ASU football fumbles hot start in loss to Oklahoma State in rainy Stillwater

STILLWATER — It’s not the way you begin. It’s the way you end.

The Arizona State Solar Devils (1-1) couldn’t have requested for a significantly better begin in its 34-17 loss to the No. 11 Oklahoma State Cowboys (2-0) in entrance of 55,509 followers at Boone Pickens Stadium on a wet Saturday night time in Stillwater.

For the second consecutive week, ASU took a 3-0 lead into the second quarter after scoring a area objective on its first offensive possession of the ballgame following a defensive cease.

“You study a little bit one thing about your soccer group when you need to undergo one thing like this,” head coach Herm Edwards stated postgame. “These guys are hurting inside that locker room. It had nothing to do with being aggressive as a result of they have been aggressive. They performed as exhausting as they might play however finally simply wore down.”

Oklahoma State punted on 4 of its first 5 drives — two of which have been three-and-outs — whereas additionally throwing an interception on ASU’s facet of the sector for linebacker Kyle Soelle’s second decide of the season. The fifth-year senior captain completed the competition with a game-high 16 tackles (eight solo), 0.5 tackles for loss and one QB hit.

However the Solar Devils couldn’t reap the benefits of its stout defensive play early on, and a Xazavian Valladay fumble within the second quarter fully flipped the sport on its head. The Cowboys took benefit of the turnover with a landing and proceeded to attain a landing and a area objective on their subsequent two possessions to take a 17-3 lead into the half.

“Good groups, they capitalize on that whenever you give them an additional down when you have to be off the sector,” Edwards stated.

Within the first half, ASU did not convert on any of its seven third-down conversion makes an attempt and didn’t run greater than 5 performs on its six drives after the opening rating.

The group completed the opening half-hour with 158 complete yards of offense (88 passing, 70 dashing), 78 of which got here on the opening drive because of Valladay’s 42-yard run on the primary play. The RB completed the night time with 118 yards on 21 carries (5.6 per try).

The Solar Devils, although, got here out within the second half and instantly made it a one-score recreation at 17-10 on a one-yard landing run from Valladay arrange by a 73-yard reception from quarterback Emory Jones to vast receiver Gio Sanders.

“We obtained some large performs within the passing recreation, however you’ll be able to’t play from behind on the street like this towards a superb group,” Edwards stated.

After an OSU area objective, ASU transformed its first two third downs on the night time which led to a 21-yard landing go from Jones to vast receiver Elijhah Badger to make it a three-point recreation at 20-17. Jones ended up with 223 yards on 12 of 24 passing and one TD whereas Badger had a game-high six receptions for 91 yards and a rating.

The Solar Devils additionally completed 2-for-13 on third downs in comparison with the Cowboys’ 6-for-15 clip.

“We may play higher as a group and as an offense and as a complete,” Badger stated postgame.

However that may be it for the Arizona State offense, because the Solar Devils failed to attain one other level the remainder of the way in which en route permitting two extra Oklahoma State touchdowns.

OSU’s all-senior line of defense dominated ASU’s offensive line and garnered three sacks on the night time, whereas Arizona State has did not report a single sack in two video games this season.

“I really feel like (the go rush) positively impacted the sport,” Jones stated postgame. “I needed to velocity up a few of my reads to ensure I simply obtained by them and I really feel like I gave up on a pair performs and simply threw it away as an alternative of making an attempt to make a play out of it with my legs.

“That’s one thing I look again on and attempt to get higher at. … They confirmed every thing that we anticipated and we repped in apply. We didn’t do the perfect job of choosing every thing up. It was all repped out. We simply didn’t actually deal with enterprise.”

And regardless of the Solar Devils successful the time of possession battle, the Cowboys gained each different offensive class in first downs (30-14), complete yards (465-354), passing yards (268-223) and dashing yards (197-131). That’s largely because of Oklahoma State’s quick tempo that noticed OSU run 84 performs in comparison with ASU’s 61.

“It wears on you afterward within the recreation. I felt like we’re a well-conditioned group,” Soelle stated postgame. “They simply have a extremely up-tempo. It’s one thing we’ll have a look at tomorrow and go from there.

“I feel we dealt with it properly the entire recreation and actually competed. … We by no means really feel like we’re out of the sport. We’re all the time going to compete all 4 quarters. We felt like we have been going to win this recreation. That was our mentality going into it. That was our mentality the entire recreation. They obtained the perfect of us immediately.”

EXTRA POINTS

The Solar Devils misplaced the penalty battle on the night time, committing 10 for 95 yards in comparison with the Cowboys’ seven for 69 clip.

UP NEXT

Arizona State returns to Tempe to host Jap Michigan (1-1) subsequent Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM / 98.7 FM HD-2.

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