First of all, my apologies for the later than usual post game post.
I did have to fly out of town on Friday morning to help out my aunt, whose husband has been in a vegetative state for the last couple of months. There was a lot of moving of furniture out of the house that needed to take place, as well as just being for support during an extremely tough time. I knew that if I didn't come and help out on Labor Day weekend, that it would always be harder for me to get there later in the season, and I also needed to coordinate my arrival with other family members. So long story short, this is why my post game written piece is not going to be in the usual format or length, so my apologies, and thank you for understanding.
This game was a classic tale of two halves where in the first, maybe not a stellar performance on both sides of the ball, but definitely enough to give you confidence that ASU was going to properly take care of the weakest opponent on their schedule. But the second half, as we know, was a whole different story. I know that the biggest question was how much did an unheard of 2.5-hour delay and playing at such an unusual hour affect the Sun Devils? The bottom line is that as the home team, no matter who you played, you would think that this massive delay was going to affect the road team more, and obviously, that was never the case.
But let's go back to the first half because it was definitely encouraging to see Jaden Rashada play very sharp going 12-16 for 182 yards and two touchdowns. What impressed me more is the fact that Kenny Dillingham had tremendous confidence in his true freshman quarterback in his first ever start to go for it on 4th and 8 from SUU's 47-yard line and was rewarded by a quasi Hail Mary touchdown caught by Xavier Guillory. And then the fact that Rashada was able to essentially execute a two-minute offense during hazy conditions to close out the half with a beautiful fade pass touchdown to Troy Omeire, and a lot of us thought that this offense was going to enter the second half with a lot of momentum and all the confidence in the world to really blow this game wide open.
Now, if you told me that an unusually longer halftime gave the SUU defensive staff more time to scheme against against ASU, I would have to say that it's an argument that is hard to refute. It's almost as if they really got into ASU's head, who was suddenly committing a plethora of penalties in the last two quarters. The only score the Sun Devils had in the second half was a field of goal by Dario Longhetto on a drive that consumed, and yes, I mean this sarcastically, minus 14 yards. What's more frustrating was that it was a drive that began on the Thunderbirds' 6-yard line following an explosive kick return by Elijah Badger for 81 yards.
Rashada going 6-15 in the second half for 54 yards says it all. Yes, he did miss more than a couple wide open receivers that could have really helped the offense move the chains, but you have to give credit to the SUU defense too. Having said all that, the fact that on the last drive, he completed two passes for 42 yards, and the ASU running backs posted a precious 24 yards did show that with their backs totally against the wall ASU was still able to squeeze out a win. True, they never should have been in this spot, to begin with, but there's something to be said about overcoming adversity. Cam Skattebo's 39 all-purpose yards on that last drive were impressive to see, and I think he definitely gives you a lot of confidence in this running game as well as the DeCarlos Brooks, who tallied 63 yards on only 12 carries, and on a couple of those carries where he was in a sense a leading blocker in an I-formation was a great wrinkle that had immaculate timing for struggling offense. And how helpful was it not to have the clock stop on first downs because, in the 4th quarter, ASU held onto the ball for over 13 minutes, including over 5 minutes on that last drive.
Is there plenty to be worried about the ASU offense after the season opener? Without a doubt. It took over two quarters for ASU to record their first third-down conversion after starting 0-7. That film session had to be ugly as hell, and between an offensive line that thoroughly got pushed around in the second half, didn't do a good job buying time for Rashada for or opening sustained running lanes, and a quarterback who really missed a few opportunities to get this offense going, there's plenty to fix. I know Kenny Dillingham fell on the sword blaming the play calling, but again when you face this caliber of a team, you should be getting away even with that performance by the staff.
The ASU defense was far from stellar on Thursday night, and I'm sure plenty of those players were squirming in their seats when they were watching their own cutups. But to their credit, they were able to hold the visitors to only 111 yards of total offense in the second half, 70 of those yards coming on the lone touchdown scored by Southern Utah in the second half. Much like the offense, they did a great job closing out the game, pitching two three-and-outs that totaled minus 4 yards. I said in the preseason that there were going to be a couple of games where the defense would have to bail out a struggling offense, and in some respects, I think that's what happened in the season opener.
We all thought that even with a full slate of players that the interior of the defensive line was going to have issues this season, and with Anthonie Cooper and CJ Fite sidelined, this came to fruition not only with run stopping in specific but with generally getting a push up the middle. Yes, the Thunderbirds had a veteran quarterback who, at times, was able to frustrate the defense with his quick release. But the fact that he was not sacked even once was something that ASU did not expect to happen. Needless to say, when one of your best pass rushers, Clayton Smith, gets ejected for targeting late in the first quarter, it will take a toll on your unit. Still, there should have been more than enough depth to impose your will upfront, and not recording even one tackle for loss in the second half was another unpleasant surprise by this group.
Gharin Stansbury and even Michael Matus took some snaps in the interior, and while they were certainly needed there, you can't help but wonder if maybe their presence was missed more than expected on the edge of the line.
At linebacker, even though Tate Romney started because Will Shaffer had to sit out the first half, I thought that he took full advantage of it with eight total tackles. Shaffer did struggle some in the second half, so I'm curious to see what the pecking order is going to be for the Oklahoma State game between those two players. Overall I did not think the linebacker group played a good game but in fairness, the issues in the interior of the defensive line didn't really put them in a spot to have a good night, either.
I think the secondary overall did play well, especially Chris Edmonds, who tied for the lead in tackles with eight, as well as Jordan Clark, who had five stops and two pass breakups. Dee Ford had a strong first half and overall registered 1.5 tackle-for-loss and a pass breakup. He was lucky that one huge passing play that he gave up was negated by a visitor's penalty, but miscommunication between him and Clark allowed the passing touchdown in the second half. But again, compared to the front six, I don't think the defensive backfield had a horrible night.
When it comes to special teams, we know that the less we talk about them, the better, but there is, unfortunately, plenty to discuss here. First and foremost is the obvious mistake of having Josh Carlson's punt blocked, a blocking mistake by Chris Edmonds on the edge, which resulted in a touchdown midway through the 4th quarter. Luckily for ASU, SUU was not able to capitalize on that, but that's probably not going to happen with any other team ASU faces on its schedule. Carlson himself did not have a good night aside from that blocked punt averaging 39.5 yards on six punts, while his counterpart on Southern Utah had over 42 yards on average. You can talk about adverse weather conditions and all, but it still comes down to the fact that both teams played on the same field on the same night, and one player unexpectedly did much better than the other
Dario Longhetto's 38-yard field gold was the difference on the scoreboard, but the fact that out of five kickoffs, he only had one touchback is definitely something that will be discussed quite a bit I'm sure. His kickoff coverage did bail him out, limiting the Thunderbirds to only 49 yards total of kick return. Badger's aforementioned 81-yard kick return was by far the only highlight of the night for this Sun Devil group.
It's understandable that those who were optimistic about this ASU team prior to the season opener perhaps are looking at this team in a different light, and Colorado's huge road win at TCU is probably not helping matters when many thought this was a team that was going to finish below ASU's 10th place prediction. I usually caution about week one overreaction, and I will maintain that philosophy today too. But there is doubt in my mind there's a lot for ASU to fix ahead of a challenging home game against Oklahoma State, and I personally will be able to form a better opinion about the Sun Devils once I see how they can bounce back from a win that certainly had a lot of adversity attached to it.
I did have to fly out of town on Friday morning to help out my aunt, whose husband has been in a vegetative state for the last couple of months. There was a lot of moving of furniture out of the house that needed to take place, as well as just being for support during an extremely tough time. I knew that if I didn't come and help out on Labor Day weekend, that it would always be harder for me to get there later in the season, and I also needed to coordinate my arrival with other family members. So long story short, this is why my post game written piece is not going to be in the usual format or length, so my apologies, and thank you for understanding.
This game was a classic tale of two halves where in the first, maybe not a stellar performance on both sides of the ball, but definitely enough to give you confidence that ASU was going to properly take care of the weakest opponent on their schedule. But the second half, as we know, was a whole different story. I know that the biggest question was how much did an unheard of 2.5-hour delay and playing at such an unusual hour affect the Sun Devils? The bottom line is that as the home team, no matter who you played, you would think that this massive delay was going to affect the road team more, and obviously, that was never the case.
But let's go back to the first half because it was definitely encouraging to see Jaden Rashada play very sharp going 12-16 for 182 yards and two touchdowns. What impressed me more is the fact that Kenny Dillingham had tremendous confidence in his true freshman quarterback in his first ever start to go for it on 4th and 8 from SUU's 47-yard line and was rewarded by a quasi Hail Mary touchdown caught by Xavier Guillory. And then the fact that Rashada was able to essentially execute a two-minute offense during hazy conditions to close out the half with a beautiful fade pass touchdown to Troy Omeire, and a lot of us thought that this offense was going to enter the second half with a lot of momentum and all the confidence in the world to really blow this game wide open.
Now, if you told me that an unusually longer halftime gave the SUU defensive staff more time to scheme against against ASU, I would have to say that it's an argument that is hard to refute. It's almost as if they really got into ASU's head, who was suddenly committing a plethora of penalties in the last two quarters. The only score the Sun Devils had in the second half was a field of goal by Dario Longhetto on a drive that consumed, and yes, I mean this sarcastically, minus 14 yards. What's more frustrating was that it was a drive that began on the Thunderbirds' 6-yard line following an explosive kick return by Elijah Badger for 81 yards.
Rashada going 6-15 in the second half for 54 yards says it all. Yes, he did miss more than a couple wide open receivers that could have really helped the offense move the chains, but you have to give credit to the SUU defense too. Having said all that, the fact that on the last drive, he completed two passes for 42 yards, and the ASU running backs posted a precious 24 yards did show that with their backs totally against the wall ASU was still able to squeeze out a win. True, they never should have been in this spot, to begin with, but there's something to be said about overcoming adversity. Cam Skattebo's 39 all-purpose yards on that last drive were impressive to see, and I think he definitely gives you a lot of confidence in this running game as well as the DeCarlos Brooks, who tallied 63 yards on only 12 carries, and on a couple of those carries where he was in a sense a leading blocker in an I-formation was a great wrinkle that had immaculate timing for struggling offense. And how helpful was it not to have the clock stop on first downs because, in the 4th quarter, ASU held onto the ball for over 13 minutes, including over 5 minutes on that last drive.
Is there plenty to be worried about the ASU offense after the season opener? Without a doubt. It took over two quarters for ASU to record their first third-down conversion after starting 0-7. That film session had to be ugly as hell, and between an offensive line that thoroughly got pushed around in the second half, didn't do a good job buying time for Rashada for or opening sustained running lanes, and a quarterback who really missed a few opportunities to get this offense going, there's plenty to fix. I know Kenny Dillingham fell on the sword blaming the play calling, but again when you face this caliber of a team, you should be getting away even with that performance by the staff.
The ASU defense was far from stellar on Thursday night, and I'm sure plenty of those players were squirming in their seats when they were watching their own cutups. But to their credit, they were able to hold the visitors to only 111 yards of total offense in the second half, 70 of those yards coming on the lone touchdown scored by Southern Utah in the second half. Much like the offense, they did a great job closing out the game, pitching two three-and-outs that totaled minus 4 yards. I said in the preseason that there were going to be a couple of games where the defense would have to bail out a struggling offense, and in some respects, I think that's what happened in the season opener.
We all thought that even with a full slate of players that the interior of the defensive line was going to have issues this season, and with Anthonie Cooper and CJ Fite sidelined, this came to fruition not only with run stopping in specific but with generally getting a push up the middle. Yes, the Thunderbirds had a veteran quarterback who, at times, was able to frustrate the defense with his quick release. But the fact that he was not sacked even once was something that ASU did not expect to happen. Needless to say, when one of your best pass rushers, Clayton Smith, gets ejected for targeting late in the first quarter, it will take a toll on your unit. Still, there should have been more than enough depth to impose your will upfront, and not recording even one tackle for loss in the second half was another unpleasant surprise by this group.
Gharin Stansbury and even Michael Matus took some snaps in the interior, and while they were certainly needed there, you can't help but wonder if maybe their presence was missed more than expected on the edge of the line.
At linebacker, even though Tate Romney started because Will Shaffer had to sit out the first half, I thought that he took full advantage of it with eight total tackles. Shaffer did struggle some in the second half, so I'm curious to see what the pecking order is going to be for the Oklahoma State game between those two players. Overall I did not think the linebacker group played a good game but in fairness, the issues in the interior of the defensive line didn't really put them in a spot to have a good night, either.
I think the secondary overall did play well, especially Chris Edmonds, who tied for the lead in tackles with eight, as well as Jordan Clark, who had five stops and two pass breakups. Dee Ford had a strong first half and overall registered 1.5 tackle-for-loss and a pass breakup. He was lucky that one huge passing play that he gave up was negated by a visitor's penalty, but miscommunication between him and Clark allowed the passing touchdown in the second half. But again, compared to the front six, I don't think the defensive backfield had a horrible night.
When it comes to special teams, we know that the less we talk about them, the better, but there is, unfortunately, plenty to discuss here. First and foremost is the obvious mistake of having Josh Carlson's punt blocked, a blocking mistake by Chris Edmonds on the edge, which resulted in a touchdown midway through the 4th quarter. Luckily for ASU, SUU was not able to capitalize on that, but that's probably not going to happen with any other team ASU faces on its schedule. Carlson himself did not have a good night aside from that blocked punt averaging 39.5 yards on six punts, while his counterpart on Southern Utah had over 42 yards on average. You can talk about adverse weather conditions and all, but it still comes down to the fact that both teams played on the same field on the same night, and one player unexpectedly did much better than the other
Dario Longhetto's 38-yard field gold was the difference on the scoreboard, but the fact that out of five kickoffs, he only had one touchback is definitely something that will be discussed quite a bit I'm sure. His kickoff coverage did bail him out, limiting the Thunderbirds to only 49 yards total of kick return. Badger's aforementioned 81-yard kick return was by far the only highlight of the night for this Sun Devil group.
It's understandable that those who were optimistic about this ASU team prior to the season opener perhaps are looking at this team in a different light, and Colorado's huge road win at TCU is probably not helping matters when many thought this was a team that was going to finish below ASU's 10th place prediction. I usually caution about week one overreaction, and I will maintain that philosophy today too. But there is doubt in my mind there's a lot for ASU to fix ahead of a challenging home game against Oklahoma State, and I personally will be able to form a better opinion about the Sun Devils once I see how they can bounce back from a win that certainly had a lot of adversity attached to it.