the five yard line, TCU began to use their timeouts tying to hold ASU to a field goal attempt. Two run attempts by Arizona State gained three yards on two plays as the ball was placed at the two yard line. TCU used their final timeout. The Horned Frogs defense gave up nothing again and ASU had a fourth and goal from inside the one yard line 1:17 left. A false start put the ball back to the six yard line and forced the Devils to attempt a field goal. Gomez hit the go ahead 23 yard field goal to give Arizona State a 27-24 lead but just as at Mississippi State time remained on the clock.
TCU made the mistake of bringing the kickoff out of the end zone but only got the ball to the twelve yard line. Two plays into the drive, Devils linebacker Martell Hughes picked off Hoover and that sealed the game, 27-24.
Tonight’s Attendance was another sellout 53,774.
Photo – Sun Devil Athletics
Wrap Up
The Sun Devils made the big plays when they had to, but there’s still a big concern with their offense inside the 10 yard line where they were turned away without scoring more times times than good teams are expected. This game could have been a lot easier to win that they made it.
Raleek Brown had another very productive game with 148 yards on 22 carries. Jordyn Tyson hauled in 11 catches for 126 yards and some very clutch receptions at key times in the game. Quarterback Sam Leavitt was 26-38 for 278 yards.
Myles Rowser led the team with 10 tackles and the defense forced two fumbles and two interceptions, none more clutch than the final one to turn out the lights on TCU.
Up Next
After a bye week, the team heads to Salt Lake City to face the always tough Utah Utes on October 11th and then return home for a difficult matchup against preseason favorite Texas Tech.
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