Well, that was certainly a football game. From stout defense, to ten minute possessions, to a game saving targeting call, this was a #Pac12AfterDark treat.
In what was an obvious letdown, look ahead game for Arizona State as they travelled to San Diego to take on the San Diego State Aztecs, the Sun Devils lived up to the expectations. They looked ahead to their battle with Washington next week, and they got caught sleeping by a mean and tough San Diego State team.
After the game was tied at 14 at the half, San Diego State dominated the second half, holding the ball for nearly the entire final 30 minutes, and doing exactly what they do best, in running the ball, keeping the game slow, and forcing Arizona State’s offense right back over to the sidelines whenever they stepped onto the field.
That dominant second half was enough for San Diego State to grab a big win for their program, as they ran out the clock on the Sun Devils on the way to their victory, despite a controversial ending where a targeting hit jarred the ball loose at the 1-yard-line. Arizona State was that close to coming out of the game with a 3-0 mark.
It was a big day for Juwan Washington, Chase Jasmin, and pretty much every running back on San Diego State’s roster. Let’s get right to the takes.
3. Arizona State’s run defense struggled a lot
Arizona State had really excelled defensively thus far in the season. They completely shut UTSA down in week one, and it was the defense that won them the game last week against Michigan State. The defense, while it was solid for almost all of the game last night, couldn’t get it done late in the game.
While the Sun Devil offense certainly takes most of the blame for what happened in the second half, the defense is not fully innocent. San Diego State was able to melt a ton of the clock and hold on to the ball for way too long, keeping it on the ground on nearly every single play. Arizona State struggled with tackling, and just let Juwan Washington and Chase Jasmin run all over them late in the game.
The touchdown that sealed the deal late in the game was more of the same. It was a sloppy game from the Arizona State defense, and against a team that can really only do one thing offensively, it’s embarrassing that ASU had no real answer. You can’t get dominated physically by a G5 team like that and expect to make noise in the Pac-12. This defense has a lot of improving to do.
The defense was nowhere near the biggest problem though.
2. This offense is not good
After a pretty solid first half that saw 14 points and some pretty decent play from the Sun Devils offense, they completely collapsed in the second half. Late in the fourth quarter, Arizona State had four total yards, and zero first downs on 12 plays. That was the case until a last-ditch effort on their final drive that saw the passing game finally open up a little, as they at least found a little movement. Oh, and that bizarre targeting centric drop to end the game. I’m not even going to touch that.
That level of struggle though, up until that point, is completely disastrous. Arizona State has far too much offensive talent for something like this to happen. Manny Wilkins is a strong, exciting quarterback. N’Keal Harry might be the best receiver in the whole conference, save for Laviska Shenault. This group is not devoid of talent.
They look like they are far to often though. There’s no semblance of a rushing attack. Wilkins has a tendency to just throw the ball up and hope someone comes down with it. There’s no efficiency, and this isn’t an offense that can compete with top-level defenses, or even average ones. It isn’t fair to put your defense in this situations this offense put their defense in.
Ultimately, what this comes down to, just like the defense, is physicality. This offensive line lacks physicality, and they got blown off the ball by a defense that doesn’t have a size or a strength advantage on them. That needs to get fixed before Washington is facing off with the Sun Devils next weekend.
1. Arizona State is still one of the best teams in Pac-12 South
Despite all of this, and despite what is a pretty bad loss here, there is a bright side for Arizona State. When looking around the rest of the Pac-12 South, there are plenty of nuanced opinions that can be shared. This is not a place for nuanced opinions. The Pac-12 South stinks out loud. The Pac-12 South stinks in seven different languages.
USC just got done getting pantsed by Texas. UCLA lost to Fresno State. Utah lost to Washington. The only winners of the day were Arizona and Colorado, both of whom faced off with FCS schools. It was a very bad week for the division, and in the grand scheme of things, Arizona State’s loss was probably the most respectable of the bunch, save for Utah to Washington.
What we can take from all this is that USC is not very good this year. We know UCLA isn’t good, and we know Arizona isn’t good. That leaves Colorado, Utah, and Arizona State to compete for the South title, and out of those three, it seems like Arizona State is probably the most talented. Sure they have plenty of road blocks left to get over, but this offense has talent, they just need to learn how to use it.
I think Herm Edwards the Sun Devils will be just fine, and I think they could be ready to surprise Washington next week.