(Tempe, AZ) Arizona State got to open up today in the sun for an TV game on Homecoming Weekend.
Photo – AzCentral.com
The Sun Devils (5-2 and 3-1) came off a bye week and regained a tie for the lead in the PAC-12 South a a result of Utah losing to Oregon State. The Utes still maintain the tie breaker from their win over ASU two weeks ago.
ASU received the opening kick off and were driving when Jayden Daniels’ pass was completed to Jordan Clark but he fumbled the ball at the Cougar’s thirty nine yard line and Washington State recovered.
WSU’s drive didn’t last long as the Devils’ defense put a stop to the drive quickly.
ASU fumbled again on their second possession after a completed pass to Bryan Thompson and the Cougs had the ball right back.
WSU popped it into the end zone on six plays from a yard out after their original touchdown was overturned on a play review. The Cougars led early 6-0 at the 9:44 mark of the opening quarter.
The Sun Devils needed to regroup after two fumbles on two possessions.
The Arizona State offense seemed to have gotten on track when he marched the team down the field but the turnover bug struck again as Daniels’ pass was once again intercepted at the Cougars thirty yard line. The Devils were 0-3 in possessions with three turnovers.
The Cougars were certainly opportunistic as they took advantage of the ASU miscues as De Laura connected with Travell Harris on a twenty eight yard scoring play. WSU went 87 yards on only six plays.
The Devils were now in a big hole down 14-0 with 1;15 still left in the first quarter.
Coach Herm Edwards rolled the dice on a fourth and one from the WSU sixteen yard line and DeaMonte Traynum was tackled for a two yard loss and the ball was turned over on downs back to the Cougars.
Photo – AzCentral.com
Four empty possessions for the Devils as they couldn’t finish their drives. On the flip-side, it would have been a thirty three yard field goal attempt had they chosen not to go for the first down.
Arizona State’s defense held firm and got their first turnover as Laura’s pass was picked off by Merlin Robertson and the Devils had the ball thirteen yards from the end zone.
Three plays and no touchdown including a motion penalty put the ball at the fourteen yard line where Christian Zendejas missed a thirty two yard field goal attempt.
The bye week at this point didn’t look beneficial.
De Laura began to pick apart the Sun Devil secondary on long pass plays. On a third and three from the eighth, ASU was penalized for defensive holding and the Cougs had themselves a first down at theDevils’ four yard line.
Three plays later, Washington State punched it in from the one yard line to go up 21-0 with 5:09 left till halftime. That drive went eighty yards on thirteen plays,
The Devils coughed up the ball again around mid-field when Daniyel Ngata fumbled the ball and WSU recovered.
With under two minutes left in the first half, De Laura hit a wide open Calvin Jackson Jr over the middle for a forty five yard touchdown. Washington State was making this game look easy. That drive took only three plays to got forty nine yards and the Devils were down 28-0.
Just prior to the half, Daniels threaded the needle from the twelve yard line to Buckley-Shelton to finally get the goose egg off the scoreboard and cut the Cougar lead to 28-7.
The halftime stats were fairly even. If you hadn’t watched the fist half, you may have thought the score was 17-14, but WSU scored on three of the four Sun Devil turnovers.
Both teams had made their adjustments in the locker room and the entire third quarter was back and forth possessions with no one scoring the entire quarter.
On the first play of the fourth quater, Dean Janikowski booted a forty yard field goal to extend the Cougar’s lead to 31-7.
ASU could get nothing started and resembled a treat that was lost in the dark.
As WSU continued their ball control offense, they were tightened the noose around Devils’ neck by shorting the game on the ground and expire precious minutes off the clock.
With 6:50 to go, Janikowski kicked another field goal, this one from thirty two yards out and the noose had all but cut off almost all life left in the Sun Devils 34-7.
On the ensuing kickoff, D.J. Taylor took the ball at the goal line and raced to the Cougar forty yard line for a sixty yard return.
Four rushes and a pass later, ASU found themselves at the one yard line. The next play Trayanum bounced over for a touchdown.
Much too little much too late as the Sun Devils still looked at a twenty point deficit, 34-14 and less than five minutes remained.
WSU still moved the ball into scoring position, but Janikowski booted it wide from forty four yards out.
Edwards gave back up quarterback Trenton Bourguet the ball and he marched his team down the field, albeit with Cougar back-ups in to score on an eleven yard pass to Andre Johnson with just :28 left on the clock.
That’s how it ended 34-21 with the Sun Devils looking their worst this season. Their five turnovers equated to twenty four of Washington State’s total points.
Arizona State actually out gained the Cougars 406-400 in total yards with 275 coming through the air.
Whatever the team worked on in the bye week, didn’t amount to anything positive on the field today.
With their loss to Utah being held scoreless in the second half and a lone touchdown in the first half of this game, ASU had been outscored 56-7.
Next week, the Men of Troy come to town to try to make it two in a row over ASU.
Last season, Scottsdale Desert Mountain alumni Kedon Slovis engineered a last minute drive to beat the Devils 28-27 after ASU had the lead for most of the contest.
With the Sun Devis now 5-3 overall and 3-2 in conference need to win out and get some help from Utah’s opponents to have a glimmer of a chance to take the PAC-12 South title.
UCLA wanted to gain ground, but lost in Utah and are in a second place tie with ASU.
