Arizona State Football: 3 takeaways from heartbreaking loss at USC

Arizona State football was looked at as a dark-horse playoff contender when Pac-12 play kicked off on Saturday, but USC silenced the Sun Devils.

All Arizona State needed to do was hold on in the final minutes and it would open the season with a win over No. 20 USC, but the Trojans had other ideas.

With 1:20 left in the fourth quarter, Kedon Slovis hit Drake London in the end zone for the tying score to make it 27-27 and an extra point gave the Trojans a late lead. Arizona State was unable to answer as it turned the ball over on downs after Jayden Daniels was unable to connect with his receiver on fourth-and-long with a blitz in his face.

It was a tough loss for the Sun Devils, but it shouldn’t be back-breaking. What’d we learn?

3. Defensive backfield struggled

It’s tough to knock Arizona State’s defensive backfield as they were targeted early and often as Kedon Slovis attempted 55 passes and he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. They held him under 400 yards on those 55 attempts, but they still weren’t able to play as well as they would have hoped as two USC receivers topped 100 yards.

Drake London and Amon-Ra St. Brown both had 100 receiving yards with 15 combined catches and a touchdown. It’s clear that those two might create a deadly duo this year.

Tyler Vaughns and Bru McCoy each had over 50 yards receiving with 12 combined receptions. So that means it only took four receivers to combine for over 300 yards and 27 receptions. Not a great look for this secondary.

Granted, this will be the most talented receiving corps Arizona State will face all season, but any time you give up nearly 400 yards through the air to mostly four receivers, that shows that you got picked on.